If there's one thing I have learnt from researching nutrition over the past 2 years, it's that every time you come across a piece of research, there's another piece that says the complete opposite thing. The study of nutrition is an incredibly confusing thing. It's hard enough for someone like me who is extremely well read and has professionals to speak to about theories. For the average mum looking for what's best for her kids, it's a minefield.

One question that pops up on a regular basis is what type of fat to cook with. The Heart Foundation will tell you that you should choose things like processed vegetable oil or margarine. On opposing sides, advocates of saturated fats like butter, ghee, lard and coconut oil are quick to point out that vegetable oil and margarine are processed fats and not tolerated well by the body. In this debate, I personally stand firmly on the side of the NO margarine and processed vegetable oils.

There's something interesting that sits in the middle though, yet there is debate on how you should use it. Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Virtually every food blogger, healthy living website & researcher around says that Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) is a healthy food to eat raw, but it should not be heated. Sarah Wilson says she'll use EVOO for cooking with low temperatures but not for frying, although there are recipes on her website with EVOO with the words "heat the olive oil over a medium-high heat...." which is a little contrary to her original comments.

Regardless, today I stumbled upon a post called 'Myth Buster: Olive Oil is One of the Safest Oils for Frying and Cooking" on the website Health Impact News (read it here).

The article states in part that there is no research to support the notion that EVOO shouldn't be heated. It also states that the antioxidants in olives are so powerful at resisting oxidisation due to heat that they are added to othe rcooking oils to make them stable at high heats. These two statements are the direct opposite of what I have been reading to date. The International Olive Oil Council provide information stating that the smoke point of EVOO is as high as 210ºC (frying is usually done around 180).

I will let you read the article yourself and you can make up your own mind. What do I do in my own kitchen? I mainly cook with coconut oil when frying, but there are some things that just don't taste nice cooked in coconut oil, and when this happens, I cook with EVOO.

I have pulled just a couple of piece of information from the article, but it appears to be well researched and has 7 sources of information listed at the rear of the article.

One of the most important things to remember is to keep some perspective and not to stress about every mouthful that goes in your mouth. Stress is more toxic to your body than most foods you will put in it.