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Is it healthy to fry with olive oil, and what happens when you raise its temperature?

Is it healthy to fry with olive oil, and what happens when you raise its temperature?  

Well, you changed your diet to a more healthy one, but you can't give up fried foods, and I thought of using olive oil instead of corn oil or sunflower oil, but does using it for frying still give us the same nutritional benefits, or could it harm us?  

When we reconsider our eating habits and try to implement a healthy system, we often look for alternatives to frying oil, and the first choice may fall on olive oil, given the health benefits it contains, but is it healthy to fry with olive oil, and what exactly happens to olive oil when it rises? Its temperature reaches a boiling point, and is it still healthy or may cause some harm?

Why are people worried about frying in olive oil?

But this brings us to the question: Is it healthy to fry in olive oil? In other words, does raising the temperature of olive oil to a boil not affect its components? 


Since the goal of frying is to create a crispy surface on the outside of the vegetables, while allowing the heat to transfer within them until they are cooked, we often need to get the oil temperature between 177°C to 188°C before putting in the food.

Therefore, some people worry that exposing the oil to high temperatures will damage its healthy components, and this is somewhat true, but it applies to oils that contain a high percentage of polyunsaturated fats, including most vegetable oils, such as soybean oil and canola oil.

Rather, its high temperature may form harmful compounds such as aldehydes and lipid peroxides, which may cause cancer.  Studies  recorded in  the US National Library of Medicine and the site specialized in scientific topics,  ScienceDirect , have linked inhalation of these compounds with lung cancer.

Therefore, nutrition experts always recommend using oils that remain stable when heated, that is, their compounds do not decompose when the temperature is raised, in addition to the important characteristic of any frying oil, which is that it does not oxidize when interacting with oxygen and does not release smoke, which applies to olive oil.

Another focal point of frying oils is that they do not contain a high percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are highly sensitive to heat (found in soybean and canola oils), and that they consist of heat-resistant monounsaturated fats or saturated fats, which make up a percentage of 87% of olive oil compounds (olive oil 73% monounsaturated fats, 14% saturated fats, and 11% polyunsaturated fats).

Rather, virgin olive oil  contains a high percentage of powerful antioxidants, and vitamin E (vitamin E), a vitamin that acts as an antioxidant and provides natural protection from oxidative damage, but the immunity of olive oil against oxidation may not apply if it has been fried for more than 8 hours. . 

As for the appearance of smoke, it occurs when the fat particles disintegrate, or even when other compounds such as vitamins and antioxidants begin to burn, but this happens if the percentage of monounsaturated fatty acids is low, or under high temperatures between 190-207 degrees Celsius, that is, frying With olive oil under normal frying conditions, it will not burn or smoke, according to the American Chemical Society . This means that it is healthy to fry in olive oil. 

Frying with olive oil or boiling? 

To be direct, frying vegetables in olive oil is healthier than boiling them, according to a recent study cited by  Olive Oil Times.

Because when  vegetables  are boiled, you cannot retain the nutrients, but rather transfer most of them to the boiling water that you get rid of, but their stay in the vegetables means a greater chance for the body to absorb them, in addition to the additional benefits of olive oil, from healthy fatty acids, antioxidants and nutrients.

Tips before frying with olive oil

  • Like any other oil, do not put foods in olive oil before it is heated, so that foods do not absorb a lot of oil and remain soft without obtaining the required crunch.
  • Make sure to use plenty of olive oil in the pan to ensure that the food cooks evenly and does not burn.
  • Do not mix olive oil with other vegetable oils.
  • Do not use the fried oil more than 4 or 5 times.

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