Yesterday, after the fireworks, we made a quick stop at a grocery store to pick up some cooking oil. It was sort of an unscheduled stop (a *scheduled* oil purchase usually gets done through SAM’s club) and since we didn’t have anything else on our shopping list, I just walked to the oil aisle and picked up a bottle of our regular cooking oil - canola oil (also known as rapeseed oil). As I was walking towards the checkout counter, tossing the bottle from hand to hand, I ran into a couple we are well acquainted with.
A casual conversation ensued and gradually drifted to the bottle of oil in my hand. Here is a summary of what followed next.
Me: Yeah.. just dropped by to pick up this.. canola oil.
[The husband and wife looked at each other and then both gave me a look that sort of screamed to me "man, you are really cheap".]
The Wife: You use canola oil !? We use only extra virgin olive oil for regular cooking [now with the "we are richer than you are" look].
Me: Oh.. why?
The Husband: Extra virgin olive oil is the best oil you can buy, also it is much healthier. It’s expensive, but we are OK with that.
Me: Really? .. I will think about it next time, thanks for the information.
From their tones and facial expressions, it sounded like they were trying to tell me: “We are rich - rich people use olive oil; you are poor - poor people use canola oil“.
Later, me and my wife discussed (bitched) about how they (the couple) consistently displayed a showy attitude towards other things in life (flashy car, clothes, electronics, etc). It was interesting (but not surprising) to see that olive oil has now been added to their boasting list. By the way, this must be the first time someone tried to impress me with olive oil - like it was a status symbol. 
A look at the typical price of extra virgin olive oil sort of makes it clear why some mindless people might consider it as a status symbol (price source):
Olive oil is typically five times more expensive than canola oil. People who subscribe to the “expensive always means good” ideology (and don’t know any better) easily fall for olive oil.
Also, the “much healthier” reason that the husband gave me is a complete hogwash. Much healthier than what? canola oil? I don’t think so. Here is the typical nutritional data that goes with these two oils.
[unsaturated fat is *healthier* than saturated fat]
Based on the nutritional data, canola oil seems to be slightly healthier than olive oil - in fact, it is probably the healthiest oil out there. There are numerous claims in favor of olive oil, but generally they are either unsubstantiated or are a result of some kind of an anti-canola propaganda (apparently there is a major oil-war between pro-canola and pro-olive oil folks). People should exercise caution in following such claims.
I am not saying extra virgin olive oil is bad, it has its own charms - you can eat it without cooking and it has a distinct flavor (unlike canola oil). So, if you want to argue in favor of extra virgin olive oil, do it with a valid reason (taste or recipe specific use). But, please don’t waste your money by mindlessly switching to olive oil for regular cooking just because your other rich friends do so… and please don’t try to impress people with that “I use only extra virgin olive oil” attitude (unless you are an Italian a Spaniard).
If you are among those people who have the olive oil attitude, here is some interesting reading for you.
- Truth about olive oil
- Olive oil-rich diets results in higher concentrations of LDL cholesterol (LDL cholesterol is the bad one)
And, if you think the cheaper canola oil is a health risk, then there is something for you too.
Outrageous (and generally unsubstantiated) anti-canola claims:
- Canola Oil: Deadly for Human Body
- Canola Oil: Danger
- Beware of Canola Oil - this one is hilarious.
Sources that counter anti-canola claims:
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One of the biggest differences between oils in cooking is that of their smoke point. If these fools are strictly using EVOO (sorry Rachael Ray)for everything, including higher temperature frying they are simply being idiots. Different oils should be used for different things.
You use olive oil when you will be doing gentle cooking, or no cooking at all. Great for salads, making dressings, adding to some pasta dishes, etc. But it isn’t that good for frying, at least not for extended periods of time at higher temperatures.
These people are obviously just blindly following dollar signs and repeated claims they hear in the news which you alluded to and probably have no idea about the culinary uses of oil.
And in regards to the canola oil claims, I’ve heard a little bit about that as well but I don’t buy it. If professional chefs use it, it is probably good enough for me. If people are scared by it, fine go use vegetable oil then, it’s no skin off my back!
I’m with you and Jeremy. EVOO is waste for cooking. It’s Extra Virgin for flavor which gets killed during normal cooking/saute-ing. At that point, most professional chefs will stick to regular olive oil.
Believe me, I love nothing better than to dip bread into extra fruity olive oil (mouth waters as I type that), but I save the really good stuff for it’s for. I cry at the thought of all that lovely oil being wasted by your acquaintances.
Always use the right oil for the right thing. Peanut oil is great for deep frying because it has a higher smoking point than olive oil. Sure it’s not as healthy as canola, but we’re not supposed to eat that much deep-fry anyway, right?
It’s funny when people try to use a screwdrive to hammer in a nail…
thats so stupid. I mean really, the oil does the same thing!
How can oil be a status symbol? its not like their wearing oil to work everyday… geez.
I agree with the first two commenters. Canola oil and olive oil (especially extra virgin) are for different purposes. We use canola oil for most frying purposes and olive oil for pasta, eating with bread, etc. I will admit that I am somewhat of an olive oil snob and will pay extra for bottles of “first cold pressed” EVOO, but that doesn’t stop me from buying the huge bottles of canola oil at Sam’s Club either.
But there’s no doubt in my mind that canola and EVOO are both very good for you (at least to the extent that 100% fat can be good for you). They both have high levels of unsaturated fat, especially monounsaturated fat.
v. interesting — i lived in spain for a while and bought into the hype of using olive oil (not extra virgin) for all cooking as a healthier alternative. as the expert said “oil is still oil.”
Hmmm. My roommate made me the man I am today who will only eat stuff cooked in olive oil (mainly because I have taken liking to its taste)
But I agree. Canola is good for health too. And we strictly use canola or vegetable oil for frying as OO is simply not good for that.
I’m with the other commenters– your friends only revealed themselves to be jackasses who know nothing about cooking!
This post is too funny! I love it.
I hope Rachel Ray reads it…lol. Great information. Good to know that cheap products can be good for you too.
Olive oil as a status symbol? Oh Lord, that is entirely too much.
Translation: “Extra virgin olive oil for regular cooking is the best BS you can buy into, also it makes me feel better about the wife’s poor cooking. It’s expensive, but I’m an asshole so we’re okay with that.”
I’m surprised you still entertain those two couples if you dislike their behaviour so much. You should at least be able to choose who you speak with at a grocery store right?
I’ve never thought of olive oil as a status symbol. More like individual preference. At any rate, it’s nobody’s business what another person is buying.
Having said that, I do believe there is some evidence for health benefits of olive oil (that is raw olive oil, using it for cooking is a different story entirely).
One of the links in the original post was to the 2000 study that showed LDL increase (although the same study showed HDL increase as well), this randomised placebo controlled trial from September 2006 showed beneficial effect of olive oil on HDL and ratio:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=16954359&dopt=medline
as did this one: http://www.springerlink.com/content/yr4×2xykep0crnyt/
This study (also RCT and also relatively recent) showed lowering blood pressure in men:
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/137/1/84
Some other links - note they are all more recent than the study referenced in the post and all come from peer reviewed publications in medical journals:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4469370.stm
http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/summary/145/5/333 - from Annals of Internal Medicine
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/80/4/1012
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12615669&dopt=Citation
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15723739&dopt=Abstract — effect on arthritis
http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/annonc;16/3/359
http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/abstract/24/5/361 - look at conclusions, also reduction in 10 year heart desease risk in Results section
Here is a summary from drugs.com with references to studies:
http://www.drugs.com/npp/olive-oil.html
As to the “truth about olive oil” article referenced in the original post, it came from someone who is not an epidemiologist nor a medical doctor, and from a non profit organization promoting plant-based diet - hardly so it hardly carries more weight than all these peer reviewed articles from medical journals.
Having said that, all of it applies to raw olive oil, not heated. Interestingly, the summary from drugs.com has references showing the detrimental effect of heating, so whether there is a difference (and if there is one how big it is) of what one uses for cooking is not that clear.
Kitty: Thanks for the references. I read half of them and will go through the rest over the weekend. Raw extra virgin olive oil is OK - and there may be benefits in that (however, I still feel it’s a bit over-hyped), I won’t dispute that (for example, you can’t dip bread in any other oil except olive oil). Also, to say that it’s healthier than canola oil, requires a lot more data. Since canola is also rich in monosaturates (although to a slightly lesser extent than olive oil), almost the same benefits apply to Canola. OK, I am purely hand-waving now - I need to read into this subject a bit more. I will post more details about this on my health blog.
Cap: Lol.. the translation was awesome.
MoneyNing: It’s not like we “dislike” them entirely - it’s just this particularly irritating habit of showing off “how rich we are”. Otherwise they are OK to speak to and stuff.
Your other commenters got it right about different uses of oil and smoke point and health benefits.
Your friends are basically a case of people who do not really know what they are talking about just because they didn’t do the research. On the other hand, you can’t ever really do enough research to know everything, so every opinion will be relatively unsupported.
But really, how much are they ruining their lives by spending a couple of bucks extra on oil, which they probably only have to buy once a month or less?
Customers Revenge: Well, I don’t care if they are ruining their lives (or not), by spending a couple of bucks more on olive oil - I only care about the attitude they gave me because I use canola oil. Also, I gave some hints in the post about how this kind of attitude is spilling into other aspects of their life.
The health benefits of the olive oil cannot be ignored just like that. Take a look on how the people from Spain, Greek or Italy eat. Also, please read one of Michel Montignac’s books.
And Jeremy, regarding the “smoke point” I think you’re wrong. On contrary, the olive oil’s point is higher (about 200 celsius degree if I’m not mistaken) and thus it can keep its characteristics (many mono-unsaturates and low bad cholesterol) unchanged for many repetitive cookings.
IMHO canola oil is crap. Sunflower oil is at least much better. I come from Europe and I always can’t keep my weight in shape with canola. Sunflower oil helps a lot. It’s also a matter of metabolism i.e. it depends for how many years you got used with a certain type of oil.
Stefan: “Take a look on how the people from Spain, Greek or Italy eat.” - yeah, they don’t gulp down gallons of coca-cola, dozens of burgers, tons of fries and chips every month like we do. Attributing the entire Mediterranean region’s health to olive oil is stretching it a bit.
“Canola is crap” - that’s exactly what the “olive oil attitude” is about. Crap in what sense?
1. golbguru: “yeah, they don’t gulp down gallons of coca-cola, dozens of burgers, tons of fries and chips every month like we do. Attributing the entire Mediterranean region’s health to olive oil is stretching it a bit.”
Look, as I already mentioned, it hasn’t been a long time since I’m here in Canada (4 year), but I can tell you that I stay away of all the “products” you’ve just mentioned with all my possible will. And STILL, it’s very hard to achieve an equilibrium with your body. Why - simply because here, in north-america almost everything is super-refined. I stay away from sugar, white flours etc. It’s a conspiracy (my strictly personal opinion), the governments allow bad products for our health because they are backed up by the greedy companies.
For me, here it became a silent fight with this crazy system. In my country of origin, for God sake, I never had to stay away of sugar, good cakes, potatoes etc. HERE it’s enought to taste it and get fat.
And IMHO in northamerica the calories-based diets concept or the idea that our body is like a “presure boiler” for which we must burn the additional pressure created - by doing sport IS A STUPIDITY. I warmly recommend Michel Montignac’s book. To me he’s the only guy who took the diet problem from a practical, engineering approach. Why his method succeeded on me? Instead of doing sports I can use my time wisely. And for people doing sports - perhaps you can achieve the same results by doing some hard housework, it’s more useful.
2. goldbguru: “Crap in what sense?”
In the sense that it’s crap for me, or/and comparing to the other available oils.
You won’t believe it, but my opinion on canola oil was formulated BEFORE even knowing some details about this “plant”. I was simply feeling badly on me. And, after visiting those interesting links posted in this web log (thank you for that!) I was SHOCKED! NOW I find out that it’s not even a normal plant and this stuff is a variant of rape oil !! For God sake, what kind of chemicals is this cynical government feeding the people with?
No doubt why the incidence of cancer here is so high (1 in 4??)!!
When I need olive oil I get it at Big Lots, and it ends up being cheaper than canola oil there!
I’m going to sit next to Stefan and defend olive oil.
Not your grocery store friends and their behavior. I don’t care if you prefer canola oil and they prefer olive oil, and I think life is too short for either them to feel superior over their olive oil or you to feel superior for liking canola oil better.
But, simply put, I think olive oil is overall the best choice for eating. I think there are other acceptable oils, but olive oil really is the king of the lot! It’s not snobbery, it’s the way I was raised. In my family, it’s always been olive oil, generations before EVOO was the talk of the Food Network.
There are different grades of olive oil. Pick the EVOO for your bread dipping. Pick the lower grades for your cooking.
BTW, we fry food very infrequently. Fried food in general isn’t the best of food choices.
DB
Wow- you got so many comments for this EVOO posting. I agree that the other couple was completely wrong to get on your case for your purchase. However, I’m definitely on the EVOO bandwagon. It just tastes better than other oils. My husband is Italian so that’s all we use. He does try to buy a less expensive EVOO for cooking though.
first of all, forgot Italy. The house of the olive oil is Spain. Andalusia is the most important region of the world in this, and u can find it in the south of Spain.
With a humour touch:
http://www.mgscomm.com/site/tv/OliveGiovanni.mpg
And if you want be forever the country with more hearth attacks and diseases and a horrible way of feeding… don´t read things like that:
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/167/11/1195?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=oil+olive&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
take care!
Based on the numbers you provide, olive oil has more monounsaturated fat and less polyunsatured fat. From my own experience my cholesterol numbers were much better when I was using primarily olive oil.
Crisco canola oil? Heck, I just buy the store brand oil!
I recently found your blog and have added you to my bloglines account. Love it!
I loved this article about “EVOO”, one day one of my frnds, supposed to be doing better in their life financially, comes up to me for no reason sayin she uses only olive oil, and her husband woudn’t let her cook with any other oil, we are Indians and use oil for almost any cooking, we do not use oil in the raw, I guess this article must be brought to their notice
I’s not abt the “canola is crap” or “olive oil is better” attitute but rather the compulsion for people to conform to the norms of the rich people or whatever.
I *always* buy canola oil, because I compared canola and olive oils before buying– I personally think that they are more or less the same regarding nutrition info, but I prefer canola to olive oil mainly because of the price and because the flavor of canola oil doesn’t dominate food cooked with it, unlike that of olive oil.
Those people should definitely be bitched about. Why is it that success is always measured with the amount of money you have and the amount you are willing to spend on YOURSELF? I think it should be measured by how much you give and love and how good a person you are. Nice post.
I think a HUGE problem is that people confuse canola oil for corn oil. There is a misconception that canola oil is even bad for you.
One more thing, Thomas Keller and Eric Ripert, the two greatest chefs in the US, ubiquitously use canola oil because it imparts the least flavor on food. Olive oil can overwhelm.
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