ARCHIVE RANDOM RSS Home About Manifesto Foods Contact Us How to Pick the Right Cooking Oil In the old days, it seemed like the grocery store only had two choices for cooking oil - canola or vegetable. Even PAM was considered revolutionary when it debuted. Today, it takes so much more to impress. With the litany of different cooking oils available on the market today, it can be hard to figure out what works for all-purpose cooking, what’s worth the price, what has the best health benefits, etc. To help navigate through the diversity on the shelves, we’ve assembled a quick summary to the most commonly found types of cooking oils, detailing their uses and health benefits, in order to help you make a better decision. 1. Canola Oil neutral taste medium-high smoking point so can be used in low and medium-high temperature cooking, low in saturated fat and high in monosaturated fat (which lowers cholesterol) look all-natural varieties - otherwise, the plants from which canola oil is extracted are often genetically modified and/or sprayed with chemicals 2. Vegetable Oil neutral taste usually a lower smoking point so should be restricted to low temperature cooking affordable vegetable oil isn’t the best option for health-conscious consumers. The oil is a blend of any number of different types of oils, so the health profile is hard to figure out for any given bottle 3. Grapeseed Oil neutral to light flavor high smoking point so can be used for a wide range of cooking low in saturated fats and high in polyunsaturated fats (so has similar health benefits to canola oil) 4. Olive Oil medium nutty/acidic flavor. The more refined the oil (i.e. extra virgin), the less acidic the flavor the more refined the olive oil (i.e. extra virgin), the lower the smoking point, so the less versatile that it will be. Regular refined olive oil has a relatively high smoking point, so can be used for most cooking needs, but extra virgin should be restricted to low-temperature cooking or salad drizzling contains great heart-healthy fats and Vitamin E 5. Safflower Oil neutral flavor high smoking point so can be used for a wide range of cooking high in cholesteral-lowering monounsaturated fats 6. Sunflower Oil mild flavor very high smoking point - can be used for frying contains mega-6 polyunsaturated fat, which should be balanced with omega-3 rich foods, such as fish (especially salmon) 7. Avocado Oil (our personal favorite, pictured below) light nutty flavor high smoking point so can be used for a wide range of cooking can be pricey high in monounsaturated/heart-healthy fats and Vitamin E 8. Peanut Oil mild flavor if peanuts are unroasted very high smoking point - often used for frying contains a mix of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats can trigger allergies Share Tweet Comments Comments z cooking cooking oil health healthy avocado oil peanut oil sunflower oil safflower oil olive oil grapeseed oil vegetable oil canola canola oil food [ Previous Post Next Post ] Pages Home About Manifesto Foods Contact Us Posts We Like Dark Roast Espresso + Magnum Bars Photo via yummyinmytumbly RASPBERRIES N’ CREME BISCOFF CREPES Photo via kawaii-food-is-kawaii See more ] © 2015–2021 Manifesto Foods