The 8 Most Unhealthy Vegetable Oils To Eat & Why This MD Avoids Them (2024)

FAQs

The 8 Most Unhealthy Vegetable Oils To Eat & Why This MD Avoids Them? ›

Not all fats or cooking oils are unhealthy. In fact, in their natural and unrefined state, fats can be healthy. When possible, Shanahan recommends avoiding or limiting these eight oils: corn, canola, cottonseed, soy, safflower, sunflower, grapeseed, and rice bran oils, which may lead to inflammation over time.

Although it's not necessary to completely avoid highly refined oils, consuming them too regularly could harm health, so it's best to limit vegetable oils like corn oil, soybean oil, and oil blends and instead use oils that have been linked to health benefits, like olive oil.

The oils which should be avoided for cooking are oils like soybean, corn, canola, sunflower, and safflower. These oils have unstable fats and will decimate the nutritional properties of your food. Oh, and they'll give you a big fat health risk in the meantime.

LDL cholesterol can clog arteries and lead to heart disease and stroke. Meanwhile, oils like olive, avocado, canola, sesame and grapeseed oil are higher in unsaturated fat and healthier for the heart. When looking for a healthy cooking oil, Dr. Wood recommends choosing one that's liquid at room temperature.

Omega-6s are found in oils such as corn, safflower, sunflower, soy and vegetable and products made with those oils. Excess consumption of omega-6s can trigger the body to produce pro-inflammatory chemicals, and the American diet tends to be very high in omega-6s.

Vegetable Oil Nutrition

In some cases, vegetable oil consists of primarily polyunsaturated fatty acids, or PUFAs. Your body can't make PUFAs, and according to the American Heart Association, consuming these fats can have heart-health benefits, especially if you use them to replace sources of saturated fat in your diet.

Oils high in monounsaturated fats are best for cooking with due to their stability when heated, as well as their potential health benefits. Examples include olive, avocado, and canola oil. Coconut oil is also a stable fat to cook with.

What is the healthiest oil for your heart? ›

1. Olive Oil. Olive oil is a basic ingredient of the famously heart-healthy Mediterranean diet, and it is perfect for drizzling on salads, pasta, and bread. “Olive oil, and especially extra-virgin olive oil, is my favorite oil and the one I primarily use,” says Palumbo.

Heart-healthy oils like safflower oil and rice bran oil are perfect because they can withstand frying temperatures of almost 500° F. You can also look to peanut oil and sunflower oil if you're frying at 450° F, or canola oil and vegetable oil to keep temperatures around 400° F.

Partially hydrogenated oils—including sunflower, peanut, corn, and canola oils—oxidize rapidly when they're heated. So, they have a pro-inflammatory effect on the body, which means they can contribute to inflammation and heart disease. You also want to avoid foods with trans fats and partially hydrogenated oils.

They are eight of the most unhealthy vegetable oils. They include the following. Get out of pen and write these down. Corn oil, canola, also called rape seed oil, cotton seed oil, soy oils, sunflower oil, sunflower oil, grape seed oil, and rice bran oil.

However, with any unsaturated oil, including olive oil, heating it repeatedly to a high heat (say for deep frying) will cause the oil to develop compounds that have been found to have carcinogenic properties when tested on rats.

It's roughly two years. That means if you stop consuming all oils and all high omega-6 foods and there are others, we can get into that, it's probably going to take you quite a few months, if not 2 or 3 years, to get these entirely out of your system.

Spoiler alert: Olive oil is one of the healthiest oils for frying, but only if you use it correctly. And there are other great options—including soybean oil and peanut oil as well.

The oils you use for cooking and dressing can have a significant impact on your inflammation levels and overall health. As you can see some oils are anti-inflammatory, while others are pro-inflammatory. To follow an anti-inflammatory diet, stick with olive, avocado, coconut, flax and walnut oils.

The oils in your standard grocery store “vegetable oil” bottle are usually the most refined and thus least nutritious. On the other hand, extra virgin olive oil, which is not processed, has multiple nutritional benefits. It is high in both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, a.k.a. the healthy fats.

Avocado oil is a healthy fat that provides vitamin E plus plant compounds like polyphenols and carotenoids. It may help support heart health and improve your intake of vitamin E and health-promoting fatty acids. Avocado oil has a high smoke point and makes an excellent choice for sautéing, frying, and baking.