Here comes the ranking order of cooking oils, which one is right for you?

Many netizens have been asking about cooking oil, saying they don't know what is good oil. The price difference is so big, are there really so many differences in health effects? Every product claims that its oil is particularly good, and it's dazzling to see, and I don't know which indicators to compare...

Today, I will talk to you about the ranking of cooking oils . I guess after reading this, you may overturn some of the marketing information that you are fed every day. Then, let’s talk about the criteria for choosing oils, because the criteria are different for different needs.

1 Calorie ranking

All kinds of refined cooking oils are tied for first place. Because the fat content is 99.9%, the calorie value is 899 kcal/100 g, and there is no significant difference. Among all foods, 899 kcal/100 g is the real number one in terms of calories.

2 Cholesterol content ranking

All vegetable oils are ranked last because vegetable oils do not contain cholesterol. Cholesterol is only found in animal foods . Vegetable oils only contain plant sterols, including sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, etc.

Tips: Cholesterol is called cholesterol in English, where chole stands for "bile", ster stands for "solid", and ol stands for "alcohol". Sterols are also called sterols , and cholesterol is also called cholesterol.

Cholesterol content of cooking oil

Cream 209mg/100g

Butter 153mg/100g

Pig fat 110mg/100g

Duck fat 83mg/100g

The above data are from the Second Edition of Chinese Food Composition Tables, Peking University Medical Press, 2009.

So it can be said that among animal oils, butter is relatively the highest . Of course, due to the different nutritional status of animals, the fats produced by each animal will be slightly different.

3 Phytosterol Content

Then someone might ask: What about plant sterols? Which oil has more?

Since it is plant sterols, we only need to look at the data in vegetable oil .

Plant sterol content of edible oil

Sesame oil 588mg/100g

Rapeseed oil 570mg/100g

Sesame oil 441mg/100g

Sunflower oil 372mg/100g

Soybean oil 317mg/100g

Olive oil 270mg/100g

The above data are from the Second Edition of Chinese Food Composition Tables, Peking University Medical Press, 2009.

4 Vitamin E content

Whether it is soybeans, peanuts, sunflower seeds, or various nuts, plant seeds contain more or less vitamin E, which is transferred to the oil when the oil is extracted. Therefore, vegetable oil is an important source of vitamin E in the diet.

Vitamin E has several different components, ranked here by total vitamin E.

Total Vitamin E Content of Edible Oil

Soybean oil 93.1mg/100g

Cottonseed oil 86.5mg/100g

Sesame oil 68.5mg/100g

Sunflower oil 54.6mg/100g

Corn oil 50.9mg/100g

Peanut oil 42.1mg/100g

Olive oil, coconut oil and palm oil are all low in vitamin E.

The above data comes from the first volume of the Standard Edition of Chinese Food Composition Table, Peking University Medical Press, 2018.

5 Vitamin K Content

Vitamin K is not only important for blood clotting, but also helps with bone health and cardiovascular health.

Oil is one of the sources of vitamin K. Vitamin K has different components, among which K1 (phylloquinone) is widely present in various plant foods, while K2 is mainly found in fermented plant foods. Because it is a fat-soluble vitamin, when the oil is pressed, the vitamin K1 in the seeds will also run into the oil.

The oils with the highest vitamin K1 content are actually the affordable soybean oil and rapeseed oil!

Vitamin K1 content in edible oil

Soybean oil 193mg/100g

Rapeseed oil 141mg/100g

Olive oil 55mg/100g

Sesame oil, walnut oil 15mg/100g.

The content of peanut oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, etc. is relatively low, only in single digits.

Data source: Ferlandt G and Sadowski JA. Vitamin K1 (Phylloquinone) Content of Edible Oils: Effects of Heating and Light Exposure. Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. 1992, 40: 1869-1873)

6. Vitamin A

You may ask: If we have vitamin E and vitamin K, why are there no vitamin A and vitamin D?

Because vegetable oils do not contain vitamin A and vitamin D. Animal oils contain them, but the content in lard, butter, mutton, chicken and duck fat is also very low, and they are not important food sources of these two vitamins at all.

There is only one true vitamin A champion: cream (butter, butter), which contains 840 micrograms RAE/100 grams of vitamin A.

The above data comes from the first volume of the Standard Edition of Chinese Food Composition Table, Peking University Medical Press, 2018.

7 Saturated fatty acid content

Coconut oil has to be the first choice . The coconut oil in my house will not melt until it reaches 23 degrees Celsius. In winter, it will become a hard clot. The lard, butter, and other highly saturated fats in the public's mind are inferior to it.

According to our country’s data,

Saturated fatty acid content of edible oil

Coconut oil 85% (average of 4 samples)

Palm kernel oil 53~77%

Palm oil 50% (average of 2 samples)

Peanut oil, rice oil 17~20%

Corn oil, soybean oil, sesame oil and olive oil, about 12%~16%

Sunflower oil 10%

Rapeseed oil and tea seed oil <10%.

The above data comes from the first volume of the Standard Edition of Chinese Food Composition Table, Peking University Medical Press, 2018.

People who eat more beef, mutton and pork on a daily basis will consume more saturated fatty acids, so they can consider using oil with low saturated fatty acid content for cooking.

8 Total unsaturated fatty acids

The one with the lowest saturated fatty acid content naturally has the highest unsaturated fatty acid content.

So, the top three are rapeseed oil, tea seed oil and sunflower seed oil.

Then come corn oil, soybean oil, sesame oil and olive oil.

Palm oil, palm kernel oil and coconut oil make up the base.

9 Monounsaturated fatty acid content

Olive oil is famous because it is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, more precisely, oleic acid (octadecenoic acid). Monounsaturated fatty acids are friendly to the cardiovascular system and help increase HDL-c (the so-called "good cholesterol") and reduce LDL-c (the so-called "bad cholesterol").

In fact, if you want to get monounsaturated fatty acids, you don’t have to buy olive oil. There are many other options that may be more cost-effective.

Monounsaturated fatty acid content of edible oil

Tea seed oil 75%~79%

Olive oil 70%~78%

High Oleic Sunflower Oil 78%

High oleic peanut oil 75%

Rapeseed oil 59%~65%

Peanut oil 38%~45%

Rice oil 38%~40%

Sesame oil 35%~40%

Corn oil 28%~31%

Sunflower oil 20%~30%

Soybean oil 21%~25%

Coconut oil 6%~8%

The above data are from the first volume of the Standard Edition of Chinese Food Composition Table, Peking University Medical Press, 2018. The same applies below.

10 Omega-3 fatty acid content

We won’t talk about fish oil, no one uses it for cooking. Animal oils such as lard, butter, mutton fat and cream also contain very little omega-3 fatty acids.

The omega-3 fatty acid in vegetable oil is alpha-linolenic acid. It can be converted into DHA in the human body, but the conversion efficiency in omnivores is only 3% to 4%. Although it doesn't sound high, the demand for omega-3 fatty acids is not high. Even pregnant women only need 250 to 500 mg of DHA per day .

If we take 250 mg of DHA per day and the conversion rate is only 3%, we only need to take 8.3 grams of alpha-linolenic acid per day. It is still possible to meet the requirement by eating oil.

Among the common vegetable oils, the oil extracted from hemp seeds has the highest content of alpha-linolenic acid, which is undoubtedly between 30% and 60%. Among them, flaxseed oil is the most prominent, but sesame oil, hemp oil, hemp oil and other hemp family oils also have similar advantages. The differences between each variety and product are different, but they are all far ahead of other vegetable oils.

In addition, niche oils such as peony seed oil and perilla seed oil also have the advantage of high alpha-linolenic acid, but they are not available in general supermarkets.

The second tier is some oils with alpha-linolenic acid content between 5% and 10%. These include walnut oil, rapeseed oil and soybean oil. Pine nut oil is also in this group, but pine nuts are too expensive to be used for oil extraction.

Other oils are basically meaningless in supplying omega-3 fatty acids. Whether it is olive oil, tea seed oil, peanut oil, corn oil or sunflower oil, the alpha-linolenic acid content is usually less than 1%.

11 Omega-6 fatty acid content

The omega-6 fatty acid in vegetable oil is mainly linoleic acid. Among the existing oil products in my country, varieties rich in linoleic acid are very popular, and the possibility of deficiency is very small.

Linoleic acid content of edible oil

Safflower oil about 75%

Sunflower oil 52%~65%, walnut oil 60%

Corn oil, soybean oil 49%~53%

Sesame oil 40%~47%

Rice oil 35%~37%

Peanut oil 30%~40%

Rapeseed oil 15%~25%

Olive oil 5%~9%

Tea seed oil 7%~9%

Coconut oil 2%

12 Essential fatty acid content and ratio

The human body needs two essential fatty acids, linoleic acid from the omega-6 series and alpha-linolenic acid from the omega-3 series. The ratio of these two essential fatty acids is preferably 4-6:1.

Generally speaking, omega-6 linoleic acid is widely available in food, such as chicken, nuts, peanuts, melon seeds, etc. Most cooking oils are also high in linoleic acid, so there is no need to worry about deficiency.

The more difficult thing to get is omega-3 fatty acids. If you are not diligent in eating fish, or eat the wrong fish species, neither high-fat marine fish nor carnivorous freshwater fish, then it is difficult to get enough omega-3 fatty acids from food. This will lead to excessive inflammation, acne, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Some people may ask: Which are the "non-carnivorous freshwater fish"?

For example, silver carp, grass carp, crucian carp, carp, bighead carp, Wuchang fish...they are all herbivorous freshwater fish and contain very little omega-3 fatty acids.

Walnut oil and soybean oil are the only two oils that are particularly rich in both essential fatty acids and in a satisfactory ratio.

In walnut oil , the omega-6 linoleic acid content is about 60%, while the omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid content is about 10%. The ratio is exactly 6:1, which is perfect.

Of course, the proportions of each variety and origin will vary slightly. The wild walnut with the highest alpha-linolenic acid content can reach nearly 20%, but some walnuts can be as low as 5%.

In any case, walnuts are the best in this indicator. There is a scientific reason why walnuts are highly regarded in traditional health care, even though they are relatively cheap among nuts.

The omega-6 linoleic acid content of soybean oil is about 50%, and the alpha-linolenic acid content is between 6% and 10%, which is a relatively appropriate ratio.

If we want to find a third place, it is rapeseed oil , which has a linoleic acid content of about 20% and an alpha-linolenic acid content of between 4% and 10%.

The fourth one is flaxseed oil . It has a high content of alpha-linolenic acid, but the proportion of linoleic acid is only 15% to 25%, which is the opposite. This is actually a big advantage, because most processed foods and meats lack alpha-linolenic acid, and flaxseed oil can be used to "make up" for it.

For other oils, either the proportion of linoleic acid is too high, which is completely disproportionate to alpha-linolenic acid, or there is too little of both and the content of essential fatty acids is too low.

13 Heat resistance

The greater the proportion of saturated fatty acids in vegetable oils and the lower the proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids, the better their heat resistance. Heat-intolerant oils are very likely to form a large number of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, such as benzopyrene, when deep-fried at high temperatures for a long time, or when stir-fried or overcooked. At the same time, they are also prone to forming trans fatty acids during the heating process.

So, the most stable to heat is coconut oil, followed by palm kernel oil and palm oil.

The least stable is flaxseed oil which contains a lot of omega-3 fatty acids, followed by corn oil and sunflower oil which contain a lot of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids.

After reading so much data, you may be a little dazzled. Finally, let me sort it out for you.

What are you looking for in oil? What health benefits are you most concerned about?

Is it monounsaturated fatty acid?

Is it omega-3 fatty acids?

Is it a reasonable ratio of omega-3 to omega-6?

Does it contain both monounsaturated fatty acids and a reasonable ratio of omega-3 and omega-6?

These can be seen from the rankings.

When the fatty acids are similar, you can choose varieties with relatively high levels of vitamin E, vitamin K and plant sterols.

If you want vitamin A and vitamin D, cream (butter) is your only option.

Except for linseed oil and walnut oil, other oils can be used for daily cooking such as stir-frying and stewing. However, it is best to avoid oil smoke with more unsaturated fatty acids.

If you want food to taste good when fried, be heat-resistant and produce fewer carcinogens, then coconut oil, palm kernel oil and palm oil are good choices.

Which one you should buy depends on what you need and how much budget you plan to spend on oil.

Generally speaking, there is not much correlation between price and nutritional value, as price is mainly determined by production and marketing costs.

As for taste, everyone has their own preferences. Northeasterners love the flavor of soybean oil, Sichuanese can't bear the aroma of rapeseed oil, Hebei and Shandong like the strong aroma of peanut oil, Beijing and Tianjin are obsessed with the delicious taste of sesame oil, and some people prefer the light taste of tea seed oil without various flavors. I won't comment on this aspect.

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