11 Cooking Mistakes That Can Make Your Food Toxic

Cooking with the wrong fats

Cook with olive oil—but only for certain foods. Butter is back—but is butter better? And then there’s coconut oil—actually, there are many reasons not to cook with coconut oil. So what are the healthiest fats for cooking? Maggie Michalczyk, registered dietitian in Chicago, recommends doing your homework before buying a jumbo jug of one particular oil and using it for everything. “These oils have different smoke points—that’s the temperature at which they begin to burn—and once they start smoking, the fat breaks down and they can release harmful free radicals into the air,” she says. Oils with high smoke points that are great for high-heat cooking include avocado oil (refined), almond oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, sesame oil, and sunflower oil. Regardless of smoke point, you’ll want to limit soybean and corn oils, which studies have linked to diabetes. Also, keep portions of oils in check when cooking to prevent additional calories (most serving sizes are two tablespoons). You might find this information on cooking oils helpful.

The post 11 Cooking Mistakes That Can Make Your Food Toxic appeared first on Reader's Digest.

from Reader's Digest http://ift.tt/2nJlP9D