Olive Oil

m.j.w

Probably a stupid question but I know nothing about cooking and want to change that! Just watching Jamie Oliver 30 minute thing and he is covering everything with olive oil. I know its not as bad as vegatable oil but is it healthy to put so much of it on stuff. Also if you were to use it to fry stuff (onions fried in olive oil) would they be healthy or is any type of frying bad?

FTGFOP

Olive oil is as calorie-dense as any other cooking oil. Oils are 100% fat.* Olive oil, especially extra virgin olive oil is reputed to be a good fat/oil, with a good ratio of fatty acids.

As for frying, extra virgin olive oil has a very low smoke point i.e. it will start to burn at a much lower temperature than light olive oil.

*Butter is only 80% (the rest being water and non-fat milk solids)

duploelabs

Olive oil will impart a flavour, whereas vegetable, sunflower, peanut, or rapeseed oil will not

The Sweeper

Not all fat is bad.

Saturated fats are bad - almost all saturated fats come from animals. Olive oil is cholesterol free.

huskerdu

The Sweeper wrote: »

Not all fat is bad.

Saturated fats are bad - almost all saturated fats come from animals. Olive oil is cholesterol free.

True, but its still 100% fat and a heavy hand with the olive oil will seriously increase your calorie intake.

Similarly to most foods, there is no simple answer to "Is it healthy ? "

but the simplest answer is "Yes, in moderation".

The Sweeper

That depends entirely whether or not you're worrying about calories.

Nutritionally, olive oil is very good for you. You're better off getting 100 calories from olive oil than 100 calories from a couple of bites of a big mac.

runrabbit

duploelabs wrote: »

Olive oil will impart a flavour, whereas vegetable, sunflower, peanut, or rapeseed oil will not

Sorry to drag this thread off topic a little, but I have a cake recipe with rapeseed oil as the fat that I have long been meaning to bake for a lactose-intolerant friend. I just haven't got around to it as I haven't seen rapeseed oil in any of my local supermarkets. Could I use peanut/groundnut oil instead if rapeseed oil will not impart a flavour?

FTGFOP

This vegetable oil is actually rapeseed oil, so maybe you can use that.

...and yeah, there's no reason you couldn't use peanut oil.

huskerdu

The Sweeper wrote: »

That depends entirely whether or not you're worrying about calories.

Nutritionally, olive oil is very good for you. You're better off getting 100 calories from olive oil than 100 calories from a couple of bites of a big mac.

I agree entirely with you.
The problem is that the OP asked if frying in olive oil is "bad". and essentially the question doesn't make sense.

Most foods are not "bad", its your overall diet that can be bad, either because the nutritional content is unhealthy overall, or because you are eating too many calories.

runrabbit

FTGFOP wrote: »

This vegetable oil is actually rapeseed oil, so maybe you can use that.

...and yeah, there's no reason you couldn't use peanut oil.

Sound - thanks for that!!!