Last night I heated some extra virgin olive oil and fried chopped potatoes, onion and asparagus. After a few moments I tossed in some spinach leaves and chopped tomato, then poured over beaten eggs. A sprinkle of cheese and a light grill to brown the top and voila – yummy frittata for an easy Sunday evening meal. The big question is have I increased my risk of getting cancer by frying in olive oil?

“Exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke or going outside without sun-block is much more likely to cause cancer than burning your cooking oil,” writes fats and oils expert, Laurence Eyres, in the October/November issue of Food New Zealand – the official journal of the NZ Institute of Food Science and Technology. But what about all those cancer causing chemicals – polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – that are formed when we burn cooking oil? It’s true that when oil is repeatedly heated to its smoking point it will begin to accumulate cancer causing substances and lose its natural antioxidants. But who uses the same oil over and over again, especially when we’ve burnt it? We usually just heat and eat.

When researchers feed ‘severely heat-abused frying fats’ (more than we would ever do at home) to some poor experimental animals there are ‘very few deleterious effects’. In fact olive oil is especially stable because it is monounsaturated. Extra virgin olive oil is even better than a lower quality olive oil because it has more natural antioxidants to soak up nasty free radicals. And good news for those of us who love New Zealand extra virgin olive oil. Compared to overseas olive oils it has more antioxidants and a higher smoking point, so you can heat it hotter before it starts to burn.

Why is there such an epidemic of people wanting gluten free foods? It’s a question that’s bugged me for a while and I wanted well researched, science based answers from an expert in digestive system disorders. Clarice Hebblethwaite of Digestive Health Services in Christchurch, New Zealand is just such an expert so I was thrilled to be able to chat with her last week and get her four key reasons for society’s escalating digestive problems.

It’s fine to read the studies and learn the nutritional theory but what do people at the coal-face say? Beauty professionals see hundreds of people each year. Let’s see what have they noticed…

Susan Devonshire is a cosmetic therapies specialist who works alongside dermatologists at Auckland Dermatology. I asked her whether, during her 16 years in the industry, she had observed any special food or diet that people with great skin ate.

“Every week the glossy magazines tell us the latest magic food to keep us young and beautiful. But no-one wants to hear the truth: that it’s all about moderation –moderation doesn’t sell. In my practice, the people with the best skin do three things: they keep their skin care regime simple, wearing SPF30+ sunscreen every day – summer and winter; they eat a healthy, balanced diet – a bit of wine, a bit of chocolate but no extremes; and they manage stress, often by having some strong spiritual grounding in their personal lives. Beauty on the inside really does shine out through your skin.

I am more likely to see skin problems in people who work out a lot at the gym and eat protein bars and supplements rather than real food.”

Mark Irving – senior hairdresser at Kent Hairdressing, Takapuna, Auckland said, “I have noticed that the people with great hair eat a balanced healthy diet with enough protein and plenty of water to keep the scalp hydrated. Of all my clients over the past 17 years the ones with the worst hair have been those on extreme, strict diets and some vegetarians.”

My related articles:

8 Foods for healthy skin, hair and nails – Part 1

8 Foods for healthy skin, hair and nails – Part 2