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Traditional oils vs synthetic oils in cooking


Real McCoy

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This is my experience seeing the transformation from traditional oils to synthetic oils such as sunflower oil, safflower oil etc while growing up. In Chennai even in my childhood, my mom used these oils and used sesame oil, coconut oil(not parachute :laugh: )were used on special occasions as they were costly. My aunt lived in Kanchipuram and when I go there for summer breaks, there were push carts that sold sesame and peanut oils according to quantity. That was supposed to be a new thing for them.

In earlier days, they had sesame seeds and peanuts and would grind them with a special hand operated device. That was considered to be laborious and some shops opened up where they had those devices and now they have special machines that could do it in a few minutes. It is available in Chennai also these days with consumer awareness picking up. The food always tasted better in Kanchi than Chennai

The synthetic oils were cheaper so people who were interested in savings used them. But is it really cheap when you consider the long term side effects it causes. My theory is anything manmade is trash no matter what you call it artificial, synthetic, use of "german" technology :lol: etc. I'm not an expert in economics but if people use a certain product more and more, it will become cheaper in the long run. Even if it is not cheap, it will prolong your life and live a disease free life. So why are these  synthetic oils cheaper. That's because they are created in a man made environment with no nutrition and also not good long term.

Marketing was created to sell a cheaper product as "german technology" product. What they do is subtly lie in a way that common public will believe it. So those in my extended family who are health conscious get all their ingredients as a whole product and grind them be it oils, turmeric, chilli powder, etc. Another thing I observed in the peta sponsored jallikattu ban is that peta itself sold milk at a premium when they were supposed to be vegans that don't consume milk. They have an agenda and we must resist such ideas being pushed and follow our own traditions. This may not be feasible to those living abroad but those who live in India must do something about it. Things are improving I must say. I use country sugar (brown) at home and its also available in saravana bhavan and some hotels.

There are two factors that must be followed. One - Don't ape the west. We need to get inferiority complex vis-a-vis the west out of the way and think clearly and follow traditions. Two - Don't believe marketing. They are paid huge sums not because they have your well being in their heart. They are here to promote something and in this case it may not be suitable for you.

@maniac @velu @Gollum @coffee_rules @Jimmy Cliff @Norman

 

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in our home we always used and still use peanut oil ( +rarely coconut oil for few food items ) ..

 

15/20 years back many families started using refined oil ( i think sunflower and palm oil ) and was heavily marketed as the healthier options vs peanut oil ( badmouthed as bad for health )  ..

funnily now groundnut oil is again getting popular as the healthier option and people .. :lol: 

 

same thing with butter .. people replaced ghee with vanaspathi/dalda  

 

 

 

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3 minutes ago, velu said:

in our home we always used and still use peanut oil ( +rarely coconut oil for few food items ) ..

 

15/20 years back many families started using refined oil ( i think sunflower and palm oil ) and was heavily marketed as the healthier options vs peanut oil ( badmouthed as bad for health )  ..

funnily now groundnut oil is again getting popular as the healthier option and people .. :lol: 

 

same thing with butter .. people replaced ghee with vanaspathi/dalda  

 

 

 

Ya I remember. those evil bast@rds. I failed to mention that in the OP. Yeah it was usually peanut oil for day to day cooking and sesame oil for special items like sweets and savories. dalda is :facepalm: my mom had this thing with dalda. she will complain when cooking itself. i was like if you dont want to use it use something else or leave it off. she would say it woudl add taste :rolleyes: marketing ads were in my moms brain

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4 minutes ago, Real McCoy said:

Ya I remember. those evil bast@rds. I failed to mention that in the OP. Yeah it was usually peanut oil for day to day cooking and sesame oil for special items like sweets and savories. dalda is :facepalm: my mom had this thing with dalda. she will complain when cooking itself. i was like if you dont want to use it use something else or leave it off. she would say it woudl add taste :rolleyes: marketing ads were in my moms brain

my mom was 100% anti Dalda she would avoid it like a rash..i remember it was a craze for chips and savories.

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3 minutes ago, Norman said:

 

You mean jaggery ? 

Like vilander said, it is unrefined sugar. refined sugar is man made in the industry and it is toxic in the long run. I was discussing oil with maniac but I guess we can discuss other things as well. like coffee said, ghee is key in our diet. Its not just about staying fit, but it also improves brain so that we don't fall for these marketing tricks :phehe:

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20 minutes ago, Real McCoy said:

There are other varieties of sugar or natural sweeteners. jaggery, palm jaggery which is from the palm tree, and some other things I forget

 

brown sugar is different from jaggery .. brown sugar is little bit more refined than jaggery 

palm jaggery is called karupatti .. probably better than sugarcane jaggery as well

 

palm candy is even more healtheir version of karupatti 

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17 minutes ago, Norman said:

A bit unrelated but I heard that the "refined" salt we get causes bone marrow cancer. 

 

Did the mistake of telling my mom that and she's punishing me with the pheeki sambar since then..:((

There is sea salt as an option you can use. we call it kalluppu roughly translated as rock salt. its not fine particles like refined salt. Anything refined is man made and comes using industry chemicals. Some people think Iodine in salt is a good thing. Why dont they eat iodine then. You should ask your mom to talk to elderly relatives from the country and ask them what salt they used. City people have the arrogance that they are somehow smarter than the country folks when the reverse is true.

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11 minutes ago, velu said:

 

brown sugar is different from jaggery .. brown sugar is little bit more refined than jaggery 

palm jaggery is called karupatti .. probably better than sugarcane jaggery as well

 

palm candy is even more healtheir version of karupatti 

You're preaching to the choir here. I know the diff between jaggery and brown sugar called naatu sarkarai. karupatti also goes by the name panavellam right. What is the tamil word for palm candy. Heard it somewhere but cant remember.

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