FitSugar

Cooking Oil Breakdown

FitSugar — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:30:00 PDT

Being a curious creature, I like to compare things. Recently, I decided to focus on cooking oil. I tend to use canola and olive oil when cooking since they're healthy oils, but as I peruse the shelves of oils at the grocery store, there are so many more to choose from. For easy comparison, I created this breakdown. The oils are fairly similar calorie-wise, but take a look at the saturated fat content. This is the fat you want to limit in your diet, so that's why coconut and palm kernel oil should be used or eaten sparingly. Since some of you may prefer to cook or bake with butter or margarine, I included those at the bottom of the list, just for comparison. I also included oils that you wouldn't necessarily cook with, but that you may find in a list of ingredients on pre-packaged foods.

To see the breakdown,

read more. Here's the nutritional info for one tablespoon of oil.

Oil	Calories	Total (g)	Saturated Fat (g)
Almond oil	120	14	1
Avocado oil	124	14	1.6
Canola oil	120	14	1
Coconut oil	117	13.6	11.8
Corn oil	120	14	2
Cottonseed oil	119	14	3
Extra virgin olive oil	120	14	2
Flaxseed oil	120	13.6	1.3
Grapeseed oil	120	13.6	1.3
Hemp seed oil	126	14	1.5
Macadamia nut oil	120	14	2
Olive oil	119	13.5	1.9
Palm oil	120	13.6	6.7
Palm kernel oil	116	14	11
Peanut oil	119	13.5	2.3
Safflower oil	120	13.6	.8
Sesame oil	120	13.6	1.9
Soybean oil	120	13.6	2
Sunflower oil	120	13.6	1.8
Vegetable oil	124	14	.9
Walnut oil	120	14	1.5
Wheatgerm oil	120	13.6	2.6
Butter	102	11.5	7.3
Smart Balance Margarine	80	9	2.5

Source

Seasonal Eats: Daikon Radish

Anna Monette Roberts — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:22:17 PDT

Daikon is a white root vegetable often seen in Japanese and Chinese cuisine that resembles a carrot. However, unlike a carrot's sweetness, daikon is spicy and tart, similar to a radish. Its pungent and sharp flavor can be enjoyed raw, pickled, or cooked. The white pigment in daikon is called anthoxanthin, which is an antioxidant that may lower cholesterol and blood pressure. In Asian cuisine, daikon is often eaten alongside meaty dishes, and is said to aid in digestion and breakdown of oil, fatty animal protein, and dairy. Cooked daikon has a similar texture and flavor to turnips. Daikon is in season during the cold weather months, so if you've picked some up recently here's a quick and simple sauté preparation.

10 Things Worth Paying More For

Bundle — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:15:34 PDT

We're thrilled to present this smart Bundle story here on Savvy!

It is better to save, than it is to spend - that's usually a winning (and smart!) mantra to live by. But there are actually some things that are worth the extra dollars in cost. Here are 10 of them.

Service. Consumers like to complain about the terrible service they get from certain companies - cell phone and cable TV providers, for example, or dry cleaners and tailors. Ever have to fight with customer service on the phone over a dispute on your cell phone bill? Ever pick up a pair of pants from the tailor only to later discover that your hemlines were uneven? Had a bad haircut? It's worth it to pay more for quality service. People who are skilled in their craft generally charge more for their expertise, and people are willing to pay for a good experience - especially if that means having a bad experience that the service provider is willing to quickly make right for you for free. That's priceless.
Direct flights. We're used to going onto sites like expedia.com or kayak.com to find the cheapest airfare for wherever we want to go, but it's often worth it to pay the extra money for a direct flight. Not only do you avoid the hassle of having to transfer planes at a layover, you save the precious time you could be spending more efficiently at your destination. I'd pay $50 or $100 more for a flight in a heartbeat if that means six extra hours with my family and friends during the holidays instead of snacking on overpriced airport food in the middle of nowhere waiting to get on the second leg of a flight.
Closet basics. There's absolutely no reason you should spend $200 on a pair of designer jeans. But a good, durable pair of jeans from a retailer like Levi's, which produces them for around $50, can last much longer than cheaper brands from big box stores. The key word here is basics: You don't want to spend a lot on whatever is "in" now, but stuff that you can wear no matter what year it is: A nice suit that will work for both a job interview or a wedding. A nice pair of shoes that can be dressed up or down. A white dress shirt you can wear to work or a night out. One nice coat to get you through many many winters. Spending money on quality basics means you'll have things to wear for a long time without ever going out of style, and that actually saves money in the long run.

Read on for more things worth paying more for.

How to Cook With Less Oil

Leta Shy — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:44:04 PDT

Often, cooking at home is healthier than dining out. But if you're not careful, cooking with too much oil can lead to a lot of added calories (more than 100 per tablespoon for many oils; read this for our full nutritional breakdown of different types of oils) and fat. While cooking with oils can be beneficial - many contain healthy monounsaturated fats that help lower your cholesterol - if you want to keep that calorie count down, here are some suggestions for how to cook with less oil.

Stick to recipe quantities. If you're following a healthy recipe with nutritional information, stick to the measurements laid out in the recipe. While you may think it's easy to eyeball oil quantities, you may not realize just how many tablespoons you're using if you don't use measuring spoons.

Use a nonstick pan. Searing meats and sauteing vegetables are easier to do sans too much oil if you have a good nonstick pan. Just make sure you don't heat your pan higher than 500 degrees Fahrenheit (leave it on low to medium-high heat) in order to prevent releasing toxic fumes from the nonstick coating.

Spray it on. For adding a finishing touch of oil to dishes, use an oil mister instead of a heavy-handed pour from the oil bottle.

Read on for more suggestions for cooking with less oil.

Fights the Blues With Fish

FitSugar — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:00:00 PDT

When thinking of food as medicine, we have gotten a little reductive. By trying to find the one active ingredient that makes a food healthy, we have forgotten about the food itself. Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish have been found to fight inflammation and reduce depression. But popping a fish oil supplement, rather than eating the fish, means you are missing out on the minerals and lean protein fish provide.

Here's another reason to add one to two servings of fish to your weekly menu. In an international breakdown of nutrition and mental health by country, researchers found that as fish consumption went up, depression rates went down. In countries where people eat the most fish - Japan, Thailand, and Hong Kong - the rates of depression were low. Conversely, countries with low fish consumption had higher rates of depression, including the US, New Zealand, and parts of Europe.The secret ingredient is the omega-3s. Rather than taking a supplement, try eating the fish for all the nutrition this lean protein can provide.

Not sure where to start when it comes to cooking with fish? For some tasty, healthy recipes featuring fish and shellfish with high amounts of omega-3s,