The Indian Cooking Oil Guide — For Kitchens in India and Abroad

Walk into any Indian kitchen and you’ll find at least two or three different cooking oils. Ask the cook which one is healthiest and you’ll get a confident answer — but ask a different cook in a different region and you’ll get an equally confident, completely different answer. The truth is that cooking oil is one of the most genuinely complex topics in nutrition — because the right answer depends on what you’re cooking, how you’re cooking it, which oil you’re using, and how it was processed. This guide cuts through the confusion — for kitchens in India and abroad.

Why the same oil can be healthy or harmful depending on how you use it

Before comparing individual oils, the single most important principle to understand is this: how you use an oil matters as much as which oil you choose. An oil that is genuinely beneficial when used at the right temperature becomes harmful when overheated. An oil with an excellent nutritional profile when cold-pressed loses much of its value when refined. And any oil, regardless of quality, causes harm when used in excessive quantities over time.

The two factors that govern oil behaviour under heat are smoke point — the temperature at which the oil begins to chemically degrade — and oxidative stability — how resistant the oil’s fatty acids are to breaking down under heat and air exposure. These two factors together determine which oils are safe for high-heat cooking and which should be reserved for lower-temperature use.

Ghee — the original high-performance cooking fat

Ghee is clarified butter — butter with milk solids and water removed, leaving pure butterfat. It has been central to Indian cooking and Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years, and modern nutritional science has been progressively rehabilitating its reputation after decades of saturated fat anxiety.

The nuance on ghee: its saturated fat content (approximately 62%) means those with significantly elevated LDL cholesterol or existing cardiovascular disease should consume it thoughtfully rather than liberally. For the majority of healthy adults, moderate ghee use as part of a balanced whole-food diet is well supported by the evidence.

Mustard oil — the most underrated oil in the Indian kitchen

Mustard oil deserves a far more prominent place in the conversation about healthy cooking oils than it currently receives. It is the dominant cooking oil across North, East, and West India — from Rajasthani cooking to Bengali cuisine to Gujarati tempering — and the research behind it is genuinely impressive.

Coconut oil — traditional staple, modern controversy

Coconut oil is the cooking fat of choice across coastal India — Kerala, coastal Karnataka, Goa, and parts of Tamil Nadu — where it has been used for centuries. Its reputation has swung between superfood and villain more than any other oil in recent memory. The current evidence sits somewhere more nuanced than either extreme.

Coconut oil is approximately 90% saturated fat — higher than butter or ghee — but its saturated fat is largely composed of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), which the body metabolises differently from long-chain saturated fats. MCTs are absorbed more quickly and are less likely to be stored as body fat. Unrefined virgin coconut oil has a lower smoke point (~175°C) making it unsuitable for deep frying; refined coconut oil reaches ~230°C and handles higher-heat cooking better, though it loses some flavour and minor nutrients in the refining process.

Olive oil — the most researched oil in the world

Extra virgin olive oil has a stronger evidence base for cardiovascular health than any other cooking oil. It is the cornerstone fat of the Mediterranean diet, one of the most extensively studied dietary patterns in nutritional science, consistently associated with reduced cardiovascular disease, lower inflammation, and improved longevity outcomes.

Its limitation in the Indian kitchen is practical rather than nutritional: extra virgin olive oil has a smoke point of approximately 190-210°C, making it unsuitable for high-heat Indian cooking methods. Using expensive extra virgin olive oil for deep frying or tadka is both a waste of money and a potential health negative — at those temperatures it degrades into the same harmful compounds as any other overheated oil. Its value is best preserved in dressings, lower-heat cooking, finishing dishes, and light sautéing.

The refined oils we use most — and why we should use them less

The most commonly consumed cooking oils across urban India are refined vegetable oils — sunflower, soybean, safflower, rice bran, and refined groundnut oil. These dominate because they are inexpensive, neutral in flavour, and have high smoke points. But the refining process that makes them cheap and stable comes with significant costs.

The broader concern with heavy reliance on refined vegetable oils — particularly sunflower and soybean — is their very high omega-6 polyunsaturated fat content. While omega-6 fats are essential in the diet, the modern Indian diet already contains far more omega-6 than omega-3, and this imbalance is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation. Refined vegetable oils aggressively worsen this ratio when used as the primary cooking fat.

Cold-pressed oils — what they are and why they matter

Cold-pressed oils are extracted mechanically at low temperatures without chemical solvents or high heat. This process preserves the oil’s natural antioxidants, polyphenols, vitamins, and flavour compounds — all of which are largely destroyed in the refining process. Cold-pressed oils cost more and have shorter shelf lives than refined alternatives, but their nutritional superiority is well established.

A practical framework for your kitchen

A note for Indians living abroad

For the Indian diaspora cooking traditional food in Western kitchens, the oil landscape looks meaningfully different — and a few practical realities are worth addressing directly.

Ghee is your most reliable constant. It is now available in mainstream supermarkets across the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and most of Western Europe — in health food stores, Indian grocery stores, and increasingly in regular supermarket chains. It behaves identically regardless of climate, has a long shelf life, and handles all high-heat Indian cooking methods perfectly. If you can only stock one traditional Indian fat abroad, make it ghee.

Mustard oil — know your country’s rules. In the USA and Canada, mustard oil is legally sold as “for external use / massage only” due to erucic acid regulations, though it is widely available in Indian grocery stores and extensively used in Indian households without demonstrable harm. In the UK and EU, food-grade mustard oil is harder to source but available in specialist Indian grocery stores. In Australia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, it is generally more accessible. If you use mustard oil abroad, source it from a reputable Indian grocery store.

Coconut oil behaves differently in cold climates. Virgin coconut oil is liquid above approximately 24°C and solidifies into a white solid below that temperature. If you open your coconut oil jar in a British winter and find a solid block, this is completely normal — the oil has not gone bad. It returns to liquid when gently warmed. Refined coconut oil has a slightly lower melting point and is more consistently liquid in temperate climates, which may be more practical for some uses.

Frequently asked questions