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Comment by seizethecheese | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for the insightful comment. What would be a good substitute oil for cooking?

Canola oil was bred to have a 1:1 ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3. It's low in saturated fat too.

For all the good things people say about the fat composition of olive oil, canola oil is probably better. It also has a more neutral taste. It's all refined though, and a GMO, things which some people don't like.

The problem with Canola oil is largely due to the processing techniques (cold pressed Canola doesn't really exist), and the fact that it DOES have such a high amount of Omega 6 causes it to promote inflammation.

Anti-inflammatory diets is about the only way to survive into old age regularly, in both the length of life, and the quality of life aspects.

Non-GMO canola (and, from that, non-GMO canola oil) exists and is available on the market, as a simple Google search will readily show.

I am not a dietary scientist, but we are using either coconut fat or grape see oil for cooking.

The main reason is that these are supposed to produce less cancerogenic compounds after high temperature treatment* and they also do not leave any strong specific taste.

Both do not contain significant amount of omega-3 fatty acids, but the cooking oil probably also should not be your main source of fatty acids anyway (usually we wipe the products clean after cooking).

Perhaps somebody else could give better insight into it.

* I actually have not researched this deeply, but these oils do have relatively high smoke point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point

Coconut oil does not appear to have a relatively high smoke point.

Iirc, grape seed oil actually is pretty bad for omega 6.

Avocado Oil is the de-facto high heat cooking oil with a good fat profile (mostly monounsaturated fats).

Avocado oil, butter, ghee, lard, beef tallow

My wife cooks entirely w/o oil. Lots of vegetable broth. As a bonus, makes washing up a lot easier.

Some people like olive oil and it does do better than vegetable oil.

If your goal is to minimize aldehydes produced in cooking coconut oil is maybe best but can affect the taste. Lard and goose far are good alternatives that for some foods can provide a better taste.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33675975

Olive oil for the pan. Don't know about baking. Apple sauce?

Olive oil burns too easily. I usually use peanut or safflower oil. Where do they fit in on this radar?

Coconut Oil is good and has a high flashpoint.

Edit: Lard and Butter also work quite well.

Also goose fat for ultimate deliciousness.

Edit: Geese might disagree but they're mean.

You've got to respect those living dinosaurs, both for their taste and their mendacity.

If you are concerned about flash point, make sure it is clarified butter (Ghee). Normal butter still has a decent amount of milk that will easily burn at lower temperatures.

Butter is tasty, but can only stand low temperatures.

What are you cooking? I mean, are we talking pan frying or deep frying?

My understanding is that peanut oil is very pro inflammatory and a bad idea to use at high heat. Butter, animal fats and coconut oil are my go to oils. But I don't deep fry.

Both involve high temperatures, so they would call for similar kinds of fats or oils. Peanut oil stands up well to high temperatures and does well in both situations. Peanut oil isn't pro-inflammatory; in fact, due to its higher saturated fat content and lower unsaturated fat content it's more like coconut oil and animal fats in that regard.

Why not refined olive oil? As I understand it olive oil is almost entirely monounsaturated which is supposed to be the "good" fat, and when refined it has minimal flavor and a higher smoke point.

Cooking spray. Still oil but reduced to a very low quantity so it almost doesn't matter, while still being useful for a lot of things in the kitchen.

Bacon grease

Lard?

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