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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Cook with saturated fats such as butter, coconut oil, and avocado oil, and avoid seed oils such as canola, safflower, cottonseed, and soybean oil. According to Dr. Berry, seed oils promote inflammation, weight gain, and heart disease, while according to Dr. Berry, saturated fats are beneficial and do not meaningfully raise cholesterol.
Key Points
- Dr. Berry ranks cooking oils: best are butter, coconut oil, and avocado oil; next are extra virgin olive oil, macadamia nut oil, and avocado oil; then walnut seed oil; everything else should be avoided.
- Dr. Berry argues that dietary cholesterol is a minor concern because the body produces about 3,000 mg of cholesterol daily, and that inflammation, weight gain, and poor health outcomes matter more.
- Monounsaturated oils such as extra virgin olive oil and macadamia nut oil are described as acceptable cooking fats that supply fats for cell membranes, brain tissue, and nerves.
- Dr. Berry says seed oils with names like safflower, cottonseed, and soybean raise inflammatory markers and promote weight gain and heart disease.
- Canola oil is singled out as the worst oil, and Crisco and margarine are also said to be very harmful.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: Cook your foods with butter, coconut oil, or avocado oil as the top choices; use olive oil, avocado oil, or macadamia nut oil as the next-best options; use walnut seed oil only as a lesser option; avoid safflower, cottonseed, soybean, canola, Crisco, and margarine.
- Concrete instructions: Check bottle labels for oils with names like safflower, cottonseed, or soybean, and remove canola oil, Crisco, or margarine from your kitchen. The speaker says that if you have canola oil, pour it down the drain and throw the bottle away; if you have Crisco or margarine, throw it in the garbage.
- The speaker recommends buying natural, organic, or grass-fed saturated fats when possible, and says you can still eat healthily on a budget.
- The video frames the cholesterol concern as a distraction and recommends focusing on inflammation, weight gain, and health outcomes instead, and suggests more reading on the ketogenic diet for context.
- The speaker frames these claims as his own position, not as professional medical advice.
Bottom Line
Your cooking oil choice matters most for inflammation and weight, so the video's practical takeaway is to swap seed oils for saturated or select monounsaturated fats and discard the worst offenders like canola.
