Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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If I have a grassfed chuck roast in the crockpot on low all day, cook grassfed ground beef on the stovetop till it is all brown, or I I bake salmon in the oven till it is 140 degrees farenheit- have I pretty much oxidized all of the omega-3 fats by the time it is cooked?

flag	asked Aug 21 2011 at 5:22 the archer's daughter 61●3

FED at LiveCaveman.com · Answer 1 · 2011-08-21 18:00:53Z UTC

The short answer is "yes". The omega-3 fatty acids are highly unstable and susceptible to oxidation whether they are found in flax seeds, walnuts, eggs, or grass-fed steaks.

From what I understand, the fat soluble vitamins (E in particular) and saturated fat, naturally present animal products such as eggs and meat, do offer some protection against oxidation, but high-temperature cooking would still be a problem.

I cook all my eggs with the yolks runny and keep my steaks rare for this reason.

Making seafood ceviche-style (simply marinating raw seafood in a citrus based dressing) can also be a simply, tasty, and effective way to avoid concerns about oxidized o-3.

sarah-ann · Answer 2 · 2011-08-21 18:31:28Z UTC

I don't think they do so easily as fish contains selenium, a potent antioxidant.

Even if you deep fry in canola (eugh) most of the long chain omega 3's are intact:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/096399699390049O

And then you have the question. Is oxidised fish oil a bad thing? Can anyone show me there net harm by moderate consumption of oxidised omega 3? As far as I know it still does good things.

Jan · Answer 3 · 2011-08-21 06:32:34Z UTC

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Cooking meat and fish sous vide is a good idea. Protein is cooked under vacuum in low temperature. Lessens the chance of oxidation. I cook my salmon at 42c. and meats 52-55C.

answered Aug 21 2011 at 6:32

Jan
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Also those without sous vide equiptment (not expencive anymore btw) good way to cook salmon is to poach it completely in wine under broiler. The alcohol limits the cooking temperatature to 60C, which is perfect for poached fish. – Jan Aug 21 2011 at 9:05

chowhound.chow.com/topics/765985 – Jan Aug 21 2011 at 9:10

Jan, are you talking about DIY sous vide or is there a newer lower cost provider of the equipment ? – Ikco Aug 22 2011 at 9:50

freshmealssolutions.com/… This one is good. Its a PID controller. So you hook it to large and dummy rice cooker and done. You can use PID controller to control temperature of many different heaters. So its a real multitasker. It has an accurate thermocouple. So you could use it for fermenting stuff etc.... – Jan Aug 22 2011 at 10:31

Even cheaper - beer cooler sous vide: seriouseats.com/2010/04/… I've been doing this for months with steak and salmon. You fill a beer cooler with water at the temp you want to cook your meat at, and in the hour or so it takes for the meat to reach that temperature, the beer cooler keeps the water relatively constant. I still sear my steak after because I like the flavor, but you don't have to. – permiechickie Aug 22 2011 at 15:49

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The Quilt · Answer 4 · 2011-08-21 16:50:39Z UTC

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yes.....and they do when frozen too......but the real question is it clinically significant? that we dont know as yet as far as I know because it has not been studied.

answered Aug 21 2011 at 16:50

The Quilt
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you mean all PUFAs oxidate both when frozen or cooked? – Primordial Aug 21 2011 at 17:58

SERIOUSLY? This is depressing i freeze a lot of meat – The hacker formerly knownasron Aug 21 2011 at 22:39

Would you recommend people not freeze their meat? – The hacker formerly knownasron Aug 21 2011 at 22:40

Jan · Answer 5 · 2011-08-21 09:13:44Z UTC

Any everybody should own a good instant read thermometer like this: http://www.thermoworks.com/products/thermapen/splashproof_thermapen.html Or if you want to monitor temperatures outside oven, this one is good: http://www.thermoworks.com/products/handheld/TW8060.html

Takes all guesswork out from doneness. Dont mix up these with cheap thermometers. These work with thermocouple and are much faster and accurate than those cheap thermostat models.

So do the Omega-3 oils in Grassfed beef and Salmon degrade when they are cooked?

5 Answers