To Your Health

Q. Recently I've seen certain oils like macadamia oil claiming to provide extra health benefits. What are the pros and cons of using macadamia oil?

A. It has not been very many years ago that people were advised to eat nuts only in moderation. This seemed to make perfect sense at the time because of the widespread notion that any dietary fat is an enemy of good health. We know now that certain dietary fats are essential to good health and that it is foolish to avoid eating nuts just because of their fat content. Recent studies have identified some of the potential benefits of consuming a reasonable amount of fat, including nuts, in a diet that emphasizes a variety of whole and wholesome foods.

For instance, many fruits and vegetables provide abundant amounts of the fat-soluble carotenoids such as alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lutein, and lycopene. These are important antioxidants that play a big role in the prevention of cancer, heart disease, and high blood pressure. A recent study compared the uptake of several of these carotenoids from a salad dressed with low-fat salad dressing to a salad dressed with normal salad dressing. A substantially greater absorption, roughly 4-to-10 fold, was observed when salads were consumed with normal dressing than with the reduced-fat salad dressing.

Nuts are high in fat but also provide certain fatty acids and other substances that may be beneficial in reducing the risk of coronary heart disease. Nuts contain potentially "heart-healthy" constituents, including phytosterols, tocopherols, and squalene. Macadamia nuts are 75% fat by weight, which would be worrisome except that most is monounsaturated fat. Diets high in monounsaturated fat from macadamia nuts have been shown to lower total blood cholesterol and raise HDL ("good") cholesterol as effectively as the Step 1 diet advocated by the American Heart Association.

Macadamia oil has several good things going for it. It has a high smoke point (about 400ºF), so it is ideal for stir-frying. It has a subtle, nutty flavor, especially tasty on popcorn. It contains about five times more vitamin E and more monounsaturated fat than olive oil but less polyunsaturated fat and about the same saturated fat. According to Dr. Fred Pescatore, the polyunsaturated fat helps you burn fat faster, increasing metabolism up to 10% and thus making weight loss easier.

Macadamia nuts have long been treasured in Hawaii and Australia as gourmet dessert nuts, eaten plain or dipped in chocolate. It is excellent oil for salad dressings or as a substitute for butter. It imparts a delightful buttery flavor to baked goods.

Allergic reactions to nuts are fairly frequent and can be life threatening. The nuts most commonly responsible for allergic reactions are those we eat most often: walnut, cashew, hazelnut, and almond (peanuts are not nuts, but legumes). Macadamia nuts are among those eaten less frequently and are seldom associated with allergies, which may make them more attractive to people prone to food allergy.

For most of us the only "con" for macadamia oil is price, about a dollar per ounce or about twice as expensive as extra virgin olive oil.