Although edible oils have had a bit of negative publicity over the past few years, they play an important role in helping us maintain our physical health and wellbeing. These oils, compared to other nutrients for our body are high in energy and are stored as a reserve supply. Oils play a key role for our body systems- they transport fat-soluble nutrients (Vitamin E, D) and they are key parts of the steroidal compounds that regulate our metabolism, development and integration in our body’s vital functions.

Health advocates recommend oils in our daily diet, but too many polyunsaturated vegetable oils like safflower, soybean and sunflower can result in oxidation and free radical damage to our bodies. Now, monounsaturated vegetable oils are better for you, and certain types, like fish oil, provide a higher level of protection and are more nutritious for our body.

Why it’s important to use organic oils?
It is worthwhile looking for organically certified oils to use in your kitchen for a number of reasons. When organisms are exposed to pollutants, we process and eliminate them according to metabolic capacity while what is left is stored in fatty tissue. After a while the fat-soluble metabolites of herbicides, pesticides and other plant agents are subject to build up within the plant oils.

If you purchase organic oils, it is the best way to ensure you are getting pure oil, since the yielding plants would have only had minimal exposure to these chemicals. Unless the label indicates, cooking oils extracted from intensive crops like canola, soybeans and corn are likely to have material from genetically modified stock.

If you purchase an oil with organic certification, it will give you assurance that the product contains only natural, unadulterated ingredients. If an oil is organic, it comes from well-nurtured soils with balanced nutrients, that support healthy plant growth- the kind required to produce premium quality oil yields.

As well as giving our body more nutrients, organic oil protects our crops and land. While commercial oil crops can deplete soils from high volume production and trace mineral and organic component absorption, organic oils do not. Synthetic fertilisers used with commercial oil crops lower the quality of oil and vitality in forthcoming crops.