I got a question the other day about cooking oils and it’s been asked a few times before, so I thought I’d answer. Keep in mind I’m a physician, not a chef, although I can wrangle pretty well at the stove.

The question was, “Which vegetable oil is the best to cook with and what’s the healthiest?”

The question is actually two questions and there are two answers.

First would be, “which is best to cook with?”

For that I would say peanut oil, although if you asked Mario Batali, there would be strong disagreement. Mario cooks everything in olive oil and having tasted his food a couple of times in New York, he makes a strong case. But personally, I prefer peanut oil.

I have a couple of reasons for this, which are as follows. Peanut oil can be heated to a higher temperature than olive oil and since I like to stir fry, this is important since that kind of cooking depends on high heat. I have been made aware that there are some olive oils that can be heated to quite a high temperature, but they generally are not available to the public. When something isn’t generally available, I don’t recommend getting it.

When you are frying something, the hotter the oil, the better. It seals the food quickly and the food doesn’t absorb as much oil. Peanut oil does a much better job of this than other oils, such as canola, sunflower and corn, and to my mind, it does not have any after taste. Of course…if you are frankly allergic, or peanut sensitive, you’re going to have to use something else.

Now…what’s the healthiest? You have to go with olive oil. Many studies on diet reflect that the European use of olive oil contributes to better diet. So it’s a tossup.

Here’s what to keep in mind, with regard to diet.

All vegetable oils contain 126 calories and 14 grams of fat per tablespoon. So just for the sake of argument, if you have a big salad and use 3 tablespoons of dressing, you have added 378 calories and 42 grams of fat. Over the long haul, that adds up to calories that you don’t need.

My advice about oil is to use it judiciously. You really don’t need as much as your eyes tell you is necessary and you can order salad dressings on the side. Then, try to get by using only half of what is provided. I personally don’t use fat free dressings, because they are usually loaded with sugar of some sort. That’s flat out worse for you overall, than is the oil, because it stimulates insulin secretion, which promotes fat in the body.

And you should be taking the King of Oils, which contains the omega-3 essential fatty acids (the good fats that you need), inside the softgel capsules of my Powerhouse Omega Formula. My pharmaceutical grade fish oil is the “grease” that keeps on giving, keeping your arteries in tip top shape, so that your engine gets all the good stuff you need to stay healthy, wealthy and wise:

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As that kid said in a cereal commercial a while back, “Hey Mikey…try it…you’ll like it.”

Yesterday, I became aware of a hot new diet program called “AFD.” Now, I don’t need it, because I’ve already lost 60 pounds the old fashioned way, by putting less food in my mouth than I used to, getting some daily exercise, and taking some of my own brand of supplements.

But you need not worry about these things yourself, because the new AFD Diet works, even if you don’t follow it. And what could be easier than that? (Hefting Jello shooters might come to mind.) This new diet is simply too good to be true.

In Week 1, you get to drench all your food in butter…or pork fat. It doesn’t matter what it is…it could be Cheeto’s dunked in pork fat…or an Elvis sandwich dunked in butter.

Now y’all remember the Elvis. It was a whole loaf of pullman bread, filled with peanut butter and jelly and then stuffed with a pound of bacon, which was then fried on the grill, on all sides, in butter. Elvis once flew his entire entourage to Denver, picked up 50 of the sandwiches and then flew back to Graceland.

In Week 2, you get giant pancakes and sausage biscuits, with any kind of hash you like, and they serve it on huge platters, with donuts to mop up everything. You can drink Cokes till the cows come home and there are candy bars to keep your energy levels up all the time.

In Week 3, you get Pizza any time you like and it’s none of that thin style Cali-Forn-Ya stuff. No sirreebob, it’s all Chicago style, deep dish extravaganza and there are at least 100 toppings, including foie gras and caviar. Beer is the beverage of the week and it comes in Oktoberfest mugs, which hold about a gallon.

In Week 4, it’s fried everything. You name it…if you can fry it…you can eat it. The highlight of the week is burgers from a joint in Memphis, where they deep fry your burgers in grease that hasn’t been changed in 80 some years. You just haven’t lived, until you’ve had one of these. The dessert highlight is fried Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. Any cheesecake they make can be fried in beer batter.

From Week 5 on, it’s just rinse and repeat. The extra weight you’ve been carrying will just fall off as you gorge yourself and sleep off each meal. By the end of Week 7 or 8, you should be down 30 pounds or so.

Some wiseacre just had to ask what AFD stood for.

April Fool’s Day.

Because we all know that no diet can be successful if you just keep doing what you’ve always done.

Losing weight…and getting fit and healthy, requires that you make some new lifestyle changes. I’ve always recommended you take one step at a time and gradually phase out the bad choices, in favor of good ones.

Then…before you know it…you have started losing unwanted poundage. And believe me, nobody really wants to carry around that extra flubber, in spite of protestations to the contrary.

Start by getting my pharmacuetical grade fish oil. Then start taking it. It will help you start moving the sludge in your bloodstream out the door. Then stop drinking soda, or eating snack food. Do one thing to help yourself every week and in three months, you’ll have dropped some weight, without a lot of effort.

Then keep going. And every once in a while, treat yourself to one of your old favorites. (Once in a month.) You’re going to get a surprise sometimes…some of that stuff just doesn’t taste that good, after you give it up.

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Just don’t let me catch you eating an Elvis sandwich.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more.

With my best wishes for your optimum health,

Dr. Bill

Old Benny Franklin once said that “people willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.” Now that the so-called “Health Care Reform Bill” has passed and been signed by the President, we are starting to find out what’s actually in the bill.

Remember that Pelosi, in an inadvertent slip about ten days ago said, “We need to pass the bill, so people can see what’s in it.”

Less than 20% of the esteemed 535 members of Congress actually read any part of the bill (with almost 90% of the readers being Republican), but yet they voted to trash the best medical system in the world, in favor of a philosophy that has been discredited in every place it has been tried.

They voted to make it mandatory for everyone in the United States to participate in their misguided and ultimately bankrupting system…except for the President and themselves. They get to keep what Obama labeled “Cadillac Plans.” They exempted themselves from the very coverage that they are telling us is a “moral imperative” (according to the Washington Post).

And true to form, they have started to demonize those with the courage to oppose the plan, because they actually think that the American people are stupid. (Don’t think so? Try watching Bill Maher on HBO…or Jon Stewart…it’s their mantra.) And the list wouldn’t be complete without the idiots at MSNBC, led by Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Chris “Tingle” Matthews.

So here are a few facts and there will be more coming out every day, as the Democrats actually have to show the legislation in it’s entirety, now that it has become law.

1)  Say you’re young, and don’t want health insurance. You are starting a small business and need to minimize expenses, and one way to do that is to forego health insurance. No way. You must pay $750 annually for the “privilege.”  (Section 1501)

2)  You are young and healthy and want to pay for insurance that reflects that status? No dice. You’ll have to pay for premiums that cover not only you, but also the guy who smokes three packs a day, drinks a gallon of whiskey and eats chicken fat off the floor.  (Section 2701)

3)  You would like to pay less in premiums, by buying insurance that has lifetime, or annual limits on coverage? No can do. Health insurers will be forbidden to write such a policy.  (Section 2711)

4)  Say you like a cheaper policy, because it doesn’t cover preventative care, or requires cost sharing? Nope, not allowed.  (Section 2712)

5)  Say you’re an employer and you would like to offer coverage that doesn’t allow your employees’ slacker kids to stay on the policy until they’re 26?  Too bad.  (Section 2714)

6)  You’re a single guy without kids? How sad. You’re a woman who doesn’t want children. Tough luck. You will pay for all services, regardless of status.  (Section 1302)

7)  You don’t drink? Your policy must cover substance abuse.  (Section 1302)

8)  You’re an employer in the small group insurance market and want to offer a high deductible policy for lower premiums?  Not going to happen.  (Section 1302)

9)  If you want cosmetic surgery for any reason…say breast reconstruction because of cancer surgery. You’ll now be taxed an additional 5%.  (Section 9017)

10) You’ll have to pay an additional 3.8% tax if you make over $250,000 as a couple and $200,000 if you’re single.  (Section 1402)

This is just the tip of the iceberg, because the bill has 2700 pages and it will take experts months to ferret out all the things Obama, Pelosi and Reid didn’t want to tell anyone… and with very good reason.

It all boils down to a very simple fact. The government can’t run the Post Office well, and nobody’s health is at stake there. The Veteran’s Hospitals are among the worst in the country. If you really want a look at government healthcare, go take a look at how they’re run. That is how your hospital will run in the future.

We now have a moral imperative to take care of ourselves.

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We can only hope that this horrible bill can be repealed, or declared unconstitutional.

And by the way, in the immigration bill being designed at this moment. 12 million more people will be added to the numbers. Health Reform was never about health care. It was about buying Democratic votes in the next election from illegal immigrants, who will be voter eligible.

I’m going to live another 38 years, just out of spite. I want to be here in 10 years, when there has not been a nickel saved, much less $138 billion. I want to be here, just to say, “I told you so” when this piece of crap collapses under its own weight, when people are standing in line for hours to see a doctor and when mortality rates go up, like they have in other countries that have adopted this heresy.

That’s the Obama Legacy. Right under his picture should be a note that says, “I destroyed the best health care system in the world.”

I’ll be back tomorrow with more.

With my best wishes for your optimum health,

Dr. Bill