Why re-using cooking oil is deadly ByYinka Shokunbi Cookingoil can be from plant, animal, or synthetic fat used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking. It is also used in food preparation and flavouring that doesn’t involve heat, such as salad dressings. However, it is common place in many homes to use cooking oil and then store for re-use at another time. Health and Nutrition experts have described the act as deadly and bad for healthy living because it contributes immensely to increasing rate of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in the country. Speaking at a Health and Nutrition Seminar organised by Nigeria Bottling Company, NBC, Consultant Nutrition Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma Edo State, Prof Ignatius Onimawo, noted, “a number of times the cooking oils sold in our markets are from animal fats and that is why you find about three quarter of oils in bottles solid and the rest liquid and constantly too, the sellers place the bottles in hot sun to avoid continued solid state to deceive buyers. “And unknown to the buyers that the oils are bad, it is bought, taken home and used to fry fish, plantain, yam, egg and kept back for re-use several times over. “The point is, due to poverty, when oil is re-used more than twice, severally for cooking, the long hydrocarbon chain becomes trans-fat which is very deadly to the heart”. According to Onimawo, “Trans-fat is more deadly than saturated fatty acids because it raises the ‘bad’ (LDL) cholesterol and lowers the ‘good’ (HDL) cholesterol”. He pointed out, “Although trans fats are edible but consumption of trans fats has shown to increase the risk of coronary heart disease in part by raising levels of the lipoprotein LDL (so-called ‘bad cholesterol’), lowering levels of the lipoprotein HDL (‘good cholesterol’), increasing triglycerides in the bloodstream and promoting systemic inflammation in the body. “That is why it is important for those who buyakaraby the road side to find out if the oil the woman uses is fresh or not or the one she has been using for several weeks”, he pointed. Onimawo warned that re-using any type of cooking oil more than twice should be considered as potential source for coronary heart diseases “and we are often unable to trace the source of the disease to what we consume when this happens”, he said.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 01:04:03 +0000
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