Is Palm Oil Good for Health? How to Choose the Best Cooking Oil for Your Kitchen
Open Instagram or YouTube and you will find someone telling you that palm oil is bad for you. Avoid it. Boycott it. It causes heart problems. Some videos even make it sound like palm oil is poison.
But here is a question that should make you think. Palm oil has no advertising. No celebrity is promoting it. And yet it is the number one selling cooking oil in the entire world. Not second or third. Number one by a big margin. If it was really that terrible, why would more people buy it than any other oil?
And there is another thing most people do not know. If you sit down and compare palm oil with desi ghee on the two things that actually matter for a cooking oil, you will find they are almost identical. Same fatty acid composition, same heat behaviour, nearly the same smoke point.
So today let us go through the actual science behind palm oil, and more importantly, let us understand the two simple things you should check before buying any cooking oil. After reading this you will not need to rely on social media videos to decide which oil is best for cooking in India.
The Five Most Sold Cooking Oils in the World
Before we get into palm oil, here is some useful context. These are the five oils that sell the most globally right now:
- Palm Oil comes from Malaysia. World number one seller by a big margin.
- Soybean Oil comes from the USA. Second on the list.
- Sunflower Oil comes from Europe. Third most sold.
- Canola Oil comes from Canada. Fourth on the list.
- Groundnut Oil comes from India. Our own mungfali ka tel. Fifth most sold.
Now think about how most Indian families buy cooking oil. Usually whatever is on offer at the shop, or what the TV ad was for last week, or whatever is sitting at the front of the shelf. There is no real system. Today we are going to build a simple two-point system that helps you judge the healthiest cooking oil India options for yourself.
The Science of Fatty Acids: This Is What Decides Which Oil Is Safe
To understand why some oils are better for cooking than others you need to know one thing about saturated fat cooking oil science. Do not worry, we are keeping this very simple.
Every cooking oil is made of something called fatty acids. A fatty acid is basically a long chain of carbon atoms joined together. Now each carbon atom has four bonds, like four hands. When all four hands of every carbon in the chain are holding something, the chain is stable and calm. Scientists call this a saturated fatty acid. When one or more carbons have a free hand that is not holding anything, that spot is weak and can break when heat is applied. That is called unsaturation.
There are three types of fatty acids in every oil:
| Fat Type | Double Bonds | Stable on Heat? | Free Radicals? | Cooking Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturated (SFA) | None | Very stable | Very few | Best for high heat cooking |
| Mono-Unsaturated (MUFA) | One weak spot | Fairly stable | Some | Good for light cooking |
| Poly-Unsaturated (PUFA) | Many weak spots | Breaks easily | Many, dangerous | Avoid for hot cooking |
So the basic rule is simple. More saturated and mono-unsaturated fat in an oil means it is more stable on heat and produces fewer free radicals. More poly-unsaturated fat means it breaks down faster on heat and produces more free radicals.
How All Five Oils Compare on Both Parameters
Now let us apply this to all the major cooking oils available in India, including desi ghee. The two things to check are: one, how much stable fatty acid does it have. And two, what is its smoke point of cooking oils. The smoke point is the temperature at which the oil starts to burn and smoke. Once an oil crosses its smoke point it is releasing toxic compounds and should not be used.
| Cooking Oil | SFA + MUFA % | PUFA % | Smoke Point | Safe for Indian Cooking? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desi Ghee | 90% | 10% | 240 degrees C | Best option of all |
| Palm Oil | 90% | 10% | 230 degrees C | Excellent, very close to ghee |
| Groundnut Oil | 70% | 30% | 225 degrees C | Good choice |
| Canola Oil | 70% | 30% | 200 degrees C | Lowest smoke point, avoid |
| Soybean Oil | 40% | 60% | 230 degrees C | High PUFA, use carefully |
| Sunflower Oil | 30% | 70% | 225 degrees C | Not good for hot cooking |
Now look at sunflower oil. It has 70% poly-unsaturated fat. And soybean oil has 60%. These are the oils that break down the most under high heat cooking and release the most free radicals. Which means every time you use sunflower oil for a tadka or frying, there is a lot more breakdown happening compared to desi ghee or palm oil.
What Is Smoke Point and Why You Need to Know It
When you heat any oil, at some point it starts smoking. That temperature is called the smoke point. Once any oil crosses its smoke point, it is burning. The fatty acids are breaking down fast and releasing harmful compounds. You should not keep cooking once an oil has started to smoke.
Here is the ranking of all our oils by smoke point:
- Desi Ghee: 240 degrees C (highest of all, safest for all types of Indian cooking)
- Palm Oil: 230 degrees C (very close to ghee, great for frying and high heat)
- Soybean Oil: 230 degrees C (good smoke point but high poly-unsaturated fat is the problem)
- Sunflower and Groundnut: 225 degrees C (groundnut is decent overall, sunflower has too much PUFA)
- Canola Oil: 200 degrees C (lowest of all five, crosses its limit very early in Indian cooking)
When you are frying puris or making pakoras at home, the oil temperature goes well above 180 degrees and often reaches 200 to 210 degrees. An oil with a low smoke point crosses its safe limit at these temperatures and that is when the real damage to the oil happens.
So What Should You Actually Use at Home?
For Everyday Cooking
Desi ghee is the best option you have for daily cooking. Highest smoke point, best fatty acid composition and it has been used in Indian kitchens for thousands of years. The science completely supports this choice. If you have access to good quality desi ghee, use it for your sabzi, dal and regular cooking.
For Deep Frying
For frying where you need a larger quantity of oil, palm oil for deep frying India is an excellent option. Nearly the same stability as desi ghee but significantly cheaper. Groundnut oil also works well for frying since it has 70% stable fatty acids and a 225 degree smoke point.
What to Reduce or Avoid for Hot Cooking
Sunflower oil has 70% poly-unsaturated fat which is very high. Every single time you heat it for frying or a high-flame tadka it produces a lot of free radicals. If you are currently using sunflower oil daily for cooking, switching to desi ghee or groundnut oil would be one of the simplest improvements you can make to your daily diet.
Why Almost All Packaged Food in India Uses Palm Oil
Check the ingredient list on any biscuit packet, namkeen, instant noodles or chips in your kitchen right now. Almost every one of them will say palm oil or palmolein. There is a very specific reason food companies use it and it is not just because it is cheap.
When you fry mathri at home in sunflower or soybean oil and leave it for four or five days, you will notice a stale smell developing. That is the oil having broken down and gone rancid because of its high poly-unsaturated fat content. When the same mathri is made in a factory using palm oil, it stays fresh for months because the oil is so stable that it does not break down.
This is the palm oil benefit that the food industry has known for decades. Stable oil means longer shelf life, better product quality and less waste. It is not that companies are trying to harm you by using palm oil. They are using it because it genuinely performs better for packaged food.
Check Your Kitchen Oil Right Now: A Simple Homework
Pick up the cooking oil you are using at home today. Look at the nutrition label on the back or search for it online. Find these three numbers:
- Saturated fat percentage
- Mono-unsaturated fat percentage
- Poly-unsaturated fat percentage
Add the first two together. If the combined total is above 70%, you have a reasonably stable oil. If the poly-unsaturated fat alone is above 50%, you should think about switching to a more stable option for your high-heat cooking.
Also check the smoke point for your oil online. If it is below 210 degrees, there is a good chance you are heating it past its safe limit during regular Indian cooking.
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Watch the detailed video explanation of how to choose the best cooking oil for your kitchen
Frequently Asked Questions
Palm oil gets bad press online but the science tells a different story. When you judge it on the two most important parameters for cooking oil, it does very well. It has 90% stable fatty acids and a smoke point of 230 degrees, which makes it one of the most heat-stable cooking oils available. It produces fewer free radicals than sunflower or soybean oil when heated. So for cooking, it is actually a good option.
On the two main parameters for cooking performance, they are very similar. Both have about 90% stable fatty acids and 10% poly-unsaturated fat. Desi ghee has a slightly higher smoke point of 240 degrees versus 230 for palm oil. Desi ghee also has fat-soluble vitamins and butyric acid that palm oil does not. So desi ghee is nutritionally richer overall, but for heat stability during cooking both are excellent and quite close to each other.
For everyday cooking, desi ghee is the top choice since it has the highest smoke point and the most stable fatty acid profile. For frying, palm oil or groundnut oil work well. Sunflower oil and soybean oil should be used carefully for high-heat cooking because of their high poly-unsaturated fat content which produces free radicals when heated. The key is to choose oils with more saturated and mono-unsaturated fats and lower poly-unsaturated fats.
Smoke point is the temperature at which an oil starts to burn and produce smoke. Once it crosses that point it is releasing free radicals and toxic compounds into your food. In Indian cooking where temperatures during frying and tadka regularly reach 180 to 220 degrees, choosing an oil with a high smoke point is important for your health. Desi ghee at 240 degrees and palm oil at 230 degrees handle typical Indian cooking temperatures the best.
Free radicals form when poly-unsaturated fatty acids in cooking oil break apart under heat. Once they form they react with whatever is around them including your body's cells and tissues. Long-term exposure through daily cooking with unstable oils contributes to inflammation, heart disease and damage to the kidneys and liver. Choosing oils with lower poly-unsaturated fat is one of the simplest things you can do to reduce this kind of hidden daily damage.
Sunflower oil has 70% poly-unsaturated fatty acids. That means it is quite unstable when heated and it produces a significant amount of free radicals during high-heat cooking like frying and tadka. It is fine for cold salad dressings or very gentle cooking at low heat. But for regular Indian cooking at high temperatures, it is not the safest choice. Groundnut oil or desi ghee would both be better alternatives.
That stale or off smell you notice in home-fried food after a few days is the oil having gone rancid. It happens because poly-unsaturated fats in the oil oxidize after being heated. Oils with more PUFA, like sunflower and soybean oil, go rancid much faster than oils with mostly saturated and mono-unsaturated fats. This is why commercial snacks made with palm oil stay fresh for months without that rancid smell developing.
Check stable fats percentage and smoke point. Cook safe. Stay healthy.
