Cooking Oils - Healthy vs. Unhealthy

Cooking Fats, Without the Fear

A simple, calm guide to what actually matters when you choose an oil to cook with.

If you spend any time online, you’ve probably been told that the oil in your pan is quietly ruining your health. It’s one of the loudest food fights going right now, and it can leave you standing in your own kitchen afraid of your frying pan. So let me offer you something calmer and more useful: a plain guide to what really matters when you pick a fat to cook with.

The one idea that clears up most of the confusion

Different fats handle heat differently, and that’s the key to almost everything. When a fat gets hot enough, it begins to break down, and the more delicate the fat, the sooner that happens. In rough order, from most delicate to most sturdy: polyunsaturated fats are the least heat-stable, monounsaturated fats sit in the middle, and saturated fats are the most stable. This is why the very same oil can be a lovely choice cold and a poor one smoking in a screaming-hot skillet. So the goal isn’t to fear one oil and worship another. It’s to match the fat to the job.

Matching your fat to the heat

For cold uses and everyday low-to-medium heat — dressings, drizzling, gentle sautéing — extra virgin olive oil is a wonderful default. It’s mostly monounsaturated and, despite what you may have heard, it holds up just fine for most home cooking.

For real high heat — searing, roasting, stir-frying — reach for something that stays steady when it’s hot. Avocado oil has a high smoke point, and so do naturally stable fats like butter, ghee, and coconut oil, used in the amounts you enjoy.

And whatever you’re using, two simple habits matter more than the brand: don’t push an oil past the point where it starts to smoke, and don’t reuse the same oil over and over. Overheated and reused oils are where a lot of the real trouble actually happens.

The real villain (and it isn’t a drop of oil in your pan)

If there’s one fat truly worth avoiding, it isn’t olive oil, and it isn’t your everyday cooking oil. It’s trans fats — the partially hydrogenated oils still hiding in some packaged and deep-fried foods. Those are genuinely hard on your heart, and there’s no real debate about it. The bigger picture is the company these fats keep: they turn up most in ultra-processed snacks and deep-fried restaurant food. A spoonful of oil in a real meal you cooked at home is a completely different thing from a diet built on fried and packaged food.

What about the “seed oils are toxic” claim?

You’ve almost certainly seen it: the idea that seed oils like soybean, corn, sunflower, and canola cause inflammation and disease. A lot of the fear comes from lumping these oils together with the ultra-processed, deep-fried foods they so often live inside. That doesn’t mean you have to use them if you’d rather not. I lean toward olive oil, butter, and other whole-food fats in my own kitchen, simply because I like cooking close to the way food comes in nature. That’s a perfectly good preference to have. But it’s a preference, not a rescue from poison, and I never want you to feel afraid of a bottle of oil.

What I actually keep on my shelf

To keep it simple, here’s where I land. Extra virgin olive oil for most everyday cooking and for finishing. A high-smoke-point fat like avocado oil, or good butter, ghee, or coconut oil, for higher heat. Whole nuts, seeds, olives, and avocados for fats in their most natural, satisfying form. And beyond that, a light hand, because whichever oil you choose, the calories do add up.

The kitchen is meant to be a peaceful place, not a fearful one. Choose good ingredients, match your fat to the heat, lean on real food, and cook with joy. That, far more than any single oil, is what keeps a family well.

If you’d like to read more on the seed-oil question from a level-headed source, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has a clear overview. This post is general information, not medical advice — if you’re managing heart health, your doctor knows your picture best.

With love,

— Steffanie