Is olive oil suitable for cooking?

As modern people's awareness of health care increases, more and more people in modern life begin to realize that eating more olive oil is helpful for health care. Olive oil contains many ingredients that are good for human health and is very suitable for cold dishes. However, it is generally believed that olive oil is not suitable for high-temperature cooking. So what is going on? What's wrong with cooking with olive oil? What are the precautions for daily consumption of olive oil?

Olive oil is not suitable for high temperature cooking

Olive oil has three characteristics:

One is the high oleic acid content. Oleic acid is a monounsaturated fatty acid. Some experimental results show that if the saturated fat in the diet (such as animal oil, butter, etc.) is replaced with unsaturated fat. However, this is not unique to olive oil. For example, the oleic acid content of "double-low rapeseed oil" (or "canola oil") is even higher than that of olive oil.

Second, primary cold-pressed olive oil contains relatively more antioxidant ingredients such as vitamin E.

Third, primary cold-pressed olive oil contains many other impurities and has a different flavor from other vegetable oils.

"Good olive oil" should be cold-pressed and unrefined, and contain more other ingredients, so it will smoke at around 190-200°C. Usually the temperature for cooking is "70% to 80% hot", which is above 200°C. Smoke will produce some harmful substances. Although the amount may not be enough to obviously endanger health, it is not a good thing after all. In fact, not only olive oil, but all unrefined oils are not suitable for cooking.

If we have to say that olive oil has "unique value", it mainly comes from the polyphenol compounds in it. These substances can only be retained at low temperatures. Once heated to cooking temperature, they basically lose their activity. After being exposed to high temperatures, olive oil becomes no different from other vegetable oils. "Medium and low-grade olive oil" is generally refined, and there are not many antioxidants and aroma components left, so there is of course no loss. When used for cooking, it is no different from other vegetable oils.

It’s also worth noting that these are for real olive oil. Olive oil is the most counterfeited edible oil in the world, and the amount of "Italian olive oil" sold worldwide is several times the total production in Italy.

In short, olive oil is just a better cooking oil. It contains more oleic acid and does not contain cholesterol like other vegetable oils. Cold-pressed unrefined olive oil contains a relatively large amount of antioxidant ingredients such as polyphenol compounds and is considered to have certain health value. But this can only be reflected in cold dishes or other low-temperature applications. Although using it for cooking will not produce obvious harmful ingredients, the antioxidant components in it will be destroyed, thus making the "nutritional advantages" that "may exist" in cold-pressed olive oil completely lost.