If olive oil can turn into bad fat in high temperature, why do so many recipes call still call for it to cook?

Question

Should one just serve olive oil on salad?

Answer 1

Olive oil is very good for you, you just need to remember NOT to use it when you are cooking on HIGH heat. Recipes that use it are intended to be cooked on med heat.

Answer 2

Here's something that should help ... you should probably read the rest of that page too:

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Olive Oil Myth:
Heating a cooking oil will make it saturated or a trans-fatty oil.


The Facts:
As far as making a saturated fat, according to Dr. A. Kiritsakis, a world renowned oil chemist in Athens, all oils will oxidize and hydrogenate to a *tiny* degree if *repeatedly* heated to *very* high temperatures such as is done in commercial frying operations.
Olive pomace oil and virgin olive oil are both highly monounsaturated oils, and therefore resistant to oxidation and hydrogenation.
Studies have shown oxidation and hydrogenation occurs to a lesser degree in olive oil than in other oils. But in any case, the amount of hydrogenation is miniscule and no home cook would ever experience this problem.

The large refinery-like factories which take unsaturated vegetable oil and turn it into margarine or vegetable lard do so by bubbling hydrogen gas through 250 to 400 degree hot vegetable oil in the presence of a metal catalyst, usually nickel or platinum. The process can take several hours. You cannot make a saturated product like margarine at home by heating olive oil or any other vegetable oil in a pan. We don't know where this weird notion has come from. For more see our *olive oil chemistry* page.


Changing a cis-fat to a trans-fat does not occur on a home stove.

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http://www.oliveoilsource.com/cooking_olive_oil.htm


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HTH,

Diane B.

Answer 3

Olive oil, as with any fatty substance, deteriorates during the frying process especially if it is used over and over and if the frying temperature is very high. High temperature destroys the good ingredients of any oil while it creates harmful agents for the liver, the arteries and the heart.

It is important however to take into consideration that these harmful agents are less likely to be created in olive oil than in all other known vegetable oils and this is because olive oil has a different composition. It contains a high percentage of oleic
acid, which is much more resistant to oxidization than the polyunsaturated acids, which are found in large amounts in seed oils. But more importantly olive oil contains natural anti-oxidizing agents such as phenols and vitamin E. When heated, olive oil is
the most stable fat, which means it stands up well to high frying temperatures. Its high smoking point (210º C) is well above the ideal temperature for frying food (180º C). The digestibility of olive oil is not affected when it is heated, even when it is re-used several times for frying.