What are Cold Pressed Oils..?
Cold pressed oils are oils that are made using wood pressing technique at a low temperature of 35 deg celcius. Cold pressed oils made using wood pressing are called as wood pressed oils.
The machinery used for extracting oil is known as wooden churner or Ghani or kolhu or Chekku.
Wood pressed oils are a type of cold pressed oils but they are the best Or number one quality in cold pressed oils..
Let’s understand what are cold pressed oils and how they are different from refined oils.
Wood pressed oils (Cold Pressed Oils) are made using the ancient technique of wood pressing. In this method there is a wooden drum and a wood pestle.
Cold Pressed Oils can also be made on metal expeller machines. But in this blog we are mainly focusing on wood pressed oils.
Oil seeds (Groundnuts, sesame, almonds etc) are put in the wooden drum and pressed using a wooden pestle.
The drum rotates at a very slow speed of 14 rpm so the seeds are pressed at an ambient temperature of 37 deg Celcius.
Also since both drum and pestle are made of wood, it does not allow the temperature to rise.
Hence the oil that is extracted is truly cold pressed.
In ancient times, oil seeds used to be put in the drum and seeds were pressed by rotation of pestle using a bull. The pestle used to be tied to the bull and the bull used to move around the drum thus pressing the seeds to extract oil.
Today the bull is replaced by a electric motor but the principle remains the same as the drum rotates slowly at 14 rpm.
As the oils extracted using wooden churner are truly cold pressed and no heat is applied in the process, the nutrients in oil remain intact and hence these oils are very healthy to consume.
After oils are extracted they are filtered naturally using a sieve and left for settlement in a container for 4 to 5 days. Post this they are ready to consume.

Cold Pressed Oil
Remember that this process is completely natural and no chemicals or preservatives added during the process making these oils extremely beneficial for health.
Appearance wise cold pressed oils look dull and viscous. They have slight sedimentation at the bottom. They don’t look shiny. They do not have consistent colour. Each batch of oil may differ in colour as they are natural.
What are Refined Oils and how are they different from Cold Pressed Oils
The attractive oils that you see at the super markets which are shiny and cost cheap are nothing but refined oils.
Refined oils are made using solvent extraction process in which the oil is subjected to heating,
Refined oil manufacturing involves addition of acids, treating with solvents and alkali, heating the oil at higher temperatures and bleaching the oil to make them look attractive. Just by reading the above words you get an idea of how harmful this oil must be. Imagine seeing this process of refined oil manufacturing.
Also the important aspect of refined oils is that they are adulterated by mixing harmful oils like palm oil, cotton seed oil in equal quantity to make them cost effective. Palm oil contains high content saturated fats which causes the LDL or bad cholesterol to rise leading to heart diseases.
People buy refined oils as they cost cheaper. But you should understand why they are cheap. They are sold cheap since they are adulterated and contain harmful fillers.
On the contrary wood pressed or cold pressed oils are bit costly (I would not say they are costly but rightly priced) as they are pure and have no fillers. Just to understand why wood pressed oils are costly lets take an example of peanut oil.
For making one litre of peanut oil we need 2.5kg of peanuts so the cost of peanut oil is more then refined peanut oil.
But any thing that comes cheap is not always beneficial for health so switching to cold pressed oils is a better option to avoid health problems in the long run.
Lets Check what are the benefits of Cold Pressed Oils
Nutrient Rich
As cold pressed oils are made at lower temperatures and not subjected to heat hence they are rich in nutrients. As compared to this refined oils are subjected to higher temperatures while extraction which takes away all it’s nutrients.
Natural Oils
Cold pressed oils are natural oils and have no chemicals and preservatives added to them so they are completely natural. On the contrary refined oils are subjected to heating, bleaching, distillation, and hydrogenation hence making them extremely unhealthy.
Adulteration
Cold pressed oils are pure and have nothing mixed in them. Like sunflower oil will contain only oil made from sunflower seeds. Refined oils contain other oils like argemone oil cotton seed oil or oil mixed with them. Consumption of refined oil causes rise in level of trans fat in the body leading to heart ailments.
So next time whenever you see these shiny oils aka refined oils in the market, do not get attracted by them and stop their use immediately.
If you feel cold pressed oils are costly just think of the high hospital bills one needs to pay in the future due to the harm caused by these refined oils.
As they say COLD PRESSED OILS ARE NOT COSTLY, HOSPITAL BILLS ARE.
Hope this blog has helped you understand what are wood pressed oils and how they are different from refined oils. In further blogs we shall dive more deep into wood pressed oils.
0 Comments