The Institute of Fat (IG), center of research of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), has carried out a study in which it proposes a new Scoring system that assesses the nutritional quality of edible oils and fats.
published in the magazine Nutrients, The research aims to promote different healthy and nutritious food options among consumers. Which in turn has its effect on the food industry.
Not being aware of the nutritional differences of dietary oils It can lead you to believe that they are all the same, regardless of the type you consume. The reality is that these play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy diet designed, for example, to take care of your heart.
Therefore, developing a score based on their nutritional quality “is of the utmost importance, as it would allow consumers to make informed decisions about the oils they use and would encourage producers to improve the nutritional quality of their oils,” stress the researchers. authors in the study.
The team created an algorithm that uses a model based on the guidelines of the WHO (World Health Organization), EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration of the United States).
Based on this the system score between zero and 100 to the oilsplacing 50 as the limit between what could be considered healthy and what is no longer so.
Cheap options almost as healthy as virgin olive oil
The index assessed a total of 32 vegetable oils and animal fats in the diet. He virgin olive oil was the only one that obtained 100 points.
Among the reasons that place this classic of the Mediterranean diet as the best oil of all is “its unique compositional profile”. In the words of the researchers, virgin olive oil provides “a high oleic acid content which is associated with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease.
It also contains other health-promoting compounds, such as linoleic acid, α-linolenic acid, tocopherols and hydroxytyrosol”.
The index also revealed some more surprising results. The next best valued, all of them with 86 points were flax oil, conventional olive oils and olive pomace oilhabitually reviled for being considered of low quality.
Pomace olive oil is made by refining what remains of the olives after having been used for the traditional olive version. This causes it to lose a good part of the polyphenols that its higher quality brother contains, but even so It has more than interesting qualities, as indicated by the CSIC index. And at a much cheaper price than the other options.
Flax oil, which ranked second, is characterized by a high α-linolenic acid content. It is also higher in tocopherols—compounds that act like vitamin E in the body—and has a lower level of saturated acids (“bad fats”) compared to other oils.
He oleic high sunflower oil He also held a conspicuous position. With an index of 82, she is ranked number 6.
Coconut oil got a zero
In general, vegetable oils obtained better scores than animal fats, with the exception of those from fish — those from salmon and sardines, for example, obtained an index of 73 —. But there were exceptions.
The margarine and coconut oil are classified by the CSIC as unhealthy fats. The first obtained an index of 14 and “was strongly related to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease due to its content of trans fatty acids,” the study says.
Coconut oil received the lowest score of 0 due to its high saturated fatty acid content. Excessive consumption of these has been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular problemsby favoring high levels of bad cholesterol.
