A Great "Con" fusion.

Scenario: Enter into kitchen, slice your chicken for pan frying, heat the stove, place your pan to heat and then you place ____________________ oil in the pan.

Question: What do you put in your pan?

For many of you, you simply follow the American Heart Assoc (AHA) recommendations: A low saturated fat oil which equals a vegetable oil (canola, soybean, cottonseed, etc.) You complete your pan fried chicken feeling good that you have feed your family a "healthier" dinner using your canola oil.

Why am a dedicating a post to this? Well, it is simple really...okay, not so simple, but we need to start somewhere. We will begin with the trans-fats misconception. So the AHA recommends a low saturated fat oil for consumption. The AHA also tells us that Trans-fatty acids are bad for us and increase the risks of cancers, heart attacks, blocked arteries, and inflammation. I'm sure you are thinking where is the problem?

A little piece of the puzzle is missing. Canola oil and its other vegetable oil counterparts contain trans-fatty acids. I know you are thinking that the nutrition label very clearly states that it is trans-fats free. In fact they base entire marketing campaigns on the fact that they are. The FDA requires foods that have a greater than .5g of trans-fats per serving to be labeled (page 17 section 5, first paragraph). Foods that contain .49 grams of trans fats a consumer doesn't have the right to know about them. Canola oil, according to the Canola Association in Canada states that Canola oil contains less than .2% per serving. Independent studies one in particular done at the university of Florida indicated that the levels of liquid oil were closer to 4.5% per serving (at the bottom of risks), and in solid vegetable oils as high at 40% due to the full hydrogenation of the oil.

Bottom line: it is best to avoid all trans-fats. They are not naturally occurring, and your body cannot process them. Pass on the canola oil and go for the butter or coconut oil for cooking.