Last weekend, I was listening to a talk radio show with a guy that's a naturopath and chiropracter, and he told a woman that when you cook with olive oil, it turns into a trans fat.
I'm assuming from the heating of the oil. I'm pretty sure there's more to making a trans fat than just applying heat.

Has anyone else heard this?? Can this be true??

I'm having a hard time believing it and I can't find any info on the web.

Thanks

I don't know the specifics but I know olive oil isn't supposed to be used at high heats because 'something bad' happens to it. You should only use olive oil for low heat cooking.

If you need high heat cooking, look into peanut oil.

I don't know about the transfat part either. I do know that olive oil should be put into food after it's done cooking. If you want to use oil for cooking, the best are: canola, safflower and grapeseed oils, but that's according to my own research, which could be wrong (but I doubt it...just kidding!).

Unfortunately, this is true. Because of this, I barely use any oil when I saute anything. When it's finished cooking, then I drizzle the food with olive oil. This way you get the flavor and the health benefits.

I believe in order to create an actual trans fat, it needs to be hydroginated. There are things that happen to different oils at high temperatures that can effect their health benefits but becoming a trans fat is not one of them - and olive oil has a pretty low "smoke point" which can cause ear damage when it sets off your smoke alarm

I found a couple of web sites with this info but since one of them was created by the olive oil industry, I figured that one was one of those "grain of salt" information sites. Here's a different one that seems to have some pretty decent information:

http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyour...transform.html

Great article YOYO . . . thanks for posting it.

A small amount of hydrogenation occurs when any oil is heated to VERY high temperatures repeatedly (such as frying). Hydrogenation occurs to a smaller degree in olive oils because they are highly mono-unsaturated oils. Olive oils are not meant to be brought to very high temperatures because of their low flash point - using a vegetable oil or peanut oil would be better. If you have to use olive oil for high heat, use light olive oil which has a higher flash point than extra virgin.

True hydrogenation happens when an oil has super heated hydrogen running through it (usually 250-400 degrees) in the presence of a metal catalyst. The process takes several hours. I don't know of any home cook that has that kind of machinery or time on their hands.

Of course, any heat will diminish the nutritional value in any food.

Source?

Yup yup yup. You can't just "turn" an oil into a trans fat by heating it.

Foodies will tell you to not do any high heat cooking with olive oils because they have a very low smoke point and will get that smoked/burned flavor and become bitter long before your food is cooked. Low heat cooking wtih olive oil is just fine.

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Seriously? I use olive oil on the stove top to cook my veggie burgers Pan "fried". Hmmmmm.... I've never heard this before.

Oh, I use olive oil for just about everything except those recipes where I need really high heat frying ... like stir frys.

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a friend of mine tried deep frying with olive oil.....let's just say there was a fire extinguisher involved.

I think unless you're "deep fat frying," you're not getting the oil hot enough for this to occur. I've always heard that the oil will generally "taste bad" and smoke long before you have to worry about creating significant trans fat transformation.

So what do you use for stir frying???
P-nut oil??

Rachel Ray uses so much EVOO--it's gotta be good, right-lol!

Oh goodness! All other issues aside, you have to use so MUCH oil for deep frying and I just can't see pouring 4 bottles of somewhat expensive olive oil (in comparison) into a deep fryer. Bleah!

I use peanut oil for deep fat frying. We do it rarely, but one of my favorites is fried catfish and hushpuppies. We also fry a turkey once a year or so.

When I stir fry I actually use canola oil.

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