Dear Dave,
I have heard that I can use olive oil for cooking but when I do it tends to smoke. I understand that this is not a good thing for my body so I have been using avocado oil instead. Is it okay to use the olive oil even if it smokes?
Nancy, WI
Dear Nancy,
NO! This is not OK….a smoking oil is a bad thing indeed. Allow me to elaborate:
Olive oil has been used for cooking since the earliest recorded times but these days ‘new’ information has been emerging encouraging people to make different choices for their cooking oils. In the 18 months of operating Genesis Kitchen (our olive oil store) this is a question that comes up each week and it is clear that people are getting a lot of market pressure to use refined oils (such as avocado).
Why is all this attention being put on refined oils? Is olive oil is an inferior cooking oil and with all of our great modern technology mankind has NOW figured out how to produce refined oils that can better serve our bodies?
Refined oil has one great edge on olive oil – it is relatively shelf stable. This means it has a much longer window in which it can be sold and still turn a profit. Olive oil on the other hand degrades rapidly after about 14 months from harvest.
Here is the big point: FRESH high quality olive oil is perfect for cooking, its smoke point is about 50 degrees higher than a low quality olive oil (a good quality EVOO has a smoke point of about 400 degrees). For many of us it is counterintuitive to use our freshest and best oil for cooking, but the truth is that is how food works!
Real food goes bad.
Helping oils quit smoking for over 18 months,
Dave
