A Healthier Way To Fry?
Many foods and oils are rich in tocopherols, but few contain significant levels of tocotrienols. In fact, most of the popular oils used in food preparation – olive, soybean, safflower, sunflower, corn, cotton and peanut – contain only tocopherols. The only oil that contains significant levels is palm fruit oil which is composed of 30 percent tocopherols and 70 percent tocotrienols. The oil is extracted from the flesh of the palm fruit, and is said to be the most widely used oil in the world, and althoughit may be new to the UK market, is well established in Malaysia, Japan, the USA, Australia and South Africa. You don’t need to go quite that far afield as I found it in the natural foods section of my local Co-op supermarket and can report that if you are frying food, particularly sautéed potatoes, it does give them a lovely golden colour.
Sorry about the almost pun, but given that we now consume a variety of different oils as part of our diet I thought you might be interested in Carotino, an oil that is naturally rich in alpha and beta carotenes (Pro-Vitamin A) and is high in healthy mono-unsaturated fats, low in saturates and is both GM, and free from cholesterol and trans fats. It is more heat stable than other vegetable oils, including olive oil, and can claim a number of health benefits as it is naturally rich in anti-oxidant Pro-Vitamin A and high in Vitamin E and Omega 3 & 6 and also contains Lycopene and Co-Enzyme Q10.
Carotino oil comes from red palm fruit – the world’s richest natural plant source of carotenes – and gives the oil a slightly reddish hue. I was a little startled by this on first using it to cook, but this shows it is an entirely natural product and that the Pro-Vitamin A hasn’t been processed out. When used in cooking can make a substantial contribution towards the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of both Pro-Vitamin A and Vitamin E for adults. The vitamin E is important as it helps to rid the body of free radicals and protect it from cancer, cardiovascular disease, heart disease and other serious illness.
However there are two forms of vitamin E that each serve a unique purpose: tocopherols and tocotrienols. While tocopherols are the most common form, tocotrienols are just now beginning to emerge as being approximately 50 times more potent than tocopherols. Recent studies have shown that they distribute themselves more evenly than tocopherols do in the fatty layers of cell membranes and are effective at preventing and treating serious degenerative diseases like cancer, stroke-induced injuries, diabetes, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.
Many foods and oils are rich in tocopherols, but few contain significant levels of tocotrienols. In fact, most of the popular oils used in food preparation – olive, soybean, safflower, sunflower, corn, cotton and peanut – contain only tocopherols. The only oil that contains significant levels is palm fruit oil which is composed of 30 percent tocopherols and 70 percent tocotrienols. The oil is extracted from the flesh of the palm fruit, and is said to be the most widely used oil in the world, and althoughit may be new to the UK market, is well established in Malaysia, Japan, the USA, Australia and South Africa. You don’t need to go quite that far afield as I found it in the natural foods section of my local Co-op supermarket and can report that if you are frying food, particularly sautéed potatoes, it does give them a lovely golden colour.
