This article comes from the journal Sciences et Avenir – La Recherche n ° 896 of October 2021.
Olive, hemp, avocado, soy. A sea of oils invades our cupboards, bringing new flavors and a touch of exoticism to our dishes, when previously, a single bottle of pale yellow content, for all uses and with a neutral flavor, dominated the kitchen. For more than 7000 years, in the Mediterranean basin, the fruit of the olive tree has been crushed to extract the oil. A source of energy, a main component of our cells and hormones, “fat” is essential for our body. According to the National Agency for Food Safety (ANSES), lipids should represent 35 to 40% of the energy intake provided by the diet, or 90 g per day for an adult knowing that a tablespoon of oil provides about 15 g. However, no oil has a perfect nutritional composition. Therefore, we must play with their complementarity and have several types to cover our daily needs.
They provide several types of fatty acids.
The most popular are polyunsaturated fatty acids, including alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) (or omega-3) and linoleic acid (or omega-6). They are said to be essential because the body does not know how to make them and must extract them from food, thereby thinning the blood, preventing cardiovascular disease, and fighting aging. Les huiles de noix et de colza en apportent de bonnes quantités (respectively 12 g / 100 g and 7.5 g / 100 g), et une cuillère à café d’huile de cameline suffit à couvrir nos besoins quotidiens en ALA (2 g /day). Grapeseed and sunflower oils are rich in omega-6 (63.7 g / 100 g and 56.3 g / 100 g respectively), but be careful not to abuse them because in excess, these fatty acids have an effect pro-inflammatory. Oleic acid (or omega-9), a monounsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) with neutral effects on health, is present in quantity in olive oils (75 g / 100 g of omega-9), hazelnut (72.7 g / 100 g), rapeseed (55.2 g / 100 g), avocado (50.3 g / 100 g). Saturated fatty acids are found in palm oils (49.3 g / 100) and copra (86.5 g / 100 g), according to the ANSES Ciqual nutritional table.