Here’s How to Determine the Healthiest Fats to Cook With

“Dr. Hyman, I’m so confused about what fats to cook with,” a reader recently wrote. “For so long I’ve been using vegetable oils because I heard they were best to cook with, and now I hear that we can cook with butter or coconut oil.” I completely understand your confusion, especially with rampant misinformation about fats and nutrition in general. For instance, the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends adults get no more than five percent of their calories from saturated fat, urging people to use vegetable oils instead. They also advise people to eat at least five to 10 percent of their calories from polyunsaturated fat (PUFAs). Unlike saturated fat, the AHA rationalizes the linoleic acid in PUFAs lower LDL cholesterol levels. As a result of this and other poor nutrition advice, the average intake of this omega-6 fatty acid has risen sharply: Americans consume at least twice the amount of linoleic acid today than they did in the 1960s. Increased consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils, which are highly inflammatory to the body and unstable, has subsequently increased inflammatory diseases. Over-consuming omega-6 fats and under-consuming omega-3 fats increases numerous health issues including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, pre-diabetes, IBS, arthritis, asthma, cancer and autoimmune diseases. That’s because omega-6 fats fuel your body’s inflammatory pathways and counteract the benefits and availability of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats, creating even more inflammation. These ubiquitous omega-6 fats like vegetable oils (soybean, safflower, sunflower, and canola oils) undo any health benefits from consuming omega-3 fats. This misguided dietary advice to swap traditional omega-3-rich fats for inflammatory omega-6 fats, although it may have begun with good intent, has yielded disastrous results. Consuming too many omega-6 fats also increases mental illness, suicide and homicide. In fact, studies show a connection of mental health with inflammation in the brain. We need to eliminate these highly processed vegetable oils that are so prevalent in the standard American diet. Instead, I suggest using more plant-based and animal-stable fats such as butter, coconut oil and even lard.