There are a few more things I want to share with you before we move on from our discussion (my diatribe?) on fats. I didn't get a chance to write much about vegetable oils/fats and I really want to clear up a few misconceptions. I think we all started to get the message about margarine a few years back, and the idea that butter was better (something our tastebuds knew all along) slipped back into our consciousness. Let me quickly explain why. Remember polyunsaturated oils? The ones that are so potentially damaging to your health because they become oxidized or rancid when exposed to heat, oxygen or moisture and let loose a whole lot of marauding whoop-ass? (This is why you are told never to heat flax seed oil.) If not, review here. I forgot to tell you that this is why you should seek out cold-pressed or expeller-pressed oils if you are going to cook with any polyunsaturates. These are rendered in a heat-controlled environment. But it probably won't surprise you to hear that these phrases are bandied about rather liberally in this country and that chemicals often find their way into the mix. Spectrum is a good brand to seek out for their conscientious practices. This is yet another instance of how new technologies have rendered obsolete the old-fashioned, time-consuming yet much healthier ways of extracting nutrition from foods. Grinding things between two slow-moving stone presses turns out to be the way to go.
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