Empowering adults and children to live healthier lives

The government takes on obesity in the UK

Earlier this week the UK government launched their latest policy on tackling obesity.

Entitled “Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives” it lays out the government plan to tackle the greatest long-term health challenges this country faces.

With a whole section of the policy looking at empowering everyone with the right information to make healthier choices, what role could cooking oil play in that?

Most kitchens in the UK will have at least one kind of cooking oil in the cupboard and those who cook from scratch regularly will see cooking oil as an essential item. This is backed up by research by Shopper Intelligence which shows that cooking oil is in the top 10 list of items shoppers don’t want to run out of.  Of the shoppers surveyed 83% agreed with the statement “I don’t want to run out of oils.”

What are the healthiest cooking oil choices?

Are shoppers aware of the nutritional values of their cooking oil and what the healthiest oil choices are?

Extra virgin olive oil and sunflower oil currently have the largest share of the UK cooking oils market.

This data shows that many people are cooking with olive oils which burn at a far lower temperature than rapeseed oil.  This can be unhealthy and impairs the taste of the food. Here at littleseed a huge part of our “Rapeseed Revolution campaign” is to help shoppers understand the different characteristics of different oils and hopefully switch their everyday oil to rapeseed oil which is more affordable and a healthier alternative to olive oil.

How do cooking oils compare?

So what are the facts and figures? When we are comparing the nutritional value of oils we compare the level of saturated fat.

Olive Oil – The level of saturated fat per 100ml ranges between 12g to 16g depending on brand

Sunflower Oil – The level of saturated fat per 100ml is between 10g to 11g

littleseed cold pressed British rapeseed oil - The level of saturated fat per 100ml is 6.3g

Not only does rapeseed oil have one of the lowest levels of saturated fat but it is also made up of predominantly monounsaturated fats (let’s call them the ‘good fats’) which promote healthy cholesterol. Our oil contains also less than 1% trans fats (yes, they’re the ‘bad fats’) because they can raise blood pressure, cholesterol levels and increase the risk of a heart attack.

littleseed cold pressed rapeseed oil also contains good levels of Omega 3, 6 and 9. Omega 3 is an essential fatty acid that cannot be made in the body. It helps regulate heart rhythm, very important for normal growth in children and it also helps prevent our blood from clotting.

Finally, our oil is also rich in Vitamin E – helping protect our DNA which promotes a healthy immune system.

So it’s easy to see how your choice of cooking oil can have a significant impact on tackling obesity and empowering adults and children to live healthier lives.