Healthy frying might sound like an oxymoron, but lean meats and vegetable stir fries are an easy, quick route to a nutritious meal. The key is choosing the right oil to keep the saturated fat in your food at a minimum. While olive oil is a healthy choice in marinades, dressings and baking, cooks are mixed in its use in frying.
Identification
Olive oil, in general, is one of the more healthy fats you can use for cooking. You can buy it in a range of grades, from the most expensive and flavorful extra virgin olive oil to the flavorless refined olive oil. All grades of olive oil contain monounsaturated fatty acids, though refined olive oil has lower levels of them. These acids can help lower both your overall cholesterol and "bad" cholesterol levels, and might even help you control blood sugar levels, according to Mayo Clinic preventative medicine specialist Dr. Donald Hensrud. This makes olive oil a healthier choice for frying than saturated fats such as butter and margarine.
Process
When you fry food, you are heating it at a high temperature, boiling off water in the food, and allowing the oil to seep in and alter the food's flavor and texture. When frying in oil, you generally want to fry at a temperature of about 360 degrees Fahrenheit. You also need to be mindful of the smoke point of your oil: the temperature at which your oil will begin to smoke, negatively affecting the taste of your food. You can fry at a lower temperature in oils that have lower smoke points, but this will cause more fat to be absorbed into your food.
Considerations
Extra virgin olive oil has a smoke point of 410 degrees Fahrenheit, well above temperatures you use when frying, according to the International Olive Oil Council. Lower grades might have a lower smoke point. Olive oil also oxidizes when exposed to air, light or heat, which also lowers its smoke point. Unfiltered olive oil also contains bits of olives, which will begin smoking long before the oil does. In general, however, you can safely fry with olive oil. Because quality olive oil is expensive, you might instead wish to use canola oil for frying. Canola oil is cheaper, has a higher smoke point than olive oil, has a milder taste better suited for frying, and also is high in monounsaturated fats.
Misconceptions
If you are a die-hard olive oil fan who still wants to use it for frying, don't be deterred by some myths regarding it. Frying in olive oil does not add harmful trans fats to your food. While heat can turn unsaturated fats into trans fats, this takes several hours in a specialized environment and won't happen with home frying. Also, it's untrue that frying with olive oil releases cancer-causing free radicals into your food. This can happen if you continuously reuse olive oil for frying, but you shouldn't do that with any type of oil.
References
- Mayo Clinic; Olive Oil: What Are the Health Benefits?; Donald Hensrud, M.D.
- "Chicago Tribune": A Brief Outline of the USDA's New Olive Oil Grades
- University of Florida: Fats in Frying and Pastry
- Olive Oil Source: Heating Olive Oil
- Mayo Clinic; Canola Oil: Does it Contain Toxins?; Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D.
- CalorieLab; Heating Oil, Prostate Health; Karen Collins, M.S., R.D., C.D.N.
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