Pristine, calming, beautiful, almost ethereal is how I feel about the cold climate. There is something amazing about winters, we slow down our paces, yet we enjoy the simplicity, the humbleness of it all. The grandeur of snow-capped peaks, the warmth of the fire, the comfort of quilts, the pleasure of cupping hot tea/coffee, just enjoying the company. I love all seasons but I might be partial to winters. I just feel better, and you may not feel the same about the cold weather and that’s fine. But somethings are definitely better colder than not. For instance, cold-pressed oil are totally a league above your standard refined oils.
Cold-pressed here refers to the same ideology as in the cold-pressed juices. So, the difference between cold-pressed oil and refined oil is how they are made. Refined oil as you may be aware is made by applying heat, adding chemicals to increase shelf life, and filtering the final product which is generally devoid of the nutrients or the original product value. Whereas cold-pressed means there is no heat involved, the oil is extracted by pressing the oilseed throughout the process, which leads to the oil retaining its nutritional value albeit the quantity would be lesser as compared to the other method.
Any oil can be cold-pressed or obtained as refined oil. But why should you choose the cold-pressed as opposed to refined is for the simple fact that natural or lesser processed is always better than the highly processed items. To elaborate it means:
- Owing to the cold processing, reports show that cold-pressed oil are rich in their nutritional value, unlike there counterpart. They maintain their antioxidants, have a good amount of oleic acid and vitamin E.
- This extraction method also ensures that your oil is chemical-free as much as possible. There is no mixing of any additional products in order to obtain the final refined oil. This means your health won’t be adversely impacted due to these factors.
- Additionally, it’s easier to identify the quality in cold-pressed, as they don’t just maintain their nutrition but also there aroma and taste, which will be prevalent in good quality oilseeds. Sadly refined oils are harder to judge as due to so much artificial processing they lose the naturalness.
Currently, coconut oil, olive oil, mustard oil, sesame oil are readily available as cold-pressed. The cautionary tale heeds that cold-pressed oil should not be used for high-temperature cooking, however, they are safe to use for our cooking. Just use them wisely.
In the end, I would just like to say that no matter how comfortable you are with something, or how precious something may seem, it’s always good to welcome the change. Often times it would reap you benefits beyond your imagination.