Take stock of several misunderstandings about oil
“Reducing oil” is an important part of the national healthy lifestyle action with the theme of “three reductions and three health” (reducing salt, reducing oil, reducing sugar, healthy mouth, healthy weight, and healthy bones). Regarding “reducing fuel”, let’s take a look at what misunderstandings you still have about it.
Misunderstanding 1
Animal oil is not as healthy as vegetable oil and is it best not to eat it?
Cooking oil can be divided into vegetable oil and animal oil according to the source. Common vegetable oils include soybean oil, peanut oil, rapeseed oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, linseed oil, olive oil, etc.; common animal oils include lard, beef tallow, and mutton fat. wait.
The biggest difference between vegetable oil and animal oil is that vegetable oil has a higher unsaturated fatty acid content, while animal oil has a higher saturated fatty acid content. Excessive intake of saturated fatty acids may increase blood cholesterol levels and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
The key to choosing vegetable oil or animal oil depends on the composition of your daily diet. If you usually eat a lot of pork, beef, and mutton, it is recommended to choose vegetable oil as the cooking oil; if you usually eat a lot of vegetarian food, you can also use animal oil in moderation.
Special attention should be paid to reducing the intake of processed snacks and fried and crispy foods. Foods that are “crispy” and “shortened” at room temperature, such as French fries, potato chips, biscuits, cakes, and processed meat products, may be made from palm oil.
Although fried food has a good flavor, high-temperature frying can cause the loss of nutrients, produce carcinogens, make it difficult to digest, affect intelligence, and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Taste it occasionally, but not eat it often, and you should not eat too much at one time. , after eating, you should eat more fresh fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C or fiber.
The “Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)” recommends that daily saturated fatty acid intake should be controlled below 10% of total fat intake.
Misunderstanding 2
Edible oil only provides energy. Should the amount eaten be as small as possible?
This statement is inaccurate. In addition to providing energy, edible oil also has other nutritional functions. The main nutrients of edible vegetable oil are fat, vitamin E, and plant sterols. Fat, also known as triglyceride, accounts for more than 99% of edible oils and is an important energy source for the human body. Triglycerides are composed of glycerol (about 10%) and fatty acids (about 90%). There are many types of fatty acids. Different varieties of vegetable oils have different fatty acid types and contents, and different nutrients. Some fatty acids are essential for the human body but cannot be synthesized by itself, such as linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid, which are mainly consumed from vegetable oils.
Vegetable oil not only provides energy to the human body, but also gives food a special color, aroma, and taste during cooking, increases appetite, enhances satiety, and saves protein. Appropriate intake can meet physiological needs and promote the fat-soluble properties of vitamins A, vitamin E, etc. Vitamin absorption and utilization play an important role in maintaining human health.
Therefore, cooking oil should not be eaten as little as possible, but should be consumed in moderation. The recommended consumption amount in the “Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)” is 25-30 grams per person per day.
Misunderstanding 3
Are trans fatty acids bad at all and can’t be eaten?
Fatty acids include cis and trans. Trans fatty acids come from three sources:
1. Derived from natural foods, such as beef and sheep meat, fat, milk and dairy products. Vegetable oils also contain a certain amount of trans fatty acids.
2. It is produced during the hydrogenation and refining process of vegetable oil.
3. The oil temperature is too high and the time is too long during frying. Most of the fatty acids in commonly used vegetable oils are cis fatty acids.
Excessive intake of trans fatty acids will increase the risk of atherosclerotic coronary heart disease, but it is almost impossible to eat them at all, because they are found in beef, mutton, dairy products and vegetable oils.
Therefore, the “Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)” recommends that the daily intake of adults should not exceed 2 grams. There are several tips to reduce trans fatty acid intake:
1. Control the amount of edible oil used during cooking to avoid excessive oil temperature and repeated frying.
2. When purchasing packaged foods, pay attention to nutrition labels and try to choose foods that do not contain or have low amounts of trans fatty acids. Text/Zhang Yin’e (Ningxia Center for Disease Control and Prevention)
