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Pumpkin seed oil is healthy. However, only if you do not heat the cooking oil. We explain to you what effects heating has on the oil and thus also on your health.
This is why you should not heat pumpkin seed oil
One of the most important components of pumpkin seed oil is unsaturated fatty acids, which are essential for our health. Pumpkin seed oil contains around 45 percent of these.
- As good as unsaturated fatty acids are for our health, they have a major disadvantage in the kitchen.
- The higher the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids in an oil, the quicker it reaches the so-called smoke point.
- When the pumpkin seed oil reaches the smoke point, the toxic acrolein develops. Acrolein is suspected of causing cancer, among other things, which is why scientists have been warning about it for years.
- You can easily recognise the smoke point when thick clouds of smoke come out of the pan. If this happens, remove the pan from the cooker and dispose of the oil as soon as it has cooled down
- Heating pumpkin seed oil not only causes it to lose its distinctive flavour. The cooking oil also has a fairly low smoke point; it is just 120 degrees.
- For this reason, the healthy pumpkin seed oil is much more suitable for cold cooking. In salads it can unfold its full flavour as well as its health-promoting effect.
