Safflower Oil – the fat that burns fat!
A highly polyunsaturated oil like Safflower oil in it’s expeller-pressed, natural state, is desirable for it’s ability to provide the raw material for the formation of prostaglandins. Prostaglandins are vital hormone-like compounds that strengthen cell membranes and regulate every function in the body at the molecular level. Safflower’s ability to help form prostaglandins is just one of its virtues.
Cis-linoleic acid, the omega-6 fatty acid in safflower oil is responsible for prostaglandin production and is a catalyst for burning brown fat. Brown fat is the inner body fat that surrounds vital organs and acts as a fat-burning factory, using calories for heat rather than storing them as white fat. During normal metabolism, cis-linoleic acid converts to GLA (gamma linolenic acid). GLA then stimulates the body’s brown fat into a flurry of calorie-burning activity. When brown fat is active on a regular basis, the body is best able to maintain its ideal weight.
Safflower oil is an oil expressed from the seeds of the safflower plant, a member of the sunflower family. Regular safflower oil, has a fatty acid profile of 79 percent polyunsaturates, 13 percent monounsaturates and just 8 percent saturated fats. Safflower oil is used mainly as a cooking oil, in salad dressing, and for the production of margarine.
Monounsaturated safflower oil is very shelf-stable, although it should still be stored in a cool dry place out of the light to prevent it from going rancid. It is odorless and colorless, with a very high smoking point which means that it can be used for deep frying and other high-heat cooking methods. Polyunsaturated safflower oil, which is also colorless and tasteless, needs to be handled much more carefully, because it goes rancid very easily. It should not be subjected to heat, and some people even recommend storing it in the fridge.
There are two distinct types of safflower oil, each with very different uses; Monounsaturated safflower oil and polyunsaturated safflower oil.
Monounsaturated safflower oil is high in oleic acid and is used as a heat-stable cooking oil. Like other products high in oleic acid, monounsaturated safflower oil is not terribly beneficial to human health.
Polyunsaturated safflower oil is high in linoleic acid and is used as a cold oil. This oil has a great deal of nutritional value, making it an excellent choice for dressings and other applications in which a cold carrier oil can be useful. Polyunsaturated oils are fragile. When exposed to heat, light or oxygen, they can quickly turn rancid and lose their ability to function.
In addition to being used in food production, safflower oil also appears as a medium for painting, and as a component in a wide variety of commercial products. Safflower oil is also used in painting in the place of linseed oil, particularly with white, as it does not have the yellow tint which linseed oil possesses. Traditionally, safflower crops were grown for their seeds, and used for colouring and flavouring foods, in medicines, and making red (carthamin) and yellow dyes.
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