quick question on olive oil vs vegetable oil

Hi! is cooking in one healthier than the other?
thanks

Vegetable oil is usually a mix of canola, sunflower oil, safflower oil, cottonseed oil and/or peanut oil.  You'll have to read your bottle to find out.

Here are two great links on oils; this one is from Harvard School of Public Health (link) and the other is Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated, Saturated and Superunsaturated omega-3 fat break downs of some different oils from Wholefoods (link).

So the answer is olive oil most likely has less Polyunsaturated and Saturated fats then vegetable oil and more Monounsaturated so it should be better for you (unless you got a really great mix of vegetable oil).

I've heard that olive oil is better than vegetable oil in general, but you do lose most of the benefits when cooking.  I think there are some healthier alternatives such as coconut oil.  I personally use olive oil, but in very small amounts.

I just don't buy that Coconut oil is all that heathy. It may have 'good' saturated fat but with it being 87% saturated fat some of it has to be bad saturated fat, even if it's half of it that's still 42.5% bad fat. (Coconut oil has higher saturated fat then butter, lard or shortening).

And if anyone is going to defend coconut oil please don't link to the mercola site. I am not giving away my email to read it.

Canola oil is what I use. It tastes better than Olive oil, but it doesn't have the saturated fat that vegetable oil has.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_oil

I think the main benefit of coconut oil is that it isn't damaged as easily from heat. 

However, I found this site that says it's bad for you anyway:
http://www.healthcastle.com/coconut-saturated -heart.shtml

But that's the only bad things I've been able to find about coconut oil

It seems like olive oil's main problem is that it can't stand moderate to high temperatures, so if you keep it at a low temperature, it's the best option.  I personally don't cook at high temperatures, so I'll stick to olive oil.

I only have olive oil, canola oil, and the Earth Balance vegan spread margerine which has a blend of oils.  Once in a great while I have a small amount of very good, organic butter.

i use extra virgin olive oil to drizzle on bread or tomatoes or as a salad oil; virgin olive oil or canola oil for cooking - olive oil on bread is really so tasty and a tiny bit goes a long way

i avoid anything with coconut oil

Thanks all!