Which cooking oil to use?

[pagover]

I find that Safflower is very good for frying. About the same as cost as extra virgin olive oil.

[misterphil]

How can you say Olive Oil is too expensive when its you and your families health?

Olive oil is the best way to cook, it scrubs the arteries and keeps a healthy heart.

For each 1 L bottle of olive oil I don't buy here, I can buy 2 bottles back home. So, you see, I am actually getting more of the desired effect

How did you work that out? If your here in Thailand eating food with cheap cooking oil in it, you are actually slowly killing yourself. Good luck with your stupid plan. Please report your blood pressure and cholesterol results.

[HilaryRoosevelt]

I usually use sunflower oil or coconut oil (only this brand http://www.agecomfort.com/products/ROCKWELL%27S-LIQUID-COCONUT-COOKING-OIL.html) for cooking. Olive oil is expensive so I haven't tried that, and palm oil is not suitable for cooking.

[Akriti Sharma]

There are many cooking oils which provide nutrition and vitamins to health. Sunflower Oil, Rice Bran Oil, Canopy Oil, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Peanut Oil, Soyabean Oil, Canola Oil, Flaxseed Oil, and Almond Oil all these oils are best cooking oils, they provide essential nutrients and vitamins to the body which helps to reduce cholesterol level, helps to reduce blood pressure, maintain our skin and hair healthy.

 

 

[Akriti Sharma]

Use Rice Bran Oil in regular diet. This cooking oil provides many nutritional benefits. It is neutral in taste and helpful to maintain hair, skin, and heart.

[uhuh]

On 8/10/2014 at 7:51 AM, Lite Beer said:

Light Olive Oil if you can afford it.

From what I have read Canola Oil is the next best option and not too expensive.

http://authoritynutrition.com/canola-oil-good-or-bad/

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/canola-oil

Actually, canola oil = rapeseed oil is better than olive oil. And olive oil is not good for frying as mentioned above.  Furthermore, the olive oil you can get in Thailand is very poor quality. 

Canola oil is easily available in Thailand  (BigC, Lotus, Tops).

 

Coconut oil is very unhealthy. 

Palm oil is basically a slow acting poison.

Edited March 11, 2019 by uhuh

[tutsiwarrior]

the selection of the oil to use for cooking has a lot to do with the food that yer preparing...for recipes that call for a 'neutral' flavored oil (like most curries) I always go with safflower, a bit more expensive but available everywhere...other preparations call for olive oil (regular, not extra virgin that doesn't handle the heat well, better for dressings and the like) and then there is sesame oil which is popular in a lot of asian cuisine but ye gotta be careful not to use too much as then the entire thing tastes of sesame, best used in a mixture...not sure about he nutritional benefit of sesame oil...

 

when in doubt use butter, always a good result...

 

 

 

 

[FruitPudding]

Old thread, but what's the latest on healthy cooking oil?

Edited July 14 by FruitPudding

[FruitPudding]

I use coconut

[Hummin]

On 8/11/2014 at 9:15 AM, KarenBravo said:

Just goes to show, nobody really knows.

Coconut oil was first demonized, now, it's a "miracle oil.

Same with palm oil.

Used to be that any oil that was poly-unsaturated fat was considered better than saturated fat. Later research has proved that it is not quite as simple as that.

 

you buy 2-4 different oils, and use them for each and one purpose you find best. I like real butter to, 

 

 

[proton]

Extra virgin Lard, never did my grandad any harm and he lived to be 105 

[norbra]

Beware cooking oils from China

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-13/cooking-oil-contaminated-china-scandal/104089686?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=other

[Robert Paulson]

Coconut or peanut oil for pan frying. Grape seed oil may be really good but that’s $$$

 

Use olive oil for everything else. Good olive oil isn’t as expensive as you think because you’re not buying things like salad dressings (you are making your own salad dressings with balsamic vinegar and oregano etc, right?). And plus your doctor bill goes down. Think about that one for a while, I mean avoiding one trip to the doctor pays for the oil 10x over.

 

If you go on lazada there are a few good olive oils. They used to be 5L for like 1000 baht for good Greek oils etc! Now the prices have doubled tripled and even more! But it’s still worth it to me. 

[Robert Paulson]

1 hour ago, proton said:

Extra virgin Lard, never did my grandad any harm and he lived to be 105 

Where do u get lard? Serious question. Do you buy it in a container or do you actually buy animal fat?

[Robert Paulson]

2 minutes ago, Robert Paulson said:

Coconut or peanut oil for pan frying. Grape seed oil may be really good but that’s $$$

 

Use olive oil for everything else. Good olive oil isn’t as expensive as you think because you’re not buying things like salad dressings (you are making your own salad dressings with balsamic vinegar and oregano etc, right?). And plus your doctor bill goes down. Think about that one for a while, I mean avoiding one trip to the doctor pays for the oil 10x over.

 

If you go on lazada there are a few good olive oils. They used to be 5L for like 1000 baht for good Greek oils etc! Now the prices have doubled tripled and even more! But it’s still worth it to me. 

The other thing I forgot to mention is if you buy olive oil it’ll last longer than you think in Thailand because no Thais will use it 😂 

[Lorry]

Canola oil. Easy to find.

Olive oil would also be good, but you won't get unadulterated olive oil in Thailand. 

[K2938]

8 minutes ago, Lorry said:

Olive oil would also be good, but you won't get unadulterated olive oil in Thailand.

You can buy reputable foreign olive oil brands in Thailand like for example Bertolli.  And they do not put worse oil into their bottles for Thailand.  So this is normal trustworthy olive oil.

Edited July 14 by K2938

[Lorry]

17 minutes ago, K2938 said:

You can buy reputable foreign olive oil brands in Thailand like for example Bertolli. 

That's NOT a reputable brand.

That's exactly what I was saying: the brands you can get here are the stuff sold to the like of Americans or Brits.

Crap.

[chickenslegs]

4 hours ago, Robert Paulson said:

Where do u get lard? Serious question. Do you buy it in a container or do you actually buy animal fat?

Tops have it, but not always.

https://www.tops.co.th/en/search/lard

[KhunLA]

Avoid seed oils, all.  Along with high temp frying.   Pan frying better than deep frying.

Air fryer even better, though still need oil

 

Coconut / palm

Tallow

Ghee

Olive

Avocado 

 

 

[NowNow]

11 hours ago, Lorry said:

That's NOT a reputable brand.

That's exactly what I was saying: the brands you can get here are the stuff sold to the like of Americans or Brits.

Crap.

 

A stupid comment, but not for the reason you might imagine. Brits don't buy Bertolli 😊 An Italian sounding name 😊 but they have suppliers in Italy, Spain, Greece, Tunisia, Portugal, Argentina, Chile, Peru...

A lot of the cheaper Extra Virgin in the U.K. comes from Spain. Used for general purpose and low temperature cooking. Not difficult to find single estate/region oils in the U.K. and it's not unknown for some to pop over to Sardinia to stock up on some fresh Bosana and Noccelara Extra Virgin direct from the farm.

 

As an aside, Big C Extra were knocking these out for 78 baht the other day: https://www.bigc.co.th/en/product/costa-d-oro-vitapiu-5-oils-1-l.3876860

 

Picked some up to use in fresh seasonings and vegetables stored in oil, such as sliced mushrooms etc. 

 

 

 

[FruitPudding]

2 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Avoid seed oils, all.  Along with high temp frying.   Pan frying better than deep frying.

Air fryer even better, though still need oil

 

Coconut / palm

Tallow

Ghee

Olive

Avocado 

 

 

 

Doesn't all the saturated fat in palm oil and coconut oil clog the arteries?

[Stanton681]

3 minutes ago, FruitPudding said:

 

Doesn't all the saturated fat in palm oil and coconut oil clog the arteries?

Maybe if someone consumes gallons of it on a regular basis. 

[KhunLA]

15 minutes ago, FruitPudding said:

 

Doesn't all the saturated fat in palm oil and coconut oil clog the arteries?

That's what they tell you, so you buy the, more profitable, unhealthy 'vegetable' seed oil.   Then they can sell you some meds to correct the effects of seed oil on your body.

 

I lost all respect for FDA, CDC, WHO, or any govt health advisory organization.   All corrupted by food manufacturing industry and big pharma.  IMHO

Edited July 15 by KhunLA

[worgeordie]

Have used Rice Bran oil for years , about 70 baht a litre ,frying and

deep frying , 

 

regards Worgeordie

[Lorry]

3 hours ago, NowNow said:

Brits don't buy Bertolli 

Sorry, I didn't know and I have to apologize.

Let's say it's sold in undiscerning markets. 

[Sheryl]

There are a lot of health issues with palm oil. Also environmental issues.

 

it is by far the most commonly used oil in Thailand. For sure any fried food bought in the market, will have been fried in palm oil (and likely multiple-times-reused palm oil, especially unwise.)

 

 

[tgw]

10 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

There are a lot of health issues with palm oil. Also environmental issues.

 

it is by far the most commonly used oil in Thailand. For sure any fried food bought in the market, will have been fried in palm oil (and likely multiple-times-reused palm oil, especially unwise.)

 

regarding health issues, has science provided a definitive answer on that ?

my understanding was that to date, long term effects aren't clear.

 

regarding the environmental issues, they stem from uncontrolled crop growing and deforestation. There are no environmental issues with palm oil where an audit trail proves the production is not linked to deforestation.

[mstevens]

I use avocado oil for cooking, olive oil for lower heat cooking and also for dressing. Some dishes like scrambled eggs I fry in butter.

Edited July 15 by mstevens

[FruitPudding]

2 hours ago, Sheryl said:

There are a lot of health issues with palm oil. Also environmental issues.

 

it is by far the most commonly used oil in Thailand. For sure any fried food bought in the market, will have been fried in palm oil (and likely multiple-times-reused palm oil, especially unwise.)

 

 

 

What oil do you recommend in Thailand?