Olive oil has always proved to be a very healthy accompaniment to food. We read so much about how amazing olive oil is for cooking and how it enhances the flavor of foods to make them delicious. When it comes to making salads, olive oil works wonders.
On the other hand, when cooking a dish at a very high temperature, olive oil is not the best option. It destroys many of the important components that essentially make olive oil healthy. It destroys the omega fatty acids which is one of the most important components of the oil. When olive oil is cooked at a high smoke point, it can be quite injurious as it produces harmful components with the heat that is involved.
When olive oil is heated beyond the essential point, it can produce compounds such as lipid peroxides and aldehyde. These are harmful elements that even contribute to cancerous growth in the body.
Apart from the harmful effects of cooking olive oil above its smoke point, the dish also gets a bad flavor because the oil has been cooked beyond necessary.
Using olive oil to cook and boil food, on the other hand, has many benefits. Hence cooking with virgin olive oil is a good idea if you use the oil towards the end of the cooking process. This way your dish does not receive bad flavor, you keep away from the formation of harmful components, and on the other hand, you get the right flavor of olive oil in what you make.
Now this does not mean you should stop using olive oil. Olive oil has many amazing benefits that enhance the skin, keeps you away from belly fat, and lowers the risk of heart diseases and more. If used appropriately, olive oil is an amazing ingredient that enhances your cooking experience.
