Cooking with Olive oil

“Dear Vaidyaji,
Thank you for your illuminating newsletter and for your detailed replies to questions. I am recommending your blog and websites to everyone to comes to our Bhagavat Life cooking classes and events (www.bvtlife.com).
I would like to ask you two questions about oils:
1) Do you recommend cooking with olive oil? For example, in making Green Protein, adding it to a soup or dal in the beginning of the cooking. There are many opinions that olive oil (and most vegetable oils) have lower burning point and they oxidize and become toxic. On the other hand, I’ve heard that mixing it with water (as in soup) or with ghee protects it from burning. I am confused and beg for your expert opinion.
2) Is Pumpkin Seed Oil recommended to use, especially for men suffering from prostate disorder?
Thank you so much. I’ve been listening to recordings from the inaugural SVA conference in  August-very educational.
Yours in service,
Divya Alter
Bhagavat Life, New York City
www.bvtlife.com

Dear Divya: It is true that olive oil has a lower smoke point. This means it cannot handle high cooking heat, and that is why I always say that when you want to sauté something in olive oil, it is best to mix it in with some ghee (made from yogurt butter) or Mum’s Ghee. Otherwise, always add olive oil to your meal after having cooked it. If you want to cook with olive oil, then I always recommend that you add water as well along with the olive oil. I would personally recommend that you first cook your protein and vegetables in water, however, and then add the olive oil at the very last phase. This will ensure that the the fatty chains of olive oil are not broken, plus you will fully retain all the flavor of the oil.

As to what concerns the pumpkin seed oil, within the SVA tradition, it is known that the “prabhava” or post-digestive and post-absorption effect of the pumpkin is clogging. Although the pumpkin carries very many nutritients, it unfortunately is very heavy. And we know, through the SVA tradition, that we do not want, under any circumstance, to clog the physical or vibrational channels – they are our lifelines, connecting different parts of our physiology to each other, as well as our physiology to the universe we live in. This is why Ii personally will not recommend that oil for any one. Plus, in Ayurveda, we have so many other options for prostate health, such as: Kanchenar, Gokhru (Tribulus terrestris), Yasad or Zinc. These, when combined with a good SVA diet, will go much further than pumpkin seed oil ever would. For more specific guidelines may I also suggest you contact Dr Marianne Teitelbaum, who practices out of New Jersey, and will be able to help you.