I know that this may be a dumb question since frying is typically bad for you....

I have really begun to like my 2-3 weekly lunches of flounder filet, sprayed with vegetable cooking oil, dipped in seasoned bread crumbs (lightly dipped) and fried quickly in olive oil.

I read somewhere that a tsp of olive oil a day will help with cholesterol levels, so is it better that I just suck down a tsp (I love the taste I really don't mind) or can I fry with it to get the same effect?

Also is too much olive oil bad for you too? I use it practically all of my cooking.

I doubt you are getting too much. I use it for everything--all my salad dressings and for cooking meats and vegetables. One of my favorites is red and green peppers and onions sauted in olive oil and then add small pieces of chicken breast or fish near the end of the cooking. The olive oil that remains in the pan is very tasty, great for dipping chunks of bread in.

So it doesn't seem so bad that I am using it for frying?

No, it is good for frying. It does lose a bit of its flavor when heated, so use a less expensive one. Never heat so much that it smokes, but olive oil can take a fairly high heat. It is about the healthiest oil you can use.

http://www.oliveoilsource.com/cooking_olive_oil.htm

I think it's a terrible (although delicious) way to make fish. THe breading soaks up so much of the oil that a high protein food like fish becomes instead a high fat meal.

Olive oil is good for you in the sense it's BETTER than saturated fat but it's not so good that it's better than baking or broiling the fish.

And if you want a real fright, just read the ingredients of the spray-on grease that you are using to get the breading to stick.

Live, I think that frying gets a bad rap sometimes because, if you use just a small amount of olive oil, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan, and cook the fish at the correct temperature, keep flipping it, etc., you aren't getting nearly the kind of fat that comes from deep frying, for instance. Also, use the new Mazola Pure to spray your fish. Since you use just a light bread crumb coating, I don't see why it isn't a perfectly good way to cook your fish. FYI, don't use the extra virgin variety of olive oil as it'll burn.

Frying food in any kind of fat is a higher calorie preparation method than those which do not involve added fat. However, if you fry something, by all means consider using olive oil since it has health benefits.

Frying food in any kind of fat is a higher calorie preparation method than those which do not involve added fat. However, if you fry something, by all means consider using olive oil since it has health benefits.

Just don't try to fry an egg in it, as I once did. It tasted pretty bad. Fish? Well, maybe that's another story, although I prefer fish either baked or broiled.

So far I hear only positive things about frying with olive oil. I must say I use alot of oil, not "just to coat". I just love the stuff. But from now on I will be less liberal with the olive oil.

Thanks for the replies!

And Olive Oil is an Monounsaturated fatty acid which is stable in high temps. Wont oxidize like the Polyunsaturated oils/fats. I even rub it all over my face and neck when out in the desert sun here. Supposenly Cleopatra used it externally for her beauty. Hmm.........

Olive Oil Rocks!!!!