What oil is the best oil?

Great question! I hope you don't mind if I sit here and wait for an answer with you!

I just bought Extra Virgin Olive Oil because that's what I was told was the best. I've also heard of sunflower oil, but I haven't tried it yet. There are so many different opinions on this subject.

Olive oil is always the best, but even with olive oil there are choices.
Extra virgin is the best. this is taken from the first pressing of the olives.
But I always go for light (this doesn't mean light on calories) it's a lighter color and flavor.

olive oil
cocunut oil
hemp oil

Personally I love the flavour of hemp oil

My wife likes to use Smart Balance, it's a combination of soybean and olive. It is also high in Omega 3 and is supposed to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

Here's the nutritional info for one tablespoon of oil.



Oil Calories Total (g) Saturated Fat (g)
Almond oil 120 14 1
Avocado oil 124 14 1.6
Canola oil 120 14 1
Coconut oil 117 13.6 11.8
Corn oil 120 14 2
Cottonseed oil 119 14 3
Extra virgin olive oil 120 14 2
Flaxseed oil 120 13.6 1.3
Grapeseed oil 120 13.6 1.3
Hemp seed oil 126 14 1.5
Macadamia nut oil 120 14 2
Olive oil 119 13.5 1.9
Palm oil 120 13.6 6.7
Palm kernel oil 116 14 11
Peanut oil 119 13.5 2.3
Safflower oil 120 13.6 .8
Sesame oil 120 13.6 1.9
Soybean oil 120 13.6 2
Sunflower oil 120 13.6 1.8
Vegetable oil 124 14 .9
Walnut oil 120 14 1.5
Wheatgerm oil 120 13.6 2.6
Butter 102 11.5 7.3
Smart Balance Margarine 80 9 2.5


Some have a higher/lower smokepoint than others so may or may not be great for cooking certain foods...bottom line I think is personal preference...do you like the flavor of olive oil better than vegetasble oil..etc

I mostly use extra virgin olive oil in very small amounts (where most people use a tablespoon or two of oil per person being served, I use a half tablespoon for me AND my husband's portion). I would like to switch to sunflower oil but it's not readily available where I live, sadly. My husband also uses sesame oil when doing Asian cooking.

all oils are good oils except for the ones such as corn oil and vegetable oil.. basically if you come across an oil that has a name of a food that does not contain fat (like corn, and vegetables) then it usually means that its trans fat cuz it was created by heating at high temperatures in factories.

Regular olive oil actually has a high smoke point. Extra virgin olive oil isn't for cooking, it's for topping.

I use olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, safflower oil, and peanut oil.

If Omega 3's and 6's are bad for you, why are they encouraged for heart health and even turned into capsule form to be taken as a daily dietary supplement? I'm blasted with as much "MAKE SURE YOU GET OMEGA 3 IN YOUR DIET FOR YOUR HEART!!" as much as I'm blasted with messages about antioxidants, fiber, protein, whole grains, and not eating trans fat.

My comment wasn't to point a finger at omega 3's or 6's as being bad, because their not, their essential to life, but these fats are extremely fragile and oxidize (rancid and cause free radical damage within the body) immediately when exposed to LIGHT, HEAT AND OXYGEN and n:6's are consumed to extreme excess, hense the national programs to increase omega 3's to try and bring that balance back to a more normal healthy state.

Mother nature intended for us to get omega's within a certain balance and generally it's within a 1:1 to a 4:1 ratio of n:6 to n:3 but since the invention of refined vegetable oils to replace the heart stopping and killer saturated fat [insert scarcasm smilie] we've been consuming mostly omega 6's, which is not good for our well being and general health. So, instead of telling people that consuming vegetable oil may not be the best course of action and considering the business's that profits from these oils (corn and soy mostly) I don't think that should come as a big shock, plus someone would have to admit they were wrong recommending vegetable oil as the go to fats for the last 30 or 40 years, not going to happen and why we're seeing omega 3's in just about every product that mother nature never intened them to be in, that in its self should make people pause and think about the bigger picture. To make it even more comical, the omega 3's that are being put in these products are plant omega 3;s mostly from flax, which isn't converted very well and is pretty much a waste of time consuming them...omega 3's should be coming from marine creatures where we'll benefit from the EPA and DHA where no convertion within the body is neccessary.

Anyway, the heat from cooking has the potential to damage the fragile oils we cook with, and on a scale from 1 to 10 the longer the fatty acid chain the more suseptable they are to spoil, go rancid and oxidize and when we look at the length of any fatty acid chain the type of fat will dictate how fragile they will be when heated. For example coconut oil is mostly lauric acid a medium chain saturated fatty acid with no exposed electrons (spaces that are suseptable to light, heat and oxygen) and mother nature also provided coconut oil with some pretty important antifungal and antibacterial properties to protect the fat within the plant from the tropical conditions that would otherwise completely spoil and the reason we see almost no omega's in these tropical oils and also why natural saturated fat has very little omega's and good reason to cook with it, unless of course someone believes saturated fat is indeed the scourge of the nations health.

Omega 3's should come from marine creatures and omega 6's should come from green plants, the way mother nature inteneded and not from grains and grain oils that seems to make up a very large portion of the nations diet and another good reason to consume a more natural diet......not rocket science.

I've been doing a lot more cooking with plain old unsalted butter lately. Butter has stearin acid, another heart healthy saturated fat. Plus butter is much cheaper than coconut oil.