(Courtesy of De La Rosa) Times are changing and more and more people in the Jewish community are recognizing that it is important to be healthy, while remaining strictly kosher. This is the guiding light of De La Rosa Real Foods, whose mission is to “Put ‘Heavenly Sparks’ Back Into Food.”
De La Rosa CEO Yehudith Girshberg explained, “We are what we eat so what we eat matters.” She continued, “We work on the formulations of our products to make them as healthy as possible, using the fewest amount of ingredients and eliminating anything that we feel is potentially harmful.”
In particular, Girshberg would like to educate the public about oils—which are best for cooking, and which are best for flavoring.
The Cleveland Clinic explains that you cannot use one cooking oil for every type of cooking. We have all heard about saturated vs. unsaturated oils and oils that have Omega-3 vs. Omega-6, but what we haven’t discussed is the smoking point of the oil.
Oils have a “smoke point.” Oils are classified in smoke-point categories, such as high, medium-high, medium and no-heat. Some oils can’t take any heat, like flaxseed oil and wheat germ oil, and shouldn’t be subjected to heat at all. These are fabulous oils with many health benefits, but they should only be used for dips and dressings.
Some oils work best for cooking in low or medium heats and others can withstand high heats. It is important to use the correct kind of oil for the cooking method you are using to retain the health benefits of the oil.
Extra virgin olive oil is usually classified into the medium (to medium-high) category which means that it is great as a finishing oil and for salads but it is not a good oil to use for high-heat cooking. For deep frying, the USDA recommends that you use oils with the highest smoke points. These include grape-seed oil and avocado oil.
Heating an oil past its smoke point causes the oil to start to burn and break down, becoming dangerous to inhale and to ingest. De La Rosa’s grape-seed and avocado oils are not only safe to cook foods in because they don’t smoke, even up to 485 degrees or more, they are also heart healthy and they don’t add unwanted flavor to foods.
De La Rosa makes a genuine effort to provide organic products with as low a cost as possible, so that they are a real alternative for all consumers, not just the few who can afford them.
All De La Rosa Real Food & Vineyard products should be in your local store, but they are also conveniently available on Amazon.com. You can also contact De La Rosa at their offices by phone at 718-333-0333 or via email at [email protected]. Website: www.DeLaRosa613.com.
