Today we have a wide range of cooking oils available. Although many of them have great health benefits, not all of them are healthy after they have been heated.
For high heat cooking, you need a stable oil that won’t oxidize or go rancid. When oils oxidize harmful free radicals are formed. When this happens those highly reactive free radicals can cause severe damage to your body.
Not All Fats Are Created Equally
There are 3 types of fatty acids found in most cooking oils, saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. The degree of saturation is the most important factor for the stability of cooking oils.
- Saturated fats: have single bonds, making them stable when exposed to heat and light. Oils with high percentages of saturated fats are therefore best for cooking.
- Monounsaturated fats have one double bond in their molecule. It’s those double bonds that make the fatty acids reactive and sensitive to heat and light. Although monounsaturated fatty acids contain a double bond they are still relatively stable, making them a fair choice for cooking.
- Polyunsaturated fats have 2 or more of those double bonds, making them the most reactive and sensitive to heat and light. These oils should never be used for cooking.
So, oils that contain high percentages of saturated and/or monounsaturated fats are far better than oils with a high percentage of polyunsaturated fats.
The 3 Best and Healthiest Oils
1. The Absolute Number One: Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is by far the healthiest and stable cooking oil on our planet. We cook nearly all our dishes with this heart healthy oil. Although the media may have said things differently, to be honest, they were paid by the corn and soy industry to give coconut oil a bad name. This oil is solid at room temperature and it lasts for months, if not years without going rancid.
FYI: Coconut oil contains 91.9% saturated fat, 6.2% monounsaturated fat, and 1.9 polyunsaturated fat.
Coconut oil should not be confused with palm oil though. Although palm oil is quite good for cooking (51.6% saturated, 38.7% monounsaturated, and 9.7% polyunsaturated) you shouldn’t use this oil as it is contributing to massive deforestation and animal killing. Check out my previous blog post to learn more.
ALSO READ: Refined Coconut Oil vs Virgin Coconut Oil
2. Ghee or Clarified Butter
Although butter, just as coconut oil, received a bad name in the past due to its high levels of saturated fat, there is actually no reason to stay away from grass-fed, organic butter. Except if you’re a vegan of course, then coconut oil is your best choice.
Real butter contains vitamin A, E, and K and other great health-promoting nutrients. Although normal butter is not that bad at all, ghee or clarified butter is the best. Normal butter still contains sugars and proteins which can easily burn during high heat cooking.
Therefore clarified butter or ghee from grass-fed cows is the best option for you to choose. You can buy ghee readymade or try and make your own. It’s super easy, you’ll see! Click here for the tutorial.
FYI: Ghee contains 68% saturated fat, 28% monounsaturated fat, and 4% polyunsaturated fat.
Scroll down for more healthy oils and learn about which oils should be avoided to protect your health.
3. Olive Oil
Olive oil has been a staple in Mediterranean diets for ages. It’s well-known for its heart-boosting benefits. It raises the good cholesterol and lowers the amount of bad cholesterol. Although olive oil is low in saturated fats, it is still stable due to its high monounsaturated fatty acid content. Making it a fairly resistant to heat. Always opt for quality olive oil. It tastes better and has more nutrients and antioxidants. Store in a dark, cool and dry place to avoid the oil from going rancid.
FYI: Olive oil contains 14% saturated fat, 75% monounsaturated fat, and 11% polyunsaturated fat.
Oils that are great for salads, dressings, and other cold or low heat uses
- Fish oil
- Flax Oil
- Nut oils and peanut oil
Oils that should be avoided as they may induce the risk of several diseases
Industrial and highly processed seed and vegetable oils should be avoided as the plague. Not only for cooking, but you should avoid them altogether. Those oils can harm your health and have been wrongly considered heart-healthy by the media and many nutritional professionals. Studies link those types of oils to an increased risk of cancer, heart diseases, and Alzheimer’s.
Those oils include:
- Soybean Oil
- Corn Oil
- Cottonseed Oil
- Canola Oil
- Rapeseed Oil
- Sunflower Oil
- Sesame Oil
- Grapeseed Oil
- Safflower Oil
- Rice Bran Oil
What’s your favorite cooking oil? Share your thought with us in the comment box below.
Thanks for reading. I hope this information was helpful. Until next time!
Amy Goodrich
Crazy cat lady, life and food lover, certified biologist, and holistic health coach.
great article thanks for sharing I use olive oil but I am going to try ghee.
You’re welcome. We use coconut oil for nearly all our dishes and ghee if we need a buttery flavor :-). Sometimes we even make coconut ghee https://eatlove.live/coconut-ghee/. It’s super easy.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Hi, I was wondering if you could explain why grapeseed oil is considered unhealthy? I have not heard it called unhealthy until reading it here. I’ve heard that olive oil is not good to cook with, due to it’s low smoke point. That’s actually why I’ve been using grapeseed oil instead. That, and because I believed it to be just as healthy as olive. I believe that they are processed the same why, no? Thank you for any insight.
…processed the same way, I meant to say.
Hi Kelly!
Grapeseed is an industrial processed, refined oil that is way too high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (over 70%). Grape seeds themselves don’t contain very much oil, so it requires the use of high-tech machinery and chemical solvents to extract the oil from the seeds (a bit like canola oil). It consists mostly out of polyunsaturated fats, so lots of unstable double bounds in their chemical structure. And although grapeseed oil has some great benefits I wouldn’t recommend cooking with this oil. Making olive oil is easy, you squeeze the olive and oil comes out. For seeds like grape seed, canola, soybean, corn or sunflower, when you push the kernel nothing happens without heavy machinery and chemical solvents.
Healthy human cell walls are comprised of fats and cholesterol. And very, very little polyunsaturated fat. When we have too much polyunsaturated fat compared to the saturated fat that’s supposed to make up the fat in our bodies, bad things happen from that imbalance. Things like: inflammation from free radical damage, oxidation of cholesterol, thyroid damage, lower metabolism, etc.
Grapseed oil’s relatively high smoke point of 420 degrees, the manufacturers claim that it is suitable for high-temperature frying and cooking. I’m not convinced. Because the smoke point of grapeseed oil is artificially high — grapeseed oil contains lots of phenols which are plant compounds that make it resistant to smoking. Phenols are protective, but much like polyunsaturated fatty acids themselves, they can only take so much. As the temperature rises, the phenols break down right along with the bonds of the fatty acid, and eventually allow the oil to smoke.
However, the polyunsaturated fats are still being oxidized and forming free radicals at lower temperatures than the smoke point. The phenols do not prevent this. Essentially, the smoke point is totally irrelevant in evaluating the effect of heat damage to the oil, and its subsequent health effects or safety.
Hope this explains it a bit.
Take care and enjoy your day!
Amy Goodrich
Your article on different edible oils is very good. However, you could differentiate between the not so good oils to give people some guidance who may only have access to those not-so-good oils. Cotton for example is one of the most highly sprayed crops on the globe, and its seed retains many poisons. Cottonseed oil and any other oil ‘blended’ with it should be avoided like a plague.
Sunflower seed on the other hand is encased by a hard shell which makes the seed itself relatively impervious to poisons, and the crop is not sprayed, or not nearly as much as cotton. Pure Sunflower oil is thus preferable to cottonseed oil and ‘blended oils.
Soybeans can be grown organically, and, if the beans are heated, an ordinary oil-press can push out a reasonable oil.
I would ask you to research this issue of the better of the worse oils, and that you share that information with us your readers.
Thanks Rob for your tip. Will write a follow up article in the coming weeks. Merry Xmas and a healthy and happy new year.
How about avocado oil?
Another great and healthy oil for high-heat cooking. Thanks for the addition Stacy!
We have also been informed that coldpressed extra virgin rapeseed oil is excellent for high heat cooking and very good for you. It’s grown organically in the uk, what do you think of this?
Hi Sharon, Rapeseed or canola oil is not one of the healthiest oils out there. In 1956 the FDA banned rapeseed oil because it contained toxic erucic acid . Canadians growers then bred a new variety and called it canola oil (the name comes from “Canadian oil, low acid”) to convince consumers that this oil was safe to use. Canola oil is rich in omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids or PUFA. Scientific evidence shows that this has counterproductive effects if consumed in large amounts. According to research, not only rapeseed or canola oil, but all polyunsaturated vegetable oils are subjected to high levels of rancidity (due to unstable double bounds in their molecular structure), they force the body to require more vitamin E and other types of antioxidants. Use of vegetable oils in excessive amounts can cause liver and reproductive organ damage that can ultimately lead to cancer.
To add one oil to the list, avocado oil is also quite good for high heat cooking, but coconut oil is still the best. Hope this helps. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Hi, I have been using extra virgin cold pressed olive oil for pretty much everything but I am let to believe that I should not use it for cooking. Are you saying that this is incorrect and that the use of this oil for frying or baking is actually ok?
Hi Michelle, you can use extra virgin olive oil for most cooking, baking and even for frying (just make sure to keep an eye on it and do not let it burn when heating the pan/pot, you can tell that you burned the oil by the blue smoke that comes from the oil). When heated, olive oil is a very stable fat (thanks to its antioxidants and stable chemical structure), which means it can tolerate high frying temperatures. Its high smoke point 410ºF or 210ºC is well above the ideal temperature for frying food 356ºF or 180ºC. If you purchase the best quality the smoke point can even go up by 70ºF or 20ºC. The olive oils with the highest levels of antioxidants, and therefore the most heat resistant to high-heat cooking or frying, are high-quality extra virgin olive oils. Unfortunately, many olive oils available in the market are adulterated and mislabeled extra virgin olive oils.
Saturated fats such as coconut oil are still the best choice for high heat cooking, but we should not fear to cook with high-quality olive oil. However, keep in mind if you have a gas stove that is suitable for woking above the standard temperatures, the oil can go above its smoke point. So better use coconut oil instead. It can also be used for roasting as we normally roast at temperatures that are not more than (400ºF) 200ºC.
Hope this helps! Thanks for the question! I might turn it into a separate article as there seems to be a lot of confusion about the use of olive oil.
Can you comment on macadamia oil?
Macadamia oil can also be used for frying oil. It has a smoke point of 413 degrees F (210 C). It contains up to 85% monounsaturated fats and has a shelf life of around 2 years. It is good for stir fries, searing, baking or deep frying.