Nutritional value of cold-pressed sunflower oil

Sunflower oil is the most used eating oil. One spoonful of cold pressed sunflower oil (13.6 g) contains120 calories, 14 gfatty acids, 0 gproteinsand 0 gcarbohydrates. There is 83% of oleic acid (monounsaturated omega 9 fatty acid) of the total fatty acids; 6.59% of linoleic acid (polyunsaturated omega 6 fatty acid) and 0,39% of α-linoleic acidALA (polyunsaturated omega 3 fatty acid). Of the saturated acids it mainly contains palmitic and stearic acid -3-4%andaround 1% of arachidonicacid. There is less than 1% of trans-fatty acids that affect the increase of HDL cholesterol, or bad cholesterol.

Sunflower oil contains resins, carotenoids, lecitin and tocopherols (vitamin E). Unlike other oils this one is rich in α-tocopherol up to 150 mg/kgand β-tocopherol up to 150 mg/kg. The concentration of vitamin E active components is up to 300 mg/kg.
Phytosterols are natural antioxidants present in sunflower oil. The concentration of phytosterols in cold pressed sunflower oil is 3000 up to 3500 mg/kg oil. The concentration of sitosterol is 1500 mg/kg oil up to 1800 mg/kg oil, of the ∆7-stigmastanol is 500/mg/kg oil, of the campesterol, stigmasterol, clerosterol and ∆7-avenasterol from 100 to 300 mg/kg while campestanol, campesterol, ∆5-avenasterol and ∆5,24-stigmastadienol have a concentration of 100mg/kg.

According to the latest research conducted on 242 lung cancer patients it has been determined that sunflower oil has an important role slowing the development of cancer (Ref. Nutritionandlungcancer: a casecontrolstudy in Iran, BMC Cancer. 2014 Nov 21;14:860. doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-14-860).