Walk down the cooking oil aisle and you’re faced with a wall of competing claims: cold-pressed this, high-oleic that, and prices from 80p to £12 a bottle. So what is the healthiest cooking oil to use every day? The answer depends on what you’re doing with it — because the best oil for a salad isn’t the best oil for a screaming-hot stir-fry, and the marketing rarely mentions that.
Two things matter: the fat composition (more monounsaturated = generally better for heart health) and the smoke point (the temperature where oil starts breaking down and producing unpleasant compounds). A healthy oil used past its smoke point isn’t healthy anymore — so matching oil to cooking method is the real skill.
The healthiest cooking oil to use every day
With conflicting headlines about every oil, what should actually be in your kitchen? Here’s the evidence-based ranking, the smoke-point myths debunked, and the practical answer for everyday cooking.
The verdict: best all-round everyday oils
Extra virgin olive oil — the everyday champion. Despite the persistent myth that you can’t cook with it, good research shows extra virgin olive oil is remarkably stable at normal cooking temperatures thanks to its antioxidants — fine for sautéing, roasting and most frying. It’s rich in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and polyphenols. Use it for: almost everything up to medium-high heat, plus dressings where its flavour shines. Cost: decent supermarket extra virgin from £5–£7 for 500ml; you don’t need the £12 bottle for cooking.
Rapeseed (canola) oil — the unsung hero. Often British-grown, neutral-tasting, high in monounsaturated fats with a good omega-3 content, and a high smoke point that handles frying and roasting brilliantly. At £2–£3 a litre it’s also the budget champion. Cold-pressed rapeseed oil works for dressings too, with a pleasant nutty flavour. If you buy one oil for everything, make it this or olive oil.
What about coconut oil? The wellness darling of the 2010s. Reality check: it’s ~90% saturated fat — higher than butter — and the claimed health benefits are largely unproven. Fine occasionally for flavour in curries, but not an everyday health choice, whatever the influencers say.
Oils for specific jobs
- High-heat stir-frying/searing: Rapeseed, groundnut (peanut) or avocado oil — high smoke points, neutral flavours.
- Salad dressings and finishing: Extra virgin olive oil, cold-pressed rapeseed, or walnut/flaxseed oil (lovely omega-3s, but never heat them — drizzle only, and keep flaxseed oil refrigerated).
- Baking: Light olive oil or rapeseed where the recipe calls for oil; butter where flavour matters (it’s fine in moderation).
- Deep frying: Rapeseed or groundnut oil — stable, affordable, neutral. And reuse sensibly: strain, store cool and dark, discard when dark or smelly.
Oils to limit or avoid
There’s no need to fear any oil in small amounts, but some deserve a side-eye as everyday choices: generic “vegetable oil” (usually soy or palm blends — high in omega-6s, often ultra-processed), and anything marketed with miraculous health claims at luxury prices. Palm oil’s bigger issue is environmental rather than nutritional — look for RSPO-certified if you buy products containing it.
And a word on quantity: even the healthiest oil is calorie-dense (about 120 calories per tablespoon). The Mediterranean diet — the healthiest eating pattern in the research — uses olive oil liberally but within an overall balanced diet. Measure with a spoon rather than free-pouring if weight is a concern; our guide to cutting sugar covers the other half of the calorie equation.
Storing oils properly
Heat, light and air degrade oils — that clear bottle by the cooker is the worst spot in the kitchen. Store in a cool, dark cupboard, keep lids tight, and buy sizes you’ll use within a couple of months of opening. Rancid oil (smells crayon-like or stale) isn’t just unpleasant — oxidised fats aren’t doing you favours. When in doubt, sniff it.
For the full healthy-eating picture, pair your oil wisdom with our guides to gut-friendly everyday foods and a healthy weekly meal plan.
The bottom line: for everyday cooking, extra virgin olive oil or rapeseed oil — or both, using olive for flavour and rapeseed for high heat. Ignore the £12 miracle oils, store them away from the hob, and spend the savings on better ingredients to cook in them.
Olive oil buying guide: what the labels mean
Extra virgin: the least processed, most polyphenol-rich — the healthy choice. “Cold pressed” and “first cold pressed” are traditional terms; the regulated standard is simply “extra virgin.” Virgin / pure / light: refined oils — more processed, fewer beneficial compounds, higher smoke point but less flavour and nutrition. “Light” refers to flavour, not calories (all oils are ~120 cal/tbsp). For health, extra virgin is the pick; for high-heat cooking where flavour doesn’t matter, refined is acceptable.
What to look for: dark glass bottles or tins (light degrades oil), a harvest date (fresher is better — use within 12–18 months of harvest), and origin labelling (single-estate or country of origin beats vague “packed in the EU”). Price reality: decent supermarket extra virgin (£5–£8 for 500ml) is genuinely good — lab tests consistently show supermarket own-brands performing well. The £15+ bottles are for drizzling and dipping, where you’ll taste the difference; for cooking, the £6 bottle is the smart money.
The fraud issue: olive oil is one of the world’s most adulterated foods — cheap oils blended and sold as extra virgin. Protect yourself: buy from reputable retailers, be suspicious of very cheap “extra virgin” (if it’s £3 a litre, it isn’t), and look for certification marks. Rapeseed oil note: British cold-pressed rapeseed oil (£4–£6) is the unsung alternative — similar monounsaturated profile, higher smoke point, local provenance, and often fresher than imported olive oil. Many UK cooks now keep both: olive for Mediterranean dishes and dressings, rapeseed for everyday high-heat cooking. Two bottles, every base covered.
Butter vs oil: the honest answer
The nutrition: butter is ~63% saturated fat; olive oil is ~14%. For heart health, unsaturated fats win — the evidence here is consistent and strong. But: butter in small amounts, as part of an overall healthy diet, isn’t the villain it was made out to be in the 1980s. The dose makes the poison — a scraping of butter on toast is nutritionally trivial; butter as your primary cooking fat is not.
Cooking performance: butter burns at relatively low temperatures (milk solids scorch) — fine for gentle sautéing, terrible for high-heat searing. Clarified butter/ghee (milk solids removed) handles heat far better and is the traditional high-heat choice in South Asian cooking. Flavour: butter wins outright — nothing replicates it. The food writer’s compromise: cook in oil, finish with butter. You get the health profile of oil with the flavour of butter — a teaspoon stirred through at the end transforms a dish for negligible nutritional cost.
The practical rules: everyday cooking — oil (olive or rapeseed). Baking where butter’s flavour matters — butter (life’s too short for joyless cake). Spreading — a thin scraping of butter or a quality olive-oil-based spread. What about coconut oil, lard, dripping? All high in saturated fat — traditional, flavoursome, and best kept as occasional ingredients rather than daily staples. The Mediterranean pattern (olive oil daily, butter occasionally) remains the best-evidenced approach. It’s not about banning butter — it’s about making oil the default and butter the deliberate choice. Your arteries won’t notice the teaspoon; they’ll notice the tablespoon-every-day.
The British Heart Foundation’s guide to dietary fats explains which fats support heart health — useful background to the choices in this article.
