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Can you discuss how bad vegetable oil or avocado oil is compared to olive oil?

Culinary Medicine: Ask Me Almost Anything

Deb Kennedy, PhD - Culinary Medicine: Ask Me Almost Anything

Recorded

This event was on May 1, 2025

Ever wondered how food can do more than just fuel your body—how it can heal, empower, and transform lives? Join Dr. Deb Kennedy, founder of Food Coach Academy, for a live session where you can Ask Me Almost Anything about the groundbreaking field of Culinary Medicine. This is your chance to dive into an honest, evidence-based conversation about the powerful connection between food, health, and community well-being. ⚠️ Please note: This event is for educational purposes only and does not provide personal medical advice or prescriptions. Always consult a healthcare provider for individualized care.

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Question

Randi Lempert

Can you discuss how bad vegetable oil or avocado oil is compared to olive oil?

Answer

You need to familiarize yourself with the smoke point of oils. And so just google what the smoke point of oil is. So for instance, avocado oil, it takes to 500 degrees before it starts to smoke, which is why if you're cooking something on high heat, avocado oil would be much better than especially first pressed olive oil. 'cause the olive oil will start to smoke. When it starts to smoke. It creates toxins. You don't want that to happen. So you need to pay attention to the smoke point of oils when you are cooking. So again, you wanna look for something that is high smoke point, extra virgin olive oil has a lot of the nutrients still in there like you should see. It should be practically green and it should have a little bitter taste in the back of your mouth. You go like this a little bit, uh, that's not one you wanna cook with. That's one you wanna save. Or when you can taste all those robust flavors in your salads or I even sprinkle a little bit on top of sliced oranges, um, with a little bit of salt and pepper and holy moly, that is fantastic. I am not, unless you want me to get into vegetable oil seed oils. I'm not gonna go into that right now. If you want me to go into that, stick it in the question and I'll get into it a little later. 'cause I think really what you're talking about, 'cause you do uh, refer to cooking and roasting, is you're talking about the smoke point of oils.

Links

Smoke point chart

Deb Kennedy, PhD

PhD Nutritionist

drdebkennedy.com

*Deb Kennedy, PhD* nutritionist, chef and Value-Based Medicine certified, is dedicated to helping people improve their health through food. She received her Ph.D. in Nutritional Biochemistry from Tufts University, and previously held roles with Tufts Human Nutrition Research Center for Aging, Yale’s Prevention Research Center, Babies and Children’s Hospital at New York Presbyterian, Cornell University, and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. She also held the position of first Chair for Best Practices at the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative (CIA) and was an instructor in Culinary Nutrition at the New England Culinary Institute. A pioneer in the growing field of culinary medicine, and self-proclaimed food warrior, Dr. Kennedy is the author of multiple books, including The Culinary Medicine Textbook, a five-volume publication to date that uses her research in food, flavor, eating and nutrition to lay out the concepts and fundamental topics needed to master culinary medicine. For the last several years, Deb, along with 40 nutritionists and a dozen chefs from around the world, created culinary competencies for nutrition recommendations. She has developed the Food Coach Academy based on this work, which is delivered in a science-based modular format that provides individuals with expertise needed to use the power of food to transform health.