Sunflower, shea, rapeseed, soy: are there healthy oils beyond olive oil in food products?

When reading a label, one of the important parts to assess is the fat of the product that we are deciding to buy.

And I am not referring to the quantity, but to the quality and origin of it.

Until mid-December 2014, food labeling indicated “vegetable oils” or “vegetable fats” in the list of ingredients and we had to throw that away.

There was no way of knowing what type of oil or fat we were talking about because the legislation did not require it to be specified.

And eyes that do not see...

Although it is true that when an oil with a good reputation such as olive oil was used in a product, the manufacturer was in charge of letting us know, highlighting it at some point on the packaging (even if it was a tiny percentage of the total fat of the product), to the rest of us were totally blind.

On that date, the European Regulation on Food Information and Labeling (Regulation 1169/2011) brought us as an early Christmas gift many changes in labeling that improved the information we received as consumers and that from then on, after a few years of adaptation, were mandatory.

And among those changes was the obligation to specify what type of fats or oils had been used to make each product.

"Vegetable oil" was no longer an option, now it was necessary to indicate from which product that oil had been extracted.

It was then that we discovered that palm fat was the queen behind that "vegetable oils" and its bad reputation forced many manufacturers to look for alternatives to it in their formulations since the legend "without palm oil" was synonymous of something desirable and a healthier product than those that did.

Other types of fats and oils that until then we did not know were among us also began to appear before our eyes.

And with it the doubts about its nutritional value.

And it seemed that the only acceptable option was olive oil, although we could tolerate sunflower oil.

Rapeseed, the outlaw 40 years ago

Rapeseed oil is one of the oils that is widely used in the industry and had to show its face.

And being rapeseed oil in Spain is not an easy role.

It suffers from an undeserved bad reputation in our country, because many people associate it with an unhealthy fat and to avoid.

Big mistake.

This is the consequence of a terrible mass intoxication that occurred in 1981 due to the consumption of adulterated rapeseed oil and that was etched in the collective memory due to its seriousness, the number of deaths and the number of people who were left with sequelae.

But this very serious incident was not the fault of the rapeseed oil as such, but of its adulteration.

The same thing would have happened if that adulteration had been applied to an olive oil.

Even today in Spain it is still preferably labeled as "canola" or "rapeseed" so as not to use the word "rapeseed" and cause rejection by consumers, even though it is the same oil.

The truth is that rapeseed oil is a healthy and interesting fat from a nutritional point of view and it would be logical to prefer products that contain this oil over those made with soybean or sunflower oil, for example.

Its high contribution in omega 3 fatty acids is known, preferable to the omega 6 present to a greater degree in sunflower oil and the benefits that this entails at a cardiovascular level.

This same summer an interesting study was published that compares the effects of olive oil and rapeseed oil on the lipid profile of adults.

This is a systematic review and meta-analysis (of randomized controlled trials), which means that its conclusions have strong evidence.

Surely you will be surprised to know that rapeseed oil has been better than olive oil in reducing LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol.

This does not call into question the cardioprotective properties of olive oil, which are more than proven, but it does give us a clue that rapeseed oil is a good alternative and an oil that we should not systematically dismiss based on prejudice, since its effects on health are also positive and can be measured with olive oil.

The old friend: sunflower and high oleic sunflower

Sunflower oil is an old acquaintance: it is familiar and does not cause excessive rejection.

We buy it in bottles “for frying” and it doesn't have to hide under pseudonyms in ingredient lists like rapeseed does.

Although rapeseed is nutritionally superior to sunflower.

This familiarity, which translates into a feeling of innocuousness, has made sunflower is very present in many products, and has even replaced palm in certain references.

You just have to see the number of problems caused by the shortage caused by the war in Ukraine: it is an oil that is used a lot by the hotel industry and also by industry, and which has pushed businesses and factories to look for alternatives.

As familiar as sunflower oil may be to us, we cannot say that it is a fat to prioritize, nor can it compete with olive oil or rapeseed oil.

Sunflower oil has a healthier version: high oleic sunflower oil.

This oil is made with selected pipes that have a greater amount of monounsaturated fatty acids that make it more stable and resistant to temperature, and also healthier.

So within sunflower oils, high oleic oil would be the best choice.

The novelty: shea fat

This fat sounds much more like a cosmetic ingredient than a culinary ingredient.

But lately it is appearing in controversial or novel products, with an aura of healthiness.

Several Realfooding products include it in their composition, such as croissants or margarine, and it is also the fat that appears in Heüra sausages, which until recently boasted that their products were made with olive oil.

We know little about shea because it is not an ingredient that is lavished too much, although it is gaining momentum and positioning itself as a fashionable

exotic fat , about to inherit the crown that coconut fat has worn in recent years.

In fact, it has been used for a long time, especially in bakery products and chocolates, but until now it had gone unnoticed.

It is of technological interest because, as is the case with coconut fat or cocoa butter, shea fat is solid at room temperature and begins to melt from 32 °C, and its flavor is more neutral than that of other two.

It has a significant percentage of oleic acid, around 50% (cocoa butter is around 30%), but there are not many studies on its effects on health as food, but it is much more studied for its cosmetic effects.

Of course, if we use it instead of margarines made with poor quality and often hydrogenated fats, we gain nutritionally, but the hard part was getting worse, since we would be comparing it with the worst possible edible fats.

In addition, the products that need a fat of this type are not usually on the list of healthy ones: pastries, puff pastries, chocolates, precooked...

The one that goes unnoticed: soybean oil

It is one of the main alternatives to sunflower oil when it is scarce, nutritionally they do not differ much from one another.

Sunflower is more popular here because it is traditionally sold for direct consumption, unlike soybean, which is sold in other countries.

That yes, for preparations that need high temperatures such as fried foods, a high oleic sunflower or olive oil resists better.

In summary

We are always talking about oils or fats that are part of the composition of processed or ultra-processed foods, such as preserves, pastries, cookies, pre-cooked foods, spreads, sauces... In other words, most of these oils are not found as such, bottled in the supermarket.

You don't usually see direct-to-consumer rapeseed oil, palm oil, soybean oil or shea fat on store shelves in these parts.

We do find, lately, sunflower oil or coconut fat.

And of course olive oil.

And the logical thing is that olive oil is the reference oil, the one we use to dress or cook, the one from the bottle that we take home.

At least in these parts.

In other areas of the world, rapeseed may be a more sensible option due to price and availability (which is marketed for direct consumption in many countries).

It's also important to keep in mind that an unhealthy item like a baked goods, for example, will still be unhealthy even if you use a good or regular fat.

Some biscuits made with rapeseed or olive oil do not become healthy nor do they make the product something to consume frequently.

Where we should look is in those products that have per se healthy options.

For example, in oil preserves: there it does improve that the oil is olive instead of sunflower.

Or that in a hummus, they have preferred rapeseed oil instead of soybean.

In short: we don't need better fats to make up bad products.

And in good products, we prefer the healthier fats.

NUTRITION WITH SCIENCE

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