[wapapaloobop]

Not overheating food is another healthy eating rule. (Though try making french fries, bacon, pot roast, etc, w/o doing this. Not possible!)

Seriously, though, to address why people find it hard to follow such rules one has to look beyond nutrition and medicine. People don't just eat to fuel their bodies, they eat to fuel their minds i.e. for comfort and pleasure.

This is why (I think) that small amounts of caffeine and alcohol are good: for a given level of mental stimulation they reduce the amount of food needed. Reducing side effects from any one source reduces overall damage to the body.

How does one reduce one's overall level of self-stimulation? For want of a better word this is a spiritual problem. Having an objectively valuable purpose or problem to occupy the mind with is crucial, but perhaps there will remain 'ups' and 'downs'. Look to traditional religious teachings or the AA for advice. Which advice, again, is going to be mingled with falsehoods and irrationalities. Intermittent fasting is becoming fashionable and may be part of the solution; it certainly bring personal issues into vivid focus.

[norea-armozel]

I always ask when I think I'm hungry if I'm just bored. I know it seems like a silly thing to do but I found often when I'm really bored I just eat more just to do something I think. Not sure if this is objectively true in all cases even for me, but it seems to be helping me lose weight.

[transpy]

For me it works this way: when I think I'm sad/depressed I ask if I'm just hungry. I can easily forget to eat, and this has consequences for my state of mind. I need to reassure myself that I'm not depressed, I just need some nutrients. Then I eat and I find I'm no longer sad.

[Dolores12]

Anything involved heating up vegetable oils to high temperature is extremely dangerous, because oil releases carcinogens [0]. Preparing healthy food using heated oils sounds like nonsense to me.

[0] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11981884/Cooking...

[xviia]

The worst oils for cooking are the "healthiest" ones for adding to salads. For example, olive oil and avocado oil "burn" really easily and at a low temperature. On the other hand, butter and lard can survive the high heat better.

This is because poly- and mono-unsaturated fats had double bonds that oxidize rapidly. A free radical colliding with one of those double bonds will set off a chain reaction, resulting in rancidity.

In comparison, saturated fats have single bonds that do not oxidize as rapidly after a free radical challenge.

[firethief]

It's more complicated. Olive oil is high in antioxidants. A recent study found that no realistic cooking process would significantly oxidize the pufas in evoo because the antioxidants are pretty good at what they do.

[xviia]

This isn't wrong, assuming that you can get the real stuff. Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) has a higher smoke point and will survive cooking. Unfortunately, if you purchase olive oil in the US, there's a good chance that it's been processed, even if the label claims it's EVOO! A study by UC Davis found that 2/3 of oils labeled EVOO did NOT meet the standards.

The processing step that the fake oils use will degrade the antioxidant capacity that you'd get from real, cold-pressed oil.

So, in summary:

PUFA's go rancid easily in absence of antioxidants.

Pure EVOO, though PUFA, has antioxidants that protect it.

If you buy "EVOO" in the US, it has possibly undergone processing (despite the label!), which means that it will have lower antioxidative capacity

Wiki article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil#Adulteration

[threecheese]

Avocado oil has a very high smoke point (higher than most other cooking oils); are you saying that this is irrelevant, and that it oxidizes rapidly?

[mark_l_watson]

Right on! We eat a lot of 'stir fry' style foods, but simmer the veggies, and sometimes a little chicken or fish in vegetable broth and spices. Then we add healthy oils after the food is removed from the stove. I honestly think this style tastes as good as frying food in hot oil.