Choosing Cooking Oils that are Heart Smart

Hi Friends,

I'm Nancy Jacobs from How To Homemaker and I'm glad to be blogging with you today. I'm a married stay at home mother of three busy teenage children. I love teaching and have done some form of it all my life. That is why How To Homemaker came into existence. I give 'how to' tips almost daily on cooking, cleaning, gardening and all things related to homemaking. I even throw in recipes and crafts.

Today I'm going to talk about choosing cooking oils that are heart smart and the difference in fats. There are so many different oils to choose from that sometimes picking the right one for you and your family can seem confusing.

For the best heart health, you want an oil that is high in unsaturated fat and low in saturated fat. Those oils that meet this criteria are canola oil, olive oil, corn oil, safflower or sunflower oil. Avoid palm oil and coconut oil which are high in saturated fat.

Different fats can have a positive or negative effect on our cholesterol which can affect our heart. Fat helps us process some vitamins we take in and provides nutrients we couldn't get anywhere else. So while fat is important to our overall health, you need to choose wisely where your fat comes from.

Trans Fat - The mother of all evil fats. This fat raises your total cholesterol and bad cholesterol. It may lower your good cholesterol. It is found in pastries, crackers, stick margarine, some shortening, fried foods and is listed as 'partially hydrogenated'. I also find it in many frozen prepared foods like frozen pizza.

Saturated Fat - This fat raises total cholesterol and bad cholesterol. It is found in meat, poultry, whole and reduced fat milk, butter, coconut oil and palm kernel oil.

Polyunsaturated Fat - This fat lowers total cholesterol and bad cholesterol so it is a GOOD fat. You can find it in salmon, tuna, sardines, flaxseed, walnuts, as well as canola, safflower, sunflower, soybean, corn, and peanut oils.

Monounsaturated Fat - This fat lowers total cholesterol and bad cholesterol and may even raise good cholesterol so this is a GOOD fat. You can find it in olive, canola and peanut oils as well as in nuts and avocados.

Teach your children how to read nutritional labels on packages. My kiddos know to look right away if food contains trans fats and they know mom WON'T be buying it if it contains even the least little amount.

I hope you will take a moment and just memorize where your good fats come from. This will save you time at the grocery store and when planning your menus to help keep you away from the bad fats especially the all time evil trans fats.

I've enjoyed being with you here today. I hope you will pop over to my blog at How To Homemaker and say Hello to me. It's always nice to meet new friends!

Nancy

Thank-you Nancy for being a guest blogger on Lisa's Gluten-Free Advice and Healthy Living.