Healthful Additions To Rice Bran Oil
- For ensuring an appropriate balance of fatty acids in cereal based diets, it is necessary to increase the MUFA and omega 3 intakes and reduce the quantity of omega 6 obtained from the cooking oil.
- One can also choose to use a combination of cooking oils, with a base of a MUFA rich oil coupled with an omega 3-rich oil.
Recommended cooking oil options/ combinations (1:1)
| Rice bran/Groundnut/Sesame (MUFA rich) + Mustard (Omega 3 rich) |
| Rice bran/Groundnut/Sesame (MUFA) +Canola (Omega 3) |
| Rice bran/Groundnut/Sesame (MUFA) + Soybean (Omega 3) |
| Safflower/ Sunflower ( High LA) + Olive (Low LA) |
| Safflower/ Sunflower ( High LA) + Rice bran/Groundnut/Sesame (Low LA) |
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Source: Dietary Guidelines for Indians, NIN, 2010
- Excessive use of oils containing high levels of PUFA should be avoided as a sole cooking medium.
- Rotation of oils every month also proves beneficial and easy.
- Rice bran oil makes a healthy and economical choice as it has a naturally balanced fat composition and an added advantage of unique nutraceuticals.
- Although rice bran oil contains some amount of omega 3 fatty acids, to exactly match the present recommendations, soybean or mustard could be blended or used along with it.
- Along with rice bran oil, a teaspoon of flax seed oil can be consumed daily.
- Alternatively 100 to 300 g of fish twice a week could be consumed to make up for the omega 3 fatty acid recommendations. Foods like fenugreek seeds, flax seeds, soybean, bajra and leafy vegetables could be judiciously consumed by vegetarians.
- Any oil should not be reused nor should it be used beyond its smoke point. Blended oils available in various brands may not help unless the smoke point of both oils is close enough or else at high temperature, the oil with lower smoke point may become toxic.
Regardless of the cooking oil chosen, no more than 20 - 25 g of visible fat (oil, ghee, butter, cream) should be consumed by an adult daily. All types of oils and fat are most caloric dense and should be consumed minimally for a healthy lifestyle.
