Is cooking olive oil good for health?

Cooking olive oil is recommended over any other oil. This is not only a good source of healthy fats, but also adds antioxidants to the body. Moreover, according to population health analysis, this is a guaranteed food source for the entire population of the world.

Most fats are at risk of being destroyed when exposed to high temperatures. This is even more likely to happen with oils containing a lot of unsaturated fats. Typical can be found in vegetable oils that the market is distributing. On high heat, the molecules transform into toxic substances. In which lipid peroxide and aldehyde are two typical substances that cause cancer problems.
When vegetable oils are cooked, carcinogens remain in the gaseous form. Even if you don't eat it, breathing it in can be dangerous to your lungs. So cooking with oils like soybean oil and canola oil can cause serious health problems. Therefore, the cooking temperature should be determined and kept at the level recommended by the manufacturer.
You need to determine the temperature threshold that causes the oil to smoke, based on which to adjust the cooking temperature accordingly. Plus, fat molecules tend to work with the oxygen in the air. This should be noted to avoid when interacting they form a harmful substance that is not good for health. However, in olive oil both the smoke point and the oxygen reaction are maintained at a fairly constant level.

The two most common types of fatty acids are saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Saturated fatty acids are commonly found in coconut oil. Meanwhile, the remaining vegetable oils are mainly unsaturated fatty acids. Fortunately, olive oil has the majority of monounsaturated fatty acids.
According to analysis, only some groups of unsaturated fatty acids contained in soybean oil and rapeseed oil are easily decomposed at high temperature. The analysis of the fat composition of olive oil showed that: 73% are monounsaturated fatty acids, 11% are polyunsaturated fatty acids, only 14% of the total are saturated fatty acids. Thus, up to 86% of fatty acids in olive oil are stable to heat when cooking.

Pure cooking olive oil is an ingredient extracted from olives in nature. When performing oil pressing for the first time, biologically active substances such as antioxidants and vitamin E are extracted to the maximum. Vitamin E is an antioxidant that helps to smooth and brighten the skin very well. In particular, it also fights the activity of free radicals.
Thanks to vitamin E, you will prevent the destruction of cells and the risk of cancer caused by free radicals. Therefore, using olive oil for cooking is recommended for both children and adults.

In some real oils, when the oxidation reaction occurs, fatty acids will change into substances that are harmful to health. Some varieties can go bad at room temperature or when cooked at too high of a temperature, however olive oil is considered a heat-friendly and durable product.
The content of antioxidants and heat resistance of fatty acids in olive oil is quite high. There was an experiment of deep frying with olive oil to prove this. The results show that the oxidation level of cooking olive oil is much lower than that of other common vegetable oils.
However, the experiment selected extra virgin olive oil to test. So if you are using pure oil then the results will be misleading. Especially the results are announced after continuous cooking for 8 hours. When the olive oil was reused for the 8th time, the trans fat was at 0.045 -0.082 %. This is an insignificant number and proves that cooking olive oil is still safe for health.

The smoking point of each oil varies depending on the composition and chemical properties of the oil. When the oil reaches a certain heat threshold, the smoke will rise and cause the fat molecules to be converted into substances harmful to health. At the same time, nutrients such as vitamins, antioxidants can also be degraded and significantly reduced compared to the original.
Usually in cooking oil contains a certain amount of free fatty acids. The higher the amount of this fat, the lower the chance of the smoke point being reduced. Therefore, refined oils that are low in trace fats and free fatty acids are likely to smoke at higher temperatures. When heated, the production of free fatty acids also increases.
The determination of the smoke point of cooking oil is only an estimation method that cannot be accurately evaluated. However, olive oil is said to smoke in the 190 - 207 degrees Celsius range. This is also the right temperature for you when frying food.

With normal needs, cooking olive oil will hardly be damaged or oxidized. However, vitamin E is quite sensitive to high heat, so it will be significantly reduced along with some other antioxidants. Oleocanthal is one of the main active compounds in extra virgin olive oil products. This substance has a healthy anti-inflammatory effect and is especially found in olive oil. If you heat it for 90 minutes at 240 degrees Celsius, this substance will lose 19% according to chemical analysis. For the taste analysis, the substance was reduced by an amount of about 31%.
Another study simulating 24 hours of heating found that other beneficial compounds were also reduced. But if it only takes place in 10 minutes of cooking or using a microwave, the damage is not significant. What we should know is that the delicious taste of olive oil is determined by the nutritional content of micronutrients. Therefore, it needs to be processed properly to ensure the taste and nutrition when used.
Olive oil is good for health. Especially extra virgin olive oil contains healthy sources of nutrients and is suitable for cooking. The main disadvantage of this oil is that if the heat is too high, it will lose its nutrition and deliciousness. However, olive oil is a heat-stable product and is not easily damaged by use. Not only provides the body with good nutrition, but also creates a delicious taste for food.
Above is all the important information about cooking olive oil, you can choose and adjust how to use it so that the oil is still valuable and good for health.

Reference source: .healthline.com