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Peanut Oil vs Canola Oil: the Healthiest Cooking Oil

peanut oil vs canola oil

Why to compare peanut oil vs canola oil? Sometimes everyone face a dilemma what oil to buy in a store for everyday cooking: simply vegetable oil or peanut oil or canola oil or expensive olive one. Today we compare two of the cooking oils suitable for cooking all kinds of food and all recipes. We compare peanut oil vs canola oil.

Canola Oil

Canola oil is extracted from a cultivar of rapeseed, the canola plant, from its seeds to be exact. So canola oil is vegetable oil. It is basically fat and doesn’t contain any carbohydrates, sugars or protein. It can be expeller-pressed or chemically pressed. The majority of canola oil is extracted from genetically modified herbicide-resistant canola plants according to Wikipedia. You can also find organic canola oil. Read more what is canola oil.

Peanut Oil

Peanut oil is derived from peanuts. It has a lot of calories as well but it is healthy oil as its fat is mainly unsaturated fat. Peanut oil is very dangerous for people with nut allergies. That’s why it is not commonly used in food preparation, in cafes and restaurants.

 

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Peanut oil vs canola oil fat content

Peanut oil and canola oil are both rich in healthy unsaturated fatty acids and can be called healthy oils. Moreover, they are a better source of monounsaturated fatty acids than most of vegetable oils. Monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acids don’t increase cholesterol levels and are very beneficial for heart.  If we compare peanut oil vs canola oil we see that canola oil has the advantage possessing omega-3 fatty acids and lower amount of saturated fats. Find out canola oil benefits.

Peanut oilCanola oil
Serving Size1 Tbsp1 Tbsp
Calories119 kcal120 kcal
Saturated Fat2.3 g1.031 g
Omega-6 fat4.3 g2.8 g
Omega-3 fat1.4 g
Monounsaturated Fat6.2 g9g
Sodium0g0g
Fiber0g0g
Sugars0g0g
Protein0g0g

Smoke Point

Peanut oil comes out ahead of canola oil when it concerns a smoke point. The smoke point of oil is the temperature at which the oil smokes. It breaks down and accumulates trans fats. The omega-3 fat present in canola oil burn more quickly so canola oil has a smoke point lower than peanut oil has. However, the smoke point of canola oil 400°F is high enough to use canola oil even for frying as the average temperature needed for frying is 375°F. The smoke point of peanut oil is 437°F as we see in Wikipedia, so peanut oil is more preferable for very high temperature cooking. Peanut oil could be used for commercial food production but peanut is a strong and widespread allergen.

 

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Allergic reactions

If we compare peanut oil vs canola oil we shouldn’t forget about peanut oil allergenicity. Peanuts are considered such a strong allergen that they are not allowed for small children at all. Peanut oil is not used for babies’ nutrition either. Canola oil allergy is not widespread. The oil is believed to cause rare allergic reactions. They say that some people cannot tolerate canola oil and have the allergy symptoms but it seldom happens.