[0:00]For some reason, everybody seems to have exactly the wrong idea about olive oil. People think you can't cook with it at a high heat.
[0:08]They think that'll make it bitter, or worse, it'll make it toxic, carcinogenic. Now, whether high heat makes olive oil taste bad is a more subjective question. The health question is an empirical one though, and the science is compelling. Extra virgin olive oil has demonstrated to be the most stable oil when heated, followed closely by coconut oil and other virgin oils such as avocado and high oleic acid seed oils. Now that's according to this Australian research from 2018.
[0:38]Yes, this is research from a lab that works with the olive industry, but it's peer-reviewed and there are quite a few studies from all over the world that have come to similar conclusions. From a health standpoint, extra virgin olive oil is actually way less problematic at high heat than the oils that people say you're supposed to use instead. Things like canola oil and grape seed oil, the so-called high heat oils, those are actually far less stable at high heat. But what does that mean, less stable? Well, I'll tell you one thing it's not about, it's not about the smoke point. So the science are more and more pointing that smoke point has little correlation with when the oil start breaking down. This is Dr. Selina Wang, research director for the Olive Center at the University of California Davis. Yes, her center works with olive growers, but that's hardly uncommon, and everything she's about to say is backed up by research from lots of people. I think that's what people are worried about, when the oil start breaking down and start producing potential toxins. I think that's what people are worried about, but for some reason, that's connected to smoke point, which is not a direct correlation. Indeed, oil that's smoking is hot, and when oils get really, really hot and stay really hot for a long time, they can become harmful. But that does not mean that oils that smoke sooner become harmful sooner. That's a notion that you will see repeated by lots of normally reliable sources, but Dr. Wang says it simply is not supported by the most up-to-date research. Smoking is just the thing that you can see. You can't see what actually matters a lot more from a health perspective, and that is the oil breaking down. From a technical standpoint, that's basically when multiple chemical reactions that can happen, such as hydrolysis, oxidation, reactions that cause larger molecules to break down to smaller molecules, such as aldehydes and and some of them that have neurodegenerative reactions that could cause, for example, Parkinson's or Alzheimer's diseases. So that's that's the research is pointing that oxidized lipids, which is what's in the oil, contribute to that kind of illness. And potentially, the big C. Research indicates that eating oxidized oils promotes free radicals in the body and that can cause cancer. But... The research shows that the most dangerous situation is when you use the oil repeatedly. So for example, if you um purchase food from a restaurant that basically never changed their oil, that is actually the the real concern regarding carcinogens. But I wouldn't worry about it if it's just everyday cooking at home. And there's even less to worry about if you're cooking with olive oil. Olive oil is primarily a mono-unsaturated fat. Most of the vegetable oils that people say are better for high heat cooking have a lot more polyunsaturated fat, and they therefore are much more prone to oxidation. Olive oil is monounsaturated. And if you get extra virgin olive oil, it's going to be rich in natural antioxidants like polyphenols. These will counteract the oxidation as the oil cooks. Now, the opposite of a virgin oil is a refined oil, oil that has undergone various physical and chemical processes with wholesome names like degumming, neutralization, bleaching, winterization, and deodorization.
[4:08]These extend shelf life and reduce the bitter and pungent flavors that some people don't like. Problem with that is the source of that bitterness is to a great extent the antioxidants themselves. So during refining, all basically all of the natural antioxidants that we talked about earlier that's important to prevent oxidation are stripped away. It's the same for canola oil, vegetable oil, soybean oil, that refining process stripped away the antioxidants. And that's why extra virgin oils are actually safer to cook with at high heat. Because it's unrefined, it's packed with natural antioxidants that will cancel out the oxidation process that happens at high heat. Why do so many TV chefs say the exact opposite? They tell us you should never cook with extra virgin olive oil at high heat. Some say you shouldn't cook with it at all, you should just save it for drizzling raw over stuff. Based on the available science, there is no valid health reason to cook with say, canola oil instead of extra virgin olive oil. None. Is there maybe a valid culinary reason to do it? Well, that's an interesting question, and we'll do some taste tests after I thank the sponsor of this video. You want to keep your body safe, cook with virgin oils. You want to keep your data safe, use the internet with Surfshark. If you're ever using a public Wi-Fi network, it's really easy for other users there to intercept your private data. And that's one of the things you can prevent by using a VPN or virtual private network. You just open Surfshark on your device, hit connect, and it's like you're on your own private network at home. VPNs are also useful for getting around internet censorship in certain countries, and they're also really useful for getting around geo-restrictions on content. Like maybe you have an American Netflix subscription, but you're in the UK, so you can't use it. Boom, Surfshark makes you virtually back in the US, or anywhere else that you want to be. Surfshark has some particularly cool features that other VPNs don't, like their HackLock system. This can alert you if your email address or password is compromised. There's also BlindSearch, a private search tool with no ads and no tracking. Do us both a favor, hit my link in the description and use my promo code ADAMRAGUSEA. You will get 83% off Surfshark plus an additional month for free. Link and code in the description. Thank you, Surfshark. Okay, so does getting olive oil really hot make it taste bad? Here's one of the most expensive olive oils they had at my store. Single source, there's harvest and pressing dates on there. That's important. The oil oxidizes slowly just sitting there on the shelf, so fresher oil is going to be a healthier oil. It tastes strong, grassy, peppery on the back of the throat. A little bitter, pungent. Do people like this stuff? I personally like the more fruity flavors, but those tend to be the ones that has less antioxidants. Ah, indeed. We got to remember it's the antioxidants themselves that taste bitter. It's the same deal with chocolate. For my first experiment, I'm going to heat this in a pan for 10 minutes, but not to smoking. Just to the point where it shimmers. It smells really good. I'll pour that out, let it cool down, and then I'll have a taste. Taste's basically like it did before, but less. Those grassy, floral notes are just gone. Here's one reason why chefs say don't bother cooking with extra virgin olive oil. The heat is going to destroy or vaporize a lot of the flavor that you're paying for. Use a cheap refined oil, they say, and you can get the same flavor for less money. I think that makes total sense if you're running a restaurant, saving a few pennies per portion can really add up when you're working at a very large scale. But cooking at home, I just don't think it's going to save me all that much money, so I don't worry about having multiple kinds of olive oil in the house for different purposes. Plus, I like the health benefits that I get from cooking with extra virgin olive oil only. And there's actually research indicating that cooking food in extra virgin makes the food itself healthier by extracting polyphenols from vegetables. But now let's take this fancy oil and blast it, get it smoking for a good 10 minutes. That smoke itself is probably not great to breathe in, so don't. I'll cool it down and have a taste. Look how brown it turned. That definitely tastes cooked, but I find it no more bitter than it was before. This makes me intrigued to try an oil that isn't so bitter to begin with. Here's a store brand extra virgin olive oil. It tastes mild, fruity, nice. Why is this cheaper? If you see words that says buttery, smooth, that's basically a a signal that says either this oil has some refined oil in it, or this oil was a super late harvest that basically has very low level of antioxidants. If you harvest the olives when they're really ripe, you get more oil out of them, that's why it's cheaper, but yeah, it's not quite as healthy. In contrast, oils pressed from younger greener olives like this might be marketed with words like... robust, which is such a marketing turn, right? For the record, I actually liked both of these oils just for different reasons. There's nothing wrong with a little bit of bitterness, especially when it's going to be balanced out by the food. Can be quite delicious actually. But back to the experiment. I'm going to get the smooth, buttery, not bitter oil up to smoking. Hold it there for about 10 minutes, cool it down, and yeah, it tastes cooked, the fruity notes are gone. Maybe there's a slight bitter note, but that absolutely was not the festival of yuck that the internet tells me I'm going to experience when I get my olive oil too hot. And consider further that this is a very unrealistic cooking scenario. I bring my oil up to smoking all the time, just to make sure my pan is really hot, but then I put food in it. The oil instantaneously transfers a ton of its heat to the food and the smoking stops. To heat it back up to smoking, I'd probably have to burn the food. And by the way, olive oil does have some water in it too. So the very first whisps of smoke that you see coming off the oil probably aren't smoke at all, it's probably steam. In conclusion, cook with other oils if you want to save money, or if you don't want your food to taste like olive oil. But compared to other oils, olive oil is among the healthiest and perhaps the healthiest to cook with at high heat. And high heat is not going to instantaneously make it taste bad. Hey, a certain Michelin-starred American-Italian chef was well known for searing, deep-frying, making desserts, and cooking absolutely everything else with extra virgin olive oil. That is until his personal conduct cost him his career. He was right about the oil, though.
[10:44]Get me a drink on. Olive oil.
