Okay, here we go! In no particular order:
Olive oil - One of healthiest oil available on the market. It is natural and is full of nutrients. The price of this oil is as expected—expensive. And the downside is that this oil cannot really be used for high heat cooking. In fact, try not to use this for cooking if possible since it breaks down easily.
Canola Oil - One of most commonly found oil, whether in supermarkets or in processed food, this oil may be cheap but it sure generates lots of profit for corporations. A firm of rapeseed oil, it is tasteless and has hardly any nutritious benefits. Yet it is popular due to the price, the so-called health benefits (as opposed to those with high saturated fat content) and high smoke point where it can be used for all cooking purposes. The thing is that high percentage, yes, more than 50%, of canola is of GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) variety. This is enough to put me off. To make things worse, the extraction of canola oil requires the use of the toxic hexane.
Soya Bean Oil - This is pretty much another form of canola oil, having almost the same pros of being cheap and has high smoke point, and same cons associated with GMO and hexane. No surprise that fast food restaurants and processed food manufacturers love to use this oil!
Lard - Oh yes, this is so fatty and looks so artery-clogging. But as compared to the previous two, this is natural, good stuff, if the pigs are naturally raised. And use of this makes delicious pastries, thanks to its relatively high smoke point. I rather see lard in the ingredients list than those so-called healthy but hardly natural oils.
Peanut Oil - The good old peanut oil that imparts a nutty flavour to the food. While it may not have an impressive looking chart for fat content, I will choose to use this oil anytime of the day due to its high smoke point, flavour and natural extraction process. Helps that peanuts is not infamous for being associated with GMO crops. The con: this is more expensive than those common oils. And watch out for those products that have soya bean oil added into peanut oil to reduce cost price.
Rice Bran Oil - This oil looks good on the paper since rice is usually non-GMO crop and we all know rice is a healthy source of carbohydrates. Almost every article hails this as the healthy oil due to the huge amount of nutrients in it. And it has high smoke point. However, this oil has very high omega 6 content and none for no omega 3 (need to have a good ratio for consumption of these two), and that is going to cause problems for the health. In addition, unless the oil is stated to be cold-pressed, high probability that it is extracted by hexane.
Grapeseed oil - Another look-good-on-paper oil. Like the Rice Bran Oil, this has very high omega 6 content with nary a drop of omega 3. This is definitely extracted by use of hexane, unless stated to be cold pressed.
Corn Oil - It is obvious that I have no love for this oil since corn is highly associated with GMO (for information purposes, the last and fourth infamous GMO crop is potato. So avoid potatoes from USA unless specified to be non GMO). So what if this is cheap and has high smoke point? I am not going to use this oil if there is a choice. By the way, most of the corn oil is hexane extracted. Hexane ... hmm ... why do I keep seeing this word when I type this post?
Coconut Oil - This oil used to be demonized by many due to its high saturated fat content. Now, many realized that this is good stuff. While more studies are needed to determine the benefits of coconut oil, at least one thing is for sure, virgin coconut oil is extracted from heat and mechanical processes. Take note that conventional ones are extracted from solvent processes (in case you are wondering, hexane is one of them). And this oil has high smoke point.
Butter - I absolutely love using this for light cooking due to its unparallel flavour and aroma. This is absolutely natural and has none of those nasties (saturated fat is not a demon in my eyes, I will always choose full cream milk over low fat one, and my figure does not suffer from it. As I had said, it is about moderation). Not for frying though, and this is really expensive stuff.
Actually, besides high smoking point, another factor to determine the use of the oil is the type of bonds present between the molecules of the oil. May write about on another day.
A great website I had found, which I find to be more informative and accurate.
http://authoritynutrition.com/healthy-cooking-oils/
You can't believe the amount of misleading information on the net, so the one above is one of the few with reliable information.
