Honestly, the cooking oil aisle can feel overwhelming these days. Rows and rows of bottles, each claiming to be the healthiest option for your kitchen. Let me tell you something important though: not all oils are created equal when it comes to protecting your heart. Some can genuinely help reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, while others might be doing more harm than you realize.
Choosing an oil rich in unsaturated fats is essential in supporting your heart health, and cooking with these oils can help lower your risk of heart attack and death from heart disease. The truth is, what you drizzle on your salad or use to sauté your vegetables really does matter. Let’s dive into what cardiologists actually recommend when it comes to cooking oils.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil Takes the Crown
Olive oil is the healthiest all-around cooking oil, and there’s overwhelming evidence to back this up. Studies show that participants who had the highest consumption of olive oil had roughly twenty percent lower total mortality compared with those who never or rarely consumed it. That’s a significant difference for something as simple as switching your cooking fat.
Replacing margarine, butter, mayonnaise, and dairy fat with olive oil was associated with lower incidence of cardiovascular events. Higher consumption of olive oil conferred a significantly reduced risk in cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. The Mediterranean populations have known this for centuries, using olive oil as their primary fat source with remarkable health outcomes.
Avocado Oil for High-Heat Cooking
If you’re looking for a heart-healthy cooking oil, cardiologists recommend avocado oil because it’s rich in good fats and has a higher smoke point than most plant-based cooking oils. This makes it perfect when you’re searing meat or roasting vegetables at higher temperatures.
A 2022 study found convincing evidence that people who ate at least one avocado per week had a sixteen percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a twenty-one percent lower risk of coronary heart disease. Research found that avocado oil reduced diastolic and systolic blood pressure significantly and had similar effects to losartan in reducing blood pressure. Those are impressive numbers for a simple dietary swap.
Canola Oil: The Affordable Heart-Healthy Choice
Here’s the thing about canola oil: it gets a bad reputation online, yet cardiologists consistently recommend it. Canola oil is considered the best for heart health due to its low saturated fat content, containing just seven percent saturated fat, which is remarkably low compared to other options.
The high monounsaturated fat content in canola oil may help lower LDL cholesterol levels, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Studies have shown that canola oil performs better than butter on its effects on cholesterol, and cardiologists recommend canola, sunflower or safflower oils. It’s affordable, versatile, and backed by solid science.
Safflower and Sunflower Oils
Seed oils are rich in unsaturated fatty acids, which are linked to a lower risk of heart disease when substituted for saturated fats. Despite what social media influencers might tell you, safflower and sunflower oils have legitimate cardiovascular benefits. Seed oils like sunflower, canola and soybean are rich in unsaturated fats that support heart health.
Randomized controlled trials that lowered intake of dietary saturated fat and replaced it with polyunsaturated vegetable oil reduced cardiovascular disease by approximately thirty percent, similar to the reduction achieved by statin treatment. That’s a powerful finding. These oils contain beneficial polyunsaturated fats, particularly omega-6 fatty acids, that contribute to better cholesterol profiles.
Palm and Coconut Oils Raise Concerns
This might surprise you, especially given coconut oil’s trendy status in recent years. Coconut oil has even more saturated fat than butter, which should give anyone pause. Coconut oil contains around ninety percent saturated fat, and although some types of saturated fat in coconut oil behave differently in the body, it still raises LDL cholesterol.
Studies comparing the effects of coconut oil consumption to other vegetable oils found that coconut oil consumption significantly increased LDL cholesterol by more than ten points compared to the other oils. Replacing plant sources higher in saturated fat, including coconut oil, cocoa butter, and palm oil, with vegetable oils higher in unsaturated fat decreases LDL cholesterol. The science just doesn’t support using these as everyday cooking oils.
Butter and Margarine Come Up Short
Let’s be real: butter tastes amazing. Yet taste doesn’t translate to heart health. Intakes of butter and margarine were associated with higher total mortality, with each one-tablespoon daily increment showing roughly eight percent higher cardiometabolic mortality for butter.
Replacing butter with plant-based oils and spreads with predominantly unsaturated fatty acids decreases LDL cholesterol levels, based on evidence graded as strong. Higher intake of major saturated fatty acids was associated with eighteen percent increased relative risk of coronary heart disease, and replacing just one percent of daily consumption of these fatty acids with equivalent calories from polyunsaturated fats reduced relative coronary heart disease risk by six to eight percent. Even small changes add up over time.
Making the Switch in Your Kitchen
The evidence is clear: Progress in reducing cardiovascular disease would be enhanced by replacing saturated fat by either type of unsaturated fat. Start by swapping out butter and coconut oil for olive, avocado, or canola oil in your daily cooking. Substituting corn oil, canola oil, or olive oil for equal amounts of butter and margarine was related to lower all-cause mortality and mortality from certain causes, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, respiratory disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Think about how you cook most often. For salad dressings and low-heat cooking, extra virgin olive oil shines. For high-heat applications like stir-frying, reach for avocado or refined canola oil. Your heart will thank you for these simple swaps, and the research strongly supports making these changes today rather than waiting. What oil are you planning to switch to first?
