+1 (629)348-3199Research Article - Archives in Food and Nutrition (2020) Volume 3, Issue 1
Healthy Aspects of Coconut, Sesame, Mustard and Groundnut oils
Edible oils are related directly to the health aspects of all the people .Edible oils have significant role in diet all around the world especially in India as Indian culture is based on idealism of well beings of all creatures of the earth. The chief contribution of fats and other lipids to the diet is their energy value and also satiety value. Fats are also acts as solvents and source for the fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, K and pro vitamin A, the carotene. Fats and other lipids also contribute essential fatty acids to the diet which body cannot synthesize. Lipids play roles in energy metabolism, as membrane constituents, thermal insulators and biological regulators. The production of natural and real oil seeds (which contains more than 40-75% oil content) may also contribute to the wellbeing of the people in the world through generating the employment to small farmers, small scale oil expellers and livelihood of consumers. Literature survey also reveals that traditional and natural edible oils like coconut, mustard, groundnut and sesame are being used in cooking vegetables, deep frying and for storage purposes as pickles from a long time worldwide especially in eastern countries like India, China and Japan. The virgin oil has been extracted through eco-friendly, cold pressing technique called ‘Ghani’, which extract the oil from seed at very low speed (which is an important factor to preserve the natural quality, components, specific color, flavor and odor of the oil) at room temperature between 25- 400C. The oil extracted through natural oil seeds of good quality with cold pressing techniques is fresh, healthy, pure, and rich in antioxidants and vitamins. These oils are more nutritious having essential fatty acids, vitamins, tocopherol, phytosterols etc., serve better to provide maximum energy for which oils have been consumed by humans .They may easily assimilated and digested in human body and provide many benefits without causing any harmful effect on health. According to literature of ancient Ayurveda, sesame oil is the best for edible purposes and which has been used as dressing oil on freshly cooked traditional food items made by regional food grains which are very nutritious in all means, though mustard, groundnut and coconut oils are not only healthy but possess medicinal properties as well whereas Safflower oil is said to be worst for eaten as an oil.
Author(s): Rashmi Sharma and Shekhar Kanwaria