Oils — make extra-virgin olive oil your default
The one bottle worth getting right — and no, you don't need to keep it off the heat.
Of all the easy upgrades in this guide, the fat you cook and dress your food with is one of the highest-value — and the evidence points to one everyday winner: good extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO). In the large PREDIMED trial, people at high cardiovascular risk who added about four tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil a day to a Mediterranean-style diet had roughly 30% fewer heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths than those simply told to eat low-fat — and the more they used, the lower their risk. It's the most-studied, best-evidenced fat you can build your cooking around.
Why "extra-virgin", not just "olive oil"
Extra-virgin olive oil is the juice of crushed olives — cold-pressed, unrefined, nothing added. That matters because it keeps the natural polyphenols (hydroxytyrosol, oleocanthal and others): antioxidant, anti-inflammatory compounds that ordinary "olive oil", "light" or "pure" grades mostly lose in refining. They're why olive oil carries an EU-approved claim for helping protect blood fats from oxidative damage — and they're literally what you taste. A good EVOO is peppery and slightly bitter, often with a catch at the back of the throat. That kick is the good stuff; bland, greasy "olive oil" has had it stripped out.
Yes, you can cook with it — the smoke-point myth
The idea that olive oil is "too delicate to heat" is a myth. What matters when you cook an oil isn't its smoke point but its oxidative stability — how well it resists breaking down into harmful compounds. By that measure EVOO is one of the most stable oils there is, protected by its monounsaturated fat and polyphenols. A 2018 study that heated oils hard found extra-virgin olive oil produced fewer harmful compounds than canola, sunflower, grapeseed or rice-bran oil — despite their higher smoke points. Its smoke point (around 190–210°C) easily covers normal roasting, sautéing and shallow frying. Cook with it freely.
How to use it day to day
🍳 For cooking
Sautéing, roasting vegetables, frying eggs, shallow frying — an everyday EVOO handles all of it and stays stable. No need for a separate "cooking oil".
🥗 Raw & finishing
Where it shines: dressings, a drizzle over vegetables, soup, fish or bread. Raw gives you the most flavour and polyphenols — save your best bottle for this.
🫒 The two-bottle trick
Keep a good-value EVOO by the hob for cooking, and a nicer single-estate one for finishing. Best of both, without wasting the special stuff in a hot pan.
🥄 How much
Around 2–3 tablespoons a day is sensible (PREDIMED used ~4). The benefit comes from using it instead of butter, margarine and refined oils — and it makes vegetables taste good enough to eat more of.
Buying & storing it well
✅ Choosing
- Look for "extra virgin" plus a harvest/pressing date — fresher means more polyphenols
- Prefer single-origin / PDO or PGI with a clear country of origin ("bottled in Italy" isn't "grown in Italy")
- A peppery, bitter taste is a good sign — that's the polyphenols
🫙 Storing
- Buy dark glass or tin — light destroys it
- Keep it cool and away from the hob, lid on
- Use within ~a year of harvest, a few months of opening — rancid oil smells like crayons or putty
🚫 Skip these labels
- "Light", "pure", "mild" or "pomace" olive oil — all refined, stripped of the good compounds
- Suspiciously cheap "extra virgin" — olive-oil fraud is common, so buy from sellers you trust
Where the other oils fit
👍 Rapeseed oil
A good, cheaper all-rounder — high in monounsaturated fat, low in saturated, with a little omega-3. Cold-pressed is nicest. A fine high-heat backup.
👍 Avocado oil
High monounsaturated fat and a very high smoke point. Perfectly good — just pricey, and without olive oil's track record.
🟡 Seed / vegetable oils
Sunflower, corn, soya, generic "vegetable oil". Better for your heart than butter — and the "seed oils are toxic" claim isn't supported by good evidence. But they're highly refined, low in polyphenols and less stable in a hot pan, so EVOO is the better default.
🧈 Butter & ghee
Fine in small amounts for flavour, but high in saturated fat — not your main cooking fat. A little butter to finish, olive oil for the work.
🥥 Coconut oil
Despite the hype, it's very high in saturated fat and raises LDL cholesterol. Treat it as an occasional flavour, not a health food.
⛔ Genuinely avoid
Anything hydrogenated / "partially hydrogenated" (trans fats), and oil repeatedly reused for frying — both are the truly harmful end.
Keep it in proportion. Olive oil is still energy-dense (~120 kcal a tablespoon), so "more is always better" has limits. The heart benefit comes mostly from using it instead of butter, margarine and refined oils — not from pouring it over everything. Use it generously enough to enjoy and to dress your vegetables, and let it crowd out the less helpful fats.