How to choose the right oil

8226; A single oil don8217;t generally have all the essential fatty acids in right proportion. Sunflower or corn oil, which were comsidered healthy sometime ago, now seem not healthy enough, for they provide too much of only one of the essential fatty acids. The exceptions are oils from soya, mustard or canola which has a proper balance. Olive oil and peanut oil have fair amounts of MUFA, which makes them healthy. The other, and better option is to blend two or more oils. Like three parts of mustard oil and one part of til sesame oil; or a half-and-half mixture of sunflower and groundnut oil. Many such blended oils are available in the market. The commonly available blends are sunflower/safflower/corn with rice bran oil.

8226; Vanaspati and margarine ought to be avoided as these contain trans fatty acids, which form during hydrogenation of the oil. These are worse than saturated fats, for the body has trouble processing them, which leads to health complications.

8226; During cooking, if you have to deep fry, make sure the oil does not smoke. It causes undesirable changes and decomposition in the oil. Also do not re-use the oil used for deep frying.