The Healthiest Cooking Oil (And Which Ones to Avoid)

When cooking a delicious, healthy meal, it’s easy to focus on the main ingredients or spices you’ll use for flavor. But the oil you choose to cook with is an equally important factor.

Cooking oil is a dietary fat that’s as essential to preparing food as it is versatile. It allows you to cook and bake a variety of dishes and can be used to dress salads, make marinades, and more. Cooking oil also provides the necessary healthy fat you need to create balanced meals.

This article discusses the healthiest cooking oils, which ones to use when cooking certain foods, and two cooking oils to avoid.

What Makes Cooking Oil Healthy?

 

Healthy Fats

It may seem counterintuitive to cook healthy meals with fat, but the best cooking oils contain healthy fats, like monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

These unsaturated fats can improve cholesterol levels and may help lower disease risk. Your body does not need a lot of fat to be healthy, so when you include fat in your diet, you should make it count by consuming unsaturated fats.

What to Consider When Choosing Your Cooking Oil

Smoke Point

The smoke point of an oil is the temperature at which it will start to smoke, indicating that it is no longer stable. It is best not to cook with oil when heated to a temperature above its smoke point.

Oils with a low smoke point are better for drizzling on food or using in a salad dressing.

Refined vs. Unrefined

Refined oils are chemically extracted. They tend to be less expensive than unrefined and have higher smoke points. However, refined oils lose some of their nutrients during their extraction process.

Unrefined oils contain more nutrients but have lower smoke points. They also tend to have a shorter shelf life.

Cooking Spray vs. From a Bottle

Cooking spray tends to be of lesser quality than most bottled oils. Many of these products contain a mixture of oils and natural or artificial flavorings plus other ingredients like antifoaming agents and propellants.

Your best bet is to avoid anything that has added ingredients other than oil.

What is the Healthiest Cooking Oil?

 

Cooking Oils:

Avocado Oil

Avocado oil is an excellent source of monounsaturated fats. It is also high in oleic acid, which may help to lower cholesterol.

How to cook with it

Avocado oil has a very mild flavor, making it a good choice for both cooking and baking. It also has a high smoke point of 520°F, allowing you to use it for sautéing, roasting, and grilling. This oil is quite versatile and can also be used for dressings.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

This oil is rich in monounsaturated fat, phytonutrients, and even has some anti-inflammatory properties.

It is unrefined, meaning it has more nutrients, antioxidants, and heart-healthy fats than light olive oil. Rich in vitamin E, extra virgin olive oil has antioxidant properties and can also increase good cholesterol.

How to cook with it

Olive oil has a smoke point of about 350° F. It’s incredibly versatile for sautéing or baking up to 350°. It can also be used for dressings or to add a finishing touch to a dish.

Unrefined coconut oil

Unrefined coconut oil is a great natural source of MCT oil, which is a good source of energy and is more easily digested than other fatty acids. It has a smoke point of 350°F. It may also help promote the feeling of fullness.

While high in saturated fat, the amount recommended by GOLO isn’t significant enough to deter you from using it. It also has many alleged health benefits, including anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties.

Shopping for coconut oil can be confusing as there are a lot of choices on the shelves. You should avoid purchasing liquid coconut oil. This product is highly processed and has less of the important fatty acids that make coconut oil a healthy choice.

You can save money by skipping the Organic and Non-GMO labels. Although we usually recommend both organic and non-GMO, when possible, coconuts aren’t shown to have significant pesticide residue (so organic is not as important) and there are currently no known genetically modified coconut varieties so even if you see this on a label, don’t pay more for it!

Ghee (clarified butter)

Ghee is a type of clarified butter that has been simmered to remove water and milk solids, leaving behind pure butterfat. It’s naturally rich in fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K. Because the milk solids are removed, ghee is lactose-free and easier to digest for many people.

How to cook with it

Ghee is high in saturated fats that remain stable at high temperatures, giving it an impressive smoke point of around 485°F, which is much higher than butter’s spoke point of around 350°F. This makes ghee ideal for high-heat cooking methods such as sautéing, roasting, and stir-frying. 

Beef tallow and other animal fats

Traditional animal fats, including beef tallow, lard, and duck fat, have become popular recently due to their high smoke points and nutrient profiles.

Generally speaking, animal fats are minimally processed and have been used to cook for centuries. Beef tallow, in particular, is high in saturated and monounsaturated fats and contains fat-soluble vitamins. 

How to cook with it

Animal fats typically have a high smoke point of around 370 to 420 ° F, making them a great choice for frying, roasting, and searing. These fats add a savory depth of flavor, especially to vegetables and meats. 

Sesame oil

Sesame oil is an aromatic, flavorful oil with plenty of health benefits. Rich in antioxidants, it can help protect cells from oxidative stress. It contains both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which can keep you feeling full and support your metabolic health.

How to cook with it

There are two primary types of sesame oil: light and toasted. Light sesame oil has a relatively high smoke point of 410 ° F, making it suitable for sautéing, stir-frying, and roasting. 

Toasted sesame oil has a much lower smoke point and is best used as a finishing oil in marinades, dressings, or to add a rich, nutty flavor after cooking.

Walnut oil

Walnut oil is an unrefined oil with a rich, nutty flavor. It has a lower smoke point at 320° F, so it should not be used for most cooking, but adds an excellent flavor to salad dressings, sauces, or finished dishes.

This oil is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids that can reduce your risk of developing heart disease. It is also high in antioxidants that support healthy thyroid function, memory and can help lower blood sugar levels.

Flaxseed oil

Flaxseed oil is rich in healthy omega-3 fatty acids. It also contains alpha-linolenic acid, which may help lower blood pressure.

Flaxseed oil has a very low smoke point of 225°F, so while it’s not ideal for cooking, it’s great for dressings, dips, and smoothies.

Which Cooking Oils Should You Avoid?

Vegetable oil

Although it sounds healthy, this oil is anything but. Vegetable oil contains trans fats and very large amounts of biologically active fats called omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which contribute to inflammation when consumed in excess. Inflammation can damage cells and contribute to many serious health conditions.

Corn oil

Like vegetable oil, corn oil is also high in omega-6 fatty acids, which can cause inflammation. This oil also tends to be made with genetically modified corn and is highly refined

Canola oil

Canola oil is highly refined, meaning it goes through extensive processing that removes many of its natural nutrients. It also contains a high amount of omega-6 fatty acids, which can contribute to inflammation. Because of this, it’s not considered one of the healthiest oils for everyday cooking.

 

Sunflower oil

Sunflower oil is high in omega-6 fats and can become unstable when heated. This instability makes it more prone to oxidation, which reduces its nutritional. For these reasons, sunflower oil isn’t the best option for high-heat use.

 

Soybean oil

Soybean oil is one of the most commonly used processed seed oils and is typically extracted with high-heat methods that can lower its quality. It’s also high in omega-6 fatty acids, which makes it a less ideal choice for healthy cooking.

 

Safflower oil

Safflower oil is rich in omega-6 fats and tends to oxidize easily during cooking. This makes it less stable at high temperatures and limits its health benefits.

Not Just for Cooking

You don’t have to restrict your oil use to just cooking. Start using one of our healthy oil options for salads or drizzle them on bread or mozzarella and tomatoes. Not only does it add extra flavor to your meals, but it also has added health benefits.

Olive oil and avocado oil can increase the antioxidant content and enhance the absorption of antioxidants in a salad.

Make your own GOLO Salad Dressing and test some different healthy oils depending on your taste. 

Sources:

Information for this article was collected by the health and wellness experts at GOLO using the following sources:

heart.org

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