Oils and spreads

Avocado oil or olive oil?

By GyroscopeUpdated November 14, 20264 sources

Pick by taste, since they’re built almost the same. A tablespoon of avocado oil has 1.6 g of saturated fat and 9.9 g of monounsaturated fat, and olive oil has 1.8 g and 9.9 g. In the one lab test that measured both, the extra virgin olive oil smoked later, at 404 °F against the avocado oil’s 386 °F.

Avocado oil is often sold as the oil for high heat. When an Australian lab put ten supermarket oils through the same machine in 2018, the avocado oil started smoking before the extra virgin olive oil did.

What we’d do: keep a bottle of extra virgin olive oil for everyday cooking, since it has the heat data and the long-term studies behind it. If you like avocado oil’s milder taste, use it the same way. Either one in place of butter takes about 5.5 g of saturated fat out of every tablespoon.

Side by side

The fat profiles are nearly the same, so they’ll do about the same thing to your LDL. Both are about 70% monounsaturated fat by weight.

Why the smoke points came out that way

Smoke point depends mostly on how much free fatty acid an oil carries, and the authors tie the differences between oils to how they were extracted and how much they were refined. That means it changes from bottle to bottle. In the same test, three olive oils from the supermarket smoked at 348 °F (virgin), 404 °F (extra virgin) and 406 °F (refined olive oil).

The test also tracked what happened as the oils were heated. The avocado oil and the virgin olive oil both had big drops in their smoke points within the first 30 minutes at 356 °F, and the avocado oil had less resistance to oxidation than the extra virgin olive oil. The authors still ranked avocado among the more stable oils, after extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil.

The lab, Modern Olives Laboratory Services, belongs to an olive oil company, and no food was cooked in the oils. It’s also the only test we found that measured supermarket avocado oil and olive oil side by side.

The long view

In a study of 221,054 US adults followed for up to 33 years, each extra 5 g a day of olive oil went with 8% fewer deaths. We haven’t found a long-term study like that for avocado oil, which is a gap in the research and says nothing bad about it. The avocado oil myth has more on the heat claim, and oil compare shows both against your saturated fat line.

Your line 22.2 g

11.2Coconut oil7.9Ghee7.2Butter6.4Beef tallow5.0Lard2.3Peanut oil1.9Sesame oil1.8Olive oil1.7Corn oil1.6Avocado oil1.4Sunflower oil1.0Canola oil0.8Safflower oil

FirstOlive oilCanola oilAvocado oilCorn oilSunflower oilSafflower oil, high oleicPeanut oilSesame oilButterGheeLardBeef tallowCoconut oilSecondOlive oilCanola oilAvocado oilCorn oilSunflower oilSafflower oil, high oleicPeanut oilSesame oilButterGheeLardBeef tallowCoconut oil

How you'll use it

AnyFryingSautéing or roastingBakingDressing

Coconut oil

11.2 g saturated a tablespoon

50% of your 22.2 g line

Mono

0.9 g

Poly

0.2 g

Saturated share

83%

Smoked at 376 °F (191 °C) in one 2018 lab test of supermarket bottles.

The most saturated cooking fat, about 83%. Use it for flavor, not as your everyday oil.

Olive oil

1.8 g saturated a tablespoon

8% of your 22.2 g line

Mono

9.9 g

Poly

1.1 g

Saturated share

13%

Smoked at 404 °F (207 °C) in one 2018 lab test of supermarket bottles (extra virgin 404 °F, olive 406 °F, virgin 348 °F).

Everyday cooking, roasting and dressing. In the test, extra virgin olive oil made the fewest breakdown compounds averaged over both heating runs, with coconut oil close behind.

The heat test

300°350°400°450°500°Deep fryingCoconut oil376 °FOlive oil404 °F

Deep frying usually tops out at 356 °F (180 °C). Averaged over both heating runs, extra virgin olive oil made the fewest breakdown compounds of the ten bottles, with coconut oil close behind, and canola the most. Smoke point didn't predict that. The lab was an olive oil company's (de Alzaa 2018), and the test bottles were Australian.

These are the US guideline's lines. The Gyroscope app personalizes yours.