But merrily drizzling your olive oil into the pan for frying is not such a good idea as heat can cause a lot of damage. Hotplates are great for frying up steaks or eggs, but they are not good for oily fatty acids, which can be chemically altered by heat. Cooking oil or solid fats such as butter or hydrogenated coconut oil should be used for frying. They may be full of the much-frowned-upon saturated fats, but they are much more stable when exposed to heat. Fine oils are not only sensitive to heat, they also tend to capture free radicals from the air.
