"Frying" in olive oil

**ddawg** · 12-14-2005, 07:23 PM

For one of my meals, I usually have a whole wheat pita with 1/2 a tablespoon of olive oil as well as some other stuff. Usually I just spread the olive oil on the pita and eat it, but I was wondering if I could put the 1/2 tablespoon of oive oil in a pan and let it get hot and then put the pita in the pan and I guess you could say fry it. It really wouldn't be frying b/c it's only 1/2 a tablespoon so I guess it would just be toasting it. I was just wondering if heating the olive oil to this high temperature would effect the healthy benefits of the olive oil at all. Would it change it's profile or is this ok?

**Jodi** · 12-14-2005, 07:28 PM

Yes, that would be fine. The smoking point of olive oil is 375-400 degrees and in a frying pan so long as you keep the heat to medium, it won't turn.

**The13ig13adWolf** · 12-14-2005, 07:30 PM

why are you having just pita and oil as a meal? just wondering.

**KentDog** · 12-14-2005, 10:30 PM

Originally Posted by The13ig13adWolf

why are you having just pita and oil as a meal? just wondering.

You can put a lot of stuff in a pita. Diced chicken breast, brown rice, and olive oil for fat.

I like your new avatar by the way.

**The13ig13adWolf** · 12-15-2005, 07:22 AM

Originally Posted by KentDog

You can put a lot of stuff in a pita. Diced chicken breast, brown rice, and olive oil for fat.

I like your new avatar by the way.

right but he's only eating the pita and the oil. there's no mention of protein. i'm not a huge fan of fats and carbs in the same meal either though. i subscribe to the p/c or p/f combo to avoid the extra unnecessary insulin push.

thanks

.

**Jodi** · 12-15-2005, 07:42 AM

He said he was eating other things with it

I usually have a whole wheat pita with 1/2 a tablespoon of olive oil as well as some other stuff.

IMO some fats with a carb source has it's benefits. The fat will slow down digestion/gastric emptying and will also slow the insulin surge.

**ddawg** · 12-15-2005, 12:25 PM

What happens when it gets heated to high? Does it become unhealthy or does it just evaporate or taste nasty?

**The13ig13adWolf** · 12-15-2005, 04:06 PM

Originally Posted by ddawg

What happens when it gets heated to high? Does it become unhealthy or does it just evaporate or taste nasty?

it has a smoke point of about 400. excessively heating will evaporate the alcohols and esters that make up the taste/flavor but it doesn't change the health benefits.

**Jodi** · 12-15-2005, 06:45 PM

Actually that's not true. When oils are heated beyond smoking points, they burn and become harmful trans-fats.

**The13ig13adWolf** · 12-15-2005, 07:06 PM

Originally Posted by Jodi

Actually that's not true. When oils are heated beyond smoking points, they burn and become harmful trans-fats.

Olive Oil Myth: Heating a cooking oil will make it saturated or a trans-fatty oil.

The Facts: As far as making a saturated fat, according to Dr. A. Kiritsakis, a world renowned oil chemist in Athens, (Book - OLIVE OIL FROM THE TREE TO THE TABLE -Second edition 1998), all oils will oxidize and hydrogenate to a tiny degree if repeatedly heated to very high temperatures such as is done in commercial frying operations. Olive pomace oil and virgin olive oil are both highly monounsaturated oils and therefore resistant to oxidation and hydrogenation. Studies have shown oxidation and hydrogenation occurs to a lesser degree in olive oil than in other oils. But in any case, the amount of hydrogenation is miniscule and no home cook would ever experience this problem.

The large refinery-like factories which take unsaturated vegetable oil and turn it into margarine or vegetable lard do so by bubbling hydrogen gas through 250 to 400 degree hot vegetable oil in the presence of a metal catalyst, usually nickel or platinum. The process can take several hours. You cannot make a saturated product like margarine at home by heating olive oil or any other vegetable oil in a pan. We don't know where this weird notion has come from.

Changing a cis-fat to a trans-fat does not occur on a home stove.

**Jodi** · 12-15-2005, 07:10 PM

Do you have resources? Every science reference I've read says that it turns rancid.

**The13ig13adWolf** · 12-15-2005, 07:15 PM

i pulled that from here: http://www.oliveoilsource.com/cooking_olive_oil.htm

i've seen additional research on it, i'll dig around.

**Jodi** · 12-15-2005, 07:18 PM

Yeah I wouldn't trust it. It's a biased article.

Here are some articles I would trust over an olive oil.com site and they state that it will turn rancid.

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/st...margarine.html Hmm this isn't the article I was looking for

http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fit...ttyacids2.html

The only fats that will not turn rancid is saturated fat. All over oil have the possiblity of turning into transfat.

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