What vegetable oils in foods you can eat

Store shelves are bursting with vegetable oils and products that contain them. Confectionery, convenience foods, dried fruit, fitness snacks and even baby food are all full of fats. Which of these are really safe and healthy, and what only pretends to be so? What kind of oil has a reserve of vitamins, and what kind is good only for frying? Let’s find out with an expert.

founder and CEO of a healthy food brand

The benefits of butter are often recognized by the presence of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids in its composition. The more of these acids in butter, the more beneficial it is considered to be.

In the manufacture of confectionery products, the following oils are more often used: coconut, rapeseed, palm and sunflower oils. In themselves they are not bad, the main thing to avoid is modified oils or trans fats, which increase the risk of coronary artery disease, strokes and other diseases of the cardiovascular system. They have a detrimental effect on the immune system and contribute to the development of obesity, diabetes and cancer.

Elena Shifrina

Founder and CEO of a healthy food brand

Compared to other vegetable oils, rapeseed oil contains few extreme fatty acids, but quite a lot of valuable polyunsaturated ones – omega 3 and omega 6.

Palm oil

Fatty acids: saturated 48%, polyunsaturated 10%.
Ratio of omega 3 to omega 6: 1:0.21.
Vitamins and nutrients per 100 g: phosphorus 2 mg, vitamin E 33.1 mg.

Many people avoid palm oil in product formulations. But this should not be done, says the expert. In edible palm oil there are no trans fats harmful to the cardiovascular system, unlike butter or hydrogenated vegetable fats. Among other things, it is rich in vitamin E, which increases its nutritional value.

The World Health Organization strongly recommends reducing fatty acid intake and lists palm oil as a hazardous food. But according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the maximum acceptable level of fatty acid intake is 10% of a person’s energy intake. In other words, if the calorie content of oil is 889 kcal per 100 ml, and palmitic acid in it is 44%, the safe daily norm is about 23 ml of oil. And this is if there are no other sources of fatty acids in the diet.

Elena Shifrina

Founder and CEO of a healthy food brand

Coconut and palm oils are used in production to maintain the consistency of the product, as their melting point is higher than normal storage conditions.

Sunflower oil

Fatty acids: saturated 12.5%, polyunsaturated 65%.
Ratio of omega 3 to omega 6: 1:5.2.
Vitamins and nutrients per 100 g: phosphorus 2 mg, vitamin E 44 mg.

Despite the content of vitamins A, P and E, sunflower oil also has an excess of omega 6 fatty acids with almost no omega 3. This can lead to chronic inflammation and disease. In addition, sunflower oil should not be heated: omega 6 are highly oxidized, which increases the risk of cancer. Therefore, it is better to avoid products with it in the composition, and the oil itself is used only in raw form for salad dressing.