Pomace Oils
poor quality – avoid consumption
Olive pomace oil has nothing to do with quality olive oil and should be avoided just as much as vegetable oils. Olive pomace oil is extracted from the solid material left after the initial oil extraction.
The process involves using petroleum based solvents, mostly hexane and heat. The same exact method of extraction is used on the production of soy, sun flower, canola, and most other seed-derived oils.
Refined Olive Oils
poor quality – avoid consumption
Commonly made from rancid and oxidized olive oil that has been chemically and thermally treated to eliminate unpleasant flavors and to neutralize the free fatty acid content.
Refining allows producers to use olives that are in a bad condition and blend in low quality oils since the bad tastes resulting from this treatment are chemically removed.
Refined olive oil is an inferior, heavily processed oil that does not possess most of the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil. It also lacks in color, flavor, and aromas.
Whenever you see an olive oil bottle or tin that says simply “Olive Oil”, chances are it is refined. Refined olive oils also go by other names to make them more appealing to the unsuspecting consumer
Pure Olive Oil
Often mistaken for a healthy option because of the word “pure”, it contains around 80% refined olive oil.
Lite Olive Oil
Lite Olive Oil is a misrepresentation of refined olive oil in that is supposedly light in flavor. Too often customers have mistaken it as a healthier product, when in fact, it has the same exact calories as extra virgin olive oil with virtually none of the health benefits.
Virgin Olive Oil
fair quality
An unrefined olive oil of lesser quality. While free from chemical refining, virgin olive oil’s acidity levels make it a considerably subpar option to extra virgin olive oil.
Extra Virgin Olive Oils
highest quality rich flavors & aromas
Extra virgin olive oil is the ONLY cooking oil made without the use of chemicals and industrial refining
Extra virgin olive oil is the freshly-squeezed juice of the olive fruit. It has strong flavors and aromas, it is by far the healthier cooking oil and the only that is made without the use of chemical solvents and industrial refining.
Producing extra virgin olive oil is more difficult a process than most people realize. Beginning with the care of trees and carefully harvesting and picking the fresh olives, down to thoroughly monitoring every single step of the entire production process.
During the mechanical extraction process, the temperature must be kept below 75 degrees Fahrenheit at all times. But even after the oil has been bottled, it is important that it is kept away from heat and light.
True EVOO’s acidity levels cannot be over 0.8% and the lower the acidity the higher the quality. Some extra virgin olive oils may have as low as 0.1% acidity!
Extra virgin olive oil doesn’t stay “extra virgin” for ever. Even in perfect storage conditions, the oil will degrade over a 2-year period and lose its freshness, its flavors, and aromas.
HARVEST DATE
Always look for the harvest date on the bottle and make sure it is at least within the last year. Olive oils are usually harvested between October and December. This means that if you shop for olive oil in April 2018, an olive oil with a Fall 2017 harvest date would still be considered “new harvest”.
Note that many imported olive oils have their harvest and “best by” dates in EU format. In such cases, 4/10/2017 would mean the oil was harvested the 4th of October 2017 and NOT the 10th of April 2017.
VERIFY STORING CONDITIONS IF YOU CAN
Storing conditions are very important when it comes to maintaining the good condition of extra virgin olive oil after it has been bottled. Heat and strong lights destroy even the highest-quality extra virgin olive oils. Where does your local grocery store or supermarket keep their olive oils? Is it dark and cool where they are on display – are there strong lights nearby?
Olive Oil Versus Canola and Other Vegetable Oils
Vegetable oil is defined as an oil derived from plants which includes canola oil, soy oil, sunflower oil and corn oil. These oils are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are fine in whole food sources such as flaxseeds, but not as oil products.
ALL VEGETABLE OILS ARE REFINED
Compared to extra virgin olive oil, which is a natural fruit juice, vegetable oils are extracted at high temperatures using a process that involves toxic, petroleum-derived chemicals such as hexane. Vegetable oils are degummed, deodorized, bleached and further refined at high temperatures. These high temperatures used during the refining process change the omega-6 content of the oils and can significantly raise the oil’s concentrations of harmful trans fats.
VEGETABLE OILS AND SMOKE POINT
Some vegetable oils have a high smoke point, and for this reason, are advertised as suitable for high-heat frying. This is based on a huge misconception, however, as suitability for high heat cooking should not be determined by the smoke point, but by an oil’s resistance to oxidation.
OXIDATION AND RANCIDITY
Polyunsaturated vegetable oils, as the word suggests, are unsaturated and therefore highly unstable with a strong tendency to saturate, so when heated, they react with oxygen, forming dangerous compounds and free radicals.
Vegetable oils are extremely susceptible to damage from heat, light and oxygen and when exposed to these elements, the fatty acids in the oil are oxidized, causing the oil to become rancid. Rancidity not only alters the flavor and smell of the oil, but it also diminishes the nutritional value. More importantly, the oxidation of fatty-acids produces free radicals, which are believed to play a role in the development of cancer and other degenerative diseases.
This is why a monounsaturated oil such as olive oil is more stable and suitable for low to medium-heat cooking, and saturated fats, such as palm or coconut oil, are the most stable and therefore the best for high-heat frying.
MISLEADING HEALTH BENEFITS OF VEGETABLE OILS
The claim of health benefits from the consumption of vegetable oil is based on the totally discredited hypothesis that polyunsaturated fatty acids are good for our health. Some experts promote these oils because they contain omega-6 essential fatty acids; however, most Americans already consume sufficient amounts of these fats from other foods such as grains, nuts, vegetables, olive oil and animal fats. Excessive amounts of Omega-6 fatty acids can be harmful, resulting in an unhealthy omega-6/omega-3 ratio, and it is suggested that Americans need to reduce their intake of omega-6 and correct their omega-6/omega-3 ratio from an average of 10-to-1 down to 4-to-1 or less.
Evidence now suggests that eating even moderate amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially omega-6, is actually bad for one’s health and may cause serious inflammatory damage to our cells. A recent study published in the British Medical Journal found that substituting dietary linoleic acid (a polyunsaturated fatty acid) in place of saturated fats actually increased the rates of death from coronary heart and cardiovascular diseases and showed no evidence of cardiovascular benefit.
Canola Oil vs. Olive Oil
One of the more commonly used vegetable oils, Canola oil, is produced from a genetically engineered form of the rapeseed plant that was first developed in Canada and is now the highest oil-producing seed crop in the USA.
The initial non-GMO version of the plant is just standard rapeseed and contains high levels of erucic acid which experiments have found to be toxic when consumed in large quantities. In order to develop a product with lower erucic acid, the rapeseed plant was genetically modified and thus renamed ‘Canola’ by the Rapeseed Association of Canada in the 1970’s, coined from the phrase “Canadian Oil Low Acid”.
The vast majority of the commercially available Canola oil is extracted from the modified rapeseed plant, and as with other vegetable oils, is extracted using chemical solvents such as hexane. After extraction, the oil is refined which involves heating the oil to over 300 degrees Fahrenheit in order to remove unpleasant odors and is then neutralized to remove free acidity and bleached.
Grape Seed Oil vs. Olive Oil
Grape seed oil is an industrialized oil extracted through a chemical-based process from the waste product of wine-making. It is extracted with the standard industrial process of vegetable oil extraction that involves the toxic solvent, hexane.
Even though grape seeds contain antioxidants and other micronutrients, actual grape seed oil does not. After going through the high-heat and chemicals of the extraction process, most of the nutrients are destroyed.
Sunflower Oil vs. Olive Oil
Sunflower oil is extracted with the standard industrial process of vegetable oil extraction which involves the toxic solvent, hexane.
Small quantities of sunflower oil are cold-extracted using an expeller press. This is the preferred method and produces a much healthier oil, but it is much more expensive in price than the standard sunflower oil and is usually found only in specialized health stores.
Sunflower oil is largely omega 6 polyunsaturated, so it is inherently unstable and oxidizes easily. In addition, re-using the oil in deep-frying could cause the formation of harmful trans fats.
