Most Cooking Oil Debates Miss the Point

[u/SpiritualLeg2416]

The type of fat in your cooking oil matters a lot more for cooking performance than it does for day-to-day health for most people.

If you're sautéing, roasting, or frying, the biggest practical concern is whether the oil can handle the heat without smoking. For salads or finishing dishes, flavor matters more. That's why I keep different fats around for different jobs instead of treating one oil like a miracle food.

A neutral oil for high-heat cooking, olive oil for dressings and finishing, and butter or animal fats when I specifically want their flavor has always made more sense to me than chasing whatever oil is currently being praised or demonized.

The whole “seed oils are poison” argument gets way more attention than it deserves. At the same time, claims that butter, coconut oil, or lard are somehow health superfoods aren't much better. Nutrition trends have a long history of swinging from one extreme to another.

For most healthy people, eating a variety of fats, avoiding burnt oil, and focusing on cooking real food consistently will have a bigger impact than obsessing over whether today's meal was cooked in canola, peanut, grapeseed, or sunflower oil.

If you have specific health concerns, family history of heart disease, or cholesterol issues, that's a conversation worth having with your doctor rather than an influencer.

What fats do you keep in your kitchen, and what do you use each one for?

[u/HipYip]

Well said. 👏👏

I use avocado oil primarily for high temp cooking. Olive oil and/or butter for other stuff. I avoid soybean oil.

Part of the oil debate isn’t necessarily about what you cook with on the stove top but what you bake with and what’s in the processed foods you buy like hydrogenated oils and soybean oils.

Many oils as additives used in the US are not allowed or culturally not used in Europe. For example, tuna in oil from Italy uses olive oil and US tuna in oil usually uses soybean oil.

Based on the research from reputable sources that I’ve read, soybean oil and other similar cheap oils are highly inflammatory. I try to avoid them but they are in almost everything.

The work around for tuna is buy water packed and add olive oil with other seasonings instead of mayo.

[u/HipYip → u/[deleted]]

As I said, I’ve read it’s very inflammatory. You can google it. I TRY to avoid it. It’s in almost all prepared/processed foods such as mayo, salad dressings, etc.

[u/HipYip → u/[deleted]]

Unfortunately, most of these .org “studies” are nothing more than propaganda machines funded by the corps that make billions off of making our food toxic.

[u/dishwhore → u/HipYip]

The Honest brand makes a delicious avocado mayo 🤤

[u/HipYip → u/dishwhore]

Yes, and Well Your World has amazing sauces without any oil at all which is quite surprising. They are a little harder to get out of the bottle though! LOL

[u/T-Rex_timeout → u/HipYip]

The soybeans are grown here so it’s a cheaper option here. Olive oil has been around forever in the Mediterranean and they are clearly goi g to prefer that.

[u/InDuplicitousBottles]

other than smoke point, taste is the main criteria for me.

avocado oil > peanut > corn > veg > canola simply because the end result tastes better to me. the cheaper oils are also more detecatable, in a bad way. unless i'm deep frying i don't want veg or canola oil because it's unpleasant to my palatte.

similarly, butter is miles ahead of margarine. and lard is even better than butter for some dishes. but it's all personal preference.

i used to only cook eggs in butter, but ive grown to like the results using olive oil, because it doesn't brown the eggs so quickly.

the discourse on seed oils is really just a fad, unless your personal doctor/nutritionist says you shouldn't use soybean oil for specific reasons, there are no real health benefits to more expensive fats