Rice Bran Oil....

I mentioned last week about Bob cooing with rice bran oil.  Here is some benefits of this new trend!  Not that we fry or cook this way often - it is good to know that we can make it healthier!

• Rice Bran Health Oil contains the right amount of oryzanol (antioxidant) to provide cholesterol lowering properties. It reduces cholesterol formation and absorption thus reducing blood cholesterol, also reducing blood clotting by retarding platelets aggregation (thus lowering possibility of heart attack) and increases cholesterol excretion thus reducing total cholesterol effectively.

• When you eat a low carbohydrate diet cooked in with rice Bran Health Oil, it also helps reduce triglycerides (a kind of blood fat), reduces the bad cholesterol (LDL) and improves the good cholesterol to bad cholesterol ratio (HDL/LDL) which is very important for heart health.
• Rice Bran Oil has a balanced fatty acid profile close to the World Health Organization (WHO), American heart association’s (AHA), the National institute of Nutrition (NIN) and the Indian Council of medical research (ICMR) recommendation.
• Rice Bran Oil has more antioxidants (like oryzanol, tocotrienol, tocopherol, squalene) as compared to other cooking oils. This essentially results in health benefits like :-

• Better Skin :-  Squalene softens the skin as it is a natural moisturizer . This effectively helps delay wrinkle formation and protects the skin from sun damage and maintains a healthy skin tone.
• Enhances the immune system :- Due to its high antioxidant content, it fights the free radicals that harm the immune system thereby protecting the body from disease. Besides benefiting the lipid profile, oryzanol also has anti dandruff and anti ageing properties.
• Helps prevent cancer :- Rice Bran Oil is rich in tocopherol and tocotrienols (vitamin  E) which are powerful antioxidants. These are anti-mutagenic elements that curb the cancer causing free radicals thereby reducing cancer risk. Until recent times the health aspects of Rice bran oil have not been adequately highlighted. It is important for people to know that rice bran oil has not only cholesterol lowering properties but also has anti viral, anti itching and anti cancer effects.
• Nervous system and endocrine health :- The antioxidants found in Rice Bran Oil also benefits the nervous system. Vitamin E helps improve neurological functioning and balances the endocrine hormones.

The best thing about Rice Bran Oil is that it retains antioxidant stability even at high temperatures. It has a high smoking point of 254°C. The usual frying temperatures are between 180°C- 190°C. Rice Bran Oil remains stable upto more than 250°C. So it has a high heat stability which is important when you are looking for a healthy cooking oil. High temperatures are known to produce mutagenic elements in edible oils as well as in the food that you cook in it. But this is not the case with Rice Bran Oil. It does not breakdown into toxic compound under high heat. Rice Bran Oil is less viscous so it does not stick to the food – which means that the food absorbs less oil which in turn reduces the oil content and the caloric value of the food making it healthier.

It is a known fact that food cooked at high temperatures absorbs less oil. Since Rice Bran Health Oil is heat stable, one can cook at high temperatures (if needed) without having to worry about decomposition of the oil. This allows less oil to be absorbed by the food. Thus making it lesser in calories and therefore beneficial for your waist line and health in general.