London - Lard is healthier for frying than sunflower oil, according to scientists.
They said some vegetable oils can produce dangerous levels of harmful chemicals when they are heated to very high temperatures. Cooking with animal fat does not produce the same quantity of these compounds, which have been linked to cancer, heart disease and dementia.
The controversial findings go against advice from the NHS, which says we should avoid eating too much saturated fat found in ingredients such as lard and butter.
Professor Martin Grootveld, of De Montfort University in Leicester, said a typical meal of fish and chips fried in vegetable oil contained as much as 100 to 200 times more toxic compounds than the safe daily limit set by the World Health Organisation. He said: “For decades, the authorities have been warning us how bad butter and lard was. But we have found butter is very, very good for frying purposes and so is lard.
“People have been telling us how healthy polyunsaturates are in corn oil and sunflower oil. But when you start messing around with them, subjecting them to high amounts of energy in the frying pan or the oven, they undergo a complex series of chemical reactions which results in the accumulation of large amounts of toxic compounds.”
Professor Grootveld’s team measured levels of “aldehydic lipid oxidation products” created when oils were heated to varying temperatures.
Their tests suggested coconut oil produces the lowest levels of aldehydes. But corn and sunflower oil produced three times more aldehydes than butter.
Professor Grootveld said his preferred oil would be olive oil – but he would rather use lard or butter than sunflower or corn oil. He said that these two ingredients are fine to use in salad dressing because the polyunsaturated fats in them have not been heated.
The claim was supported by Professor John Stein of Oxford University, who told the Sunday Telegraph that overusing corn and sunflower oils could be changing the human brain.
“If you eat too much corn oil or sunflower oil, the brain is absorbing too much omega 6, and that effectively forces out omega 3.
“I believe the lack of omega 3 is a powerful contributory factor to such problems as increasing mental health issues and other problems such as dyslexia.”
Daily Mail