Slipping through our fingers

The edible oils market is a mess. Mislabelling is common, as are outright lies about process and provenance. And extra virgin is not the virtue you think it is

- VIR SANGHVI

While most of us are concerned about the contamination of food, and by the effect of Ultra Processed Foods (UPFS) on our bodies, there is one area where we don't bother too much about what we are consuming.

That area is edible oil.

We were told, a couple of decades or so ago, that we needed to reduce our intake of saturated fats (ghee, butter etc.) and to focus on unsaturated fats (olive oil, sunflower oil etc).

The orthodoxy has changed somewhat in the last few years. Butter and ghee are not necessarily bad for you and oils like coconut oil, which are high in saturated fats are being touted as miracle foods.

No matter which fat or oil you use, saturated or unsaturated, there is however one factor we hardly ever consider: How pure and uncontaminated is it?

Examine its provenance and the way in which it is extracted. If it is subjected to innumerable industrial processes, you are consuming an Ultra Processed Food and harming your health, while imagining that you are doing your heart a favour.

Back in 2012, when the packaged food industry was spending crores promoting imported olive oil, I wrote a piece about the various scams that olive oil was associated with.

There was the extra virgin oil scam. Extra virgin olive oil is a great product and you should use it whenever you can. But it is hard to find. Much of the oil labelled as extra virgin oil is actually cheaper, inferior oil that is falsely branded.