Which cooking oils do you use?

Totto said:

Ah, I see, I thought it was advice! Sorry.

Why don't you use oils? I find coco nut oil immensely useful and couldn't live without olive oil.

So what fats do use instead of oils?

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not used oils for years, i either dry fry or grill, don't use salt or sugar either, stopped using it all around 15 years ago, not for any health reasons either, don't miss them one bit

vit90 said:

It depends; I use cold pressed rapeseed (canola

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Careful on your definitions. Canola is generally considered to be the Canadian genetically modified rapeseed oil.

In the UK, British Cold Pressed rapeseed oil is not GM.

tim2000s said:

Careful on your definitions. Canola is generally considered to be the Canadian genetically modified rapeseed oil.

In the UK, British Cold Pressed rapeseed oil is not GM.

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Well OK, but I just wanted our overseas members to not have to wonder what rapeseed. I would guess they have cold pressed canola over there.

I'm so confused - did the DESMOND course, have seen a dietician and talk to my DN, and they all said use very little saturated fat in my diet. My cholesterol is 5.3 and I've been put on statins. I do eat carbs, bulkwise about a handful at my main meal and Weetabix or porridge for breakfast. The only fats i use are benecol light as a spread and olive and rapeseed oils for cooking but then only in small quantities. Am i doing it all wrong or just following an old fashioned regime? I'd value some advice as I've heard of the LCHF diet but don't know much about it or understand it. Thanks

mandy_horsley said:

I'm so confused - did the DESMOND course, have seen a dietician and talk to my DN, and they all said use very little saturated fat in my diet. My cholesterol is 5.3 and I've been put on statins. I do eat carbs, bulkwise about a handful at my main meal and Weetabix or porridge for breakfast. The only fats i use are benecol light as a spread and olive and rapeseed oils for cooking but then only in small quantities. Am i doing it all wrong or just following an old fashioned regime? I'd value some advice as I've heard of the LCHF diet but don't know much about it or understand it. Thanks

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I personally believe that there is overwhelming evidence that the reasoning against a diet high in fat low in carbs was based on very bad data and it's now equally overwhelming as science has progressed that not only are carbs the root cause of many of the most common illnesses but that a diet high in most fats, including saturated fats, actually reduces the risk of these diseases. This is all hard core science, nothing else. But society and the healthcare profession is still locked into the idea that low fat and no saturated fats are the way to go.

In fact the official advice remains to consume as little saturated fat as possible and to increase consumption of polyunsaturated fats like sunflower and corn oils despite the latest science showing that these oils are very high in Omega 6 fatty acids that, although essential in moderate amounts, we get far too much of in the contemporary western diet.

Based on what I have read I have made the personal choice to radically reduce my intake of Omega 6 rich fats (so no more sunflower oil for me) and increase monosaturated and saturated fats like rapeseed and olive oil and meat and dairy. I've also increased my Omega 3 EPA and DHA through increased consumption of oily fish plus a fish oil supplement.

It seems to me that the worst of all situations is to eat a diet rich in fat and carbohydrates. The carbs combine with the fats to do damage but on their own the evidence certainly points to fats being healthy and carbs being unhealthy. Apart from Omega 6 fats, I do agree with official advice to avoid trans-fats which are found in some processed foods and old-style margarines. More modern spreads are trans-fat free but they still usually contain too much Omega 6. Benecol is a modern spread and it contains plant sterols to reduce cholesterol but there is now pretty clear evidence that it reduces the good as well as the bad cholesterol.

By the way, it's a chore I know but I would strongly recommend you set yourself a daily carbohydrate limit and count the carbs when preparing all your meals. You might be shocked how much porridge and weetabix contain.

I am a great waffler

Winnie53 said:

So what do you eat for carbs, fats, and proteins? Can you give us an idea of what you eat on a typical day?

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lean bacon, chicken, minced beef, fish etc, on a typical day i'll have 3 weetabix with semi skimmed milk for breakfast, 2 sandwich thins filled with a 160g tin of tuna mixed with garlic mayonaisse for lunch then for evening dinner shepheards pie, once a week i will have a meat and potato pie and a freddie frog chocolate as a treat, i try and stick to 1400/1500 calories a day seeing as i am overweight, i don't carb count, the way i eat works for me, it took a while to get to this point and hopefuly the benefits will start paying off, 6 months ago i was doing 3000 cals a day before that i was really abusing the cals,thanks to the way i'm eating know i rarely get lethargic and i have also manage to walk 2 miles everyday, so i'm happy with that

That's way way more carbs than I would be happy with. On the other hand I am not on medication and if it works for you...

Winnie53 said:

It sounds like your enjoying the benefits of ketosis. That's great.

I don't live in the UK, so not familiar with many of the foods you've listed. I'm curious as to how you're getting your calories. Somewhere in there you must be getting some fats. Is anyone monitoring how your doing with lab work?

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It's not likely that ketosis can be achieved eating that many carbs. You need to keep below 50g/day and for some even more.

Edit: I have done the arithmetic: Just two weetabix are 69g carbs and depending on your interpretation of the figures maybe 10g of that can be deducted as fibre (and so won't end up as blood sugar). But that still leaves 59 and for three weetabix it's over 88g. There are also carbs in the milk, so by breakfast you're already well over the 50g ketosis threshold.

Just bought some extra virgin coconut oil, against my better judgement (because I think the price is a rip-off (Tesco own brand was the cheapest I could find at £5 for 300ml), not because I think it's unhealthy)). Now have to think of recipes to incorporate the coconut notes Curry is an obvious one I will definitely try next week.

vit90 said:

It's not likely that ketosis can be achieved eating that many carbs. You need to keep below 50g/day and for some even more.

Edit: I have done the arithmetic: Just two weetabix are 69g carbs and depending on your interpretation of the figures maybe 10g of that can be deducted as fibre (and so won't end up as blood sugar). But that still leaves 59 and for three weetabix it's over 88g. There are also carbs in the milk, so by breakfast you're already well over the 50g ketosis threshold.

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I eat Tesco value range weetabix, 3 of those come in at 36.4g carbs with 8g fibre as for the milk i'm not sure about the numbers there

mandy_horsley said:

I'm so confused - did the DESMOND course, have seen a dietician and talk to my DN, and they all said use very little saturated fat in my diet. My cholesterol is 5.3 and I've been put on statins. I do eat carbs, bulkwise about a handful at my main meal and Weetabix or porridge for breakfast. The only fats i use are benecol light as a spread and olive and rapeseed oils for cooking but then only in small quantities. Am i doing it all wrong or just following an old fashioned regime? I'd value some advice as I've heard of the LCHF diet but don't know much about it or understand it. Thanks

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I think you need to include your damaged pancreas and gall bladder removal as not everyone is aware of this or able to give suitable advice, Your diet has been devised for you owing to your not being able to eat some fats.

Winnie53 said:

It sounds like your enjoying the benefits of ketosis. That's great.

I don't live in the UK, so not familiar with many of the foods you've listed. I'm curious as to how you're getting your calories. Somewhere in there you must be getting some fats. Is anyone monitoring how your doing with lab work?

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from the food i listed above i get around 40g of fat a day that is from the fat that is in the food, i'm currently waiting to go for bariatric surgery which i'll hopefully have at the end of the year or beginning of 2016 and have to lose weight beforehand hence the way i eat, i do get regular lab work and they always come back ok

catherinecherub said:

I think you need to include your damaged pancreas and gall bladder removal as not everyone is aware of this or able to give suitable advice, Your diet has been devised for you owing to your not being able to eat some fats.

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thanks Catherine, i guess maybe i just need to stick to what i was told - it just seems at times that everyone else knows so much more and better ways of looking after their conditions. I've certainly learned so much from this forum so far.

I use butter, lard and coconut oil for cooking. Did use canola for a while but live in SE Asia so lard and coconut oil are more economic. 100% extra virgin olive oil for salads. Decided after investigating how to improve omega 3 to omega 6 ratios.

vit90 said:

That's way way more carbs than I would be happy with. On the other hand I am not on medication and if it works for you...

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On another thread i asked people what alternatives they used to rice, pasta & potatoes, what do you use instead of them? i really would like to get away from using them all the time so any help would be appreciated