EMT

Sorry for delay in replying, I have been working 16 hour days!!

I know a bit about this because I used to work for a cooking oil manufacturer and I also have researched this stuff a lot due to my very high (404 initially!!) cholesterol level. This is kinda motivating, as the Dr basically said "Change what you eat or die", and he then told me to dramatically reduce my fat intake (and we all know what happens when you do that!). So I read lots and have ended up here.

Any commercial cooking oil that has gone through the de-oderising process (ie almost 100% of them) has had a chemical change made to them: they have had a huge increase in trans fatty acids. This chemical change remains when the oil is then cooled for bottling etc. They are not safe for any use for those of us with high cholesterol.

Yes, this does include canola oil and almost all the supposedly "good" cooking oils.

How do you solve this? Use fresh cold pressed oils from the health food store and do not take them above the smoking point. I have even seen some cold pressed oils being sold in my supermarket (maybe somebody there is getting the message!). You can usually tell if the oil is OK if it is sold in a dark bottle. Light breaks down some of the good qualities of cold pressed oils and they don't keep too long, so they are bottled in dark/black bottles and given a short shelf life. I keep mine in the fridge and have a clearout every now and then.

Cold pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil is different. There is something about olive oil that makes it less susceptible to light, and it is therefore OK in a clear bottle. But only cold pressed extra virgin will do.

If you want to know all there is to know on this, do go and buy Erasmus and read him. It is the most important book on the subject and EVERY person who has a cholesterol problem should read this book.

Erasmus is not a quack. He is the officially recognised world leader in chemical research on fats and oils. He just has results and views that make the fats and oils industry very angry because all of their processing is shown to be very unhealthy. Therefore you rarely get to hear about him. If he was saying that cooking oils were really healthy, his name would be on every bottle!

Having said that, it is us, the consumers, that have asked the commercial manufacturers of oils to do all this processing. We buy the clear oil without the smell, and funnily enough they make more of what we buy!

I hope you find out all you can on this subject. It is one of the two most critical factors in cholesterol control (the other is about sugar and Triglycerides, but I hope we all know this on this site!! :-))

Take care out there. There are lots of traps for players without the information.