Walk through any supermarket aisle and you will see a familiar promise repeated everywhere.
“Heart healthy.”
“Plant based.”
“Cholesterol free.”
Cooking oils sit at the centre of this messaging, yet few ingredients have generated more confusion over the past decade.
Some voices insist that seed oils are toxic. Others claim they are completely harmless. Olive oil is often presented as the universal gold standard, while other oils are dismissed entirely.
The reality, as usual in nutrition science, is more nuanced. But one fact is difficult to ignore: industrial cooking oils now dominate the modern food supply.
Industrial Oils Are Everywhere
Cooking oils are no longer just something used at home in a frying pan.
They are foundational ingredients across the modern food system because they are:
• inexpensive to produce
• easy to refine and standardise
• stable during processing
• neutral in flavour
For manufacturers, these properties make oils such as soybean oil, canola oil, and sunflower oil extremely useful.
They appear in:
• snack foods
• salad dressings
• baked goods
• protein bars
• ready meals
• restaurant frying oils
Even many foods marketed as “healthy” rely heavily on these oils simply because they scale efficiently in large production systems.
This means many people consume far more industrial oil than they realise, even if they believe they are avoiding it at home.
Where Inflammation Enters the Conversation
Inflammation itself is not a disease. It is a biological response used by the immune system to repair tissue and defend the body.
Problems arise when inflammation becomes chronic and low grade, a pattern linked to conditions such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes.
Dietary fat composition can influence these pathways.
Research published by Simopoulos in Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy highlighted the importance of balance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in the human diet. Excessively high ratios of omega-6 to omega-3 have been associated with increased inflammatory signalling in certain contexts.
Further work by Calder in Proceedings of the Nutrition Society demonstrated how different fatty acids interact with inflammatory mediators and immune responses.
Many common seed oils contain high levels of polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acids. These fats are not inherently harmful, but when consumed in very large quantities relative to other fats they may influence inflammatory pathways.
This is where the broader dietary pattern becomes important.
Oxidation and Heat
Another factor is what happens to oils when they are exposed to heat.
Polyunsaturated fats are chemically more reactive than monounsaturated fats. When heated repeatedly they are more prone to oxidation and the formation of degradation products such as aldehydes.
Research published in Food Chemistry and related journals has shown that repeatedly heated vegetable oils can produce measurable levels of oxidation products during high temperature cooking.
This does not mean every use of these oils is harmful. It does suggest that stability matters when oils are exposed to heat frequently.
The Olive Oil Halo
Olive oil is often held up as the perfect counterexample.
Extra virgin olive oil contains beneficial polyphenols and is a central feature of Mediterranean dietary patterns associated with good health outcomes.
But there are two realities that are often overlooked.
First, not all olive oil sold globally is extra virgin. Some products labelled as olive oil are refined, blended, or deodorised to improve shelf stability.
Second, even authentic extra virgin olive oil gradually loses antioxidant content when exposed to oxygen, light, and heat during storage.
This does not make olive oil unhealthy. It simply means the health halo attached to the category sometimes ignores the variability in how oils are produced and handled.
The Structural Advantage of Monounsaturated Oils
From a chemistry perspective, oils dominated by monounsaturated fats sit in an interesting middle ground.
They are generally:
• more stable than highly polyunsaturated oils
• lower in saturated fat than animal fats
• suitable for everyday cooking temperatures
Macadamia oil is one of the most monounsaturated oils available, often containing around 55 to 65 percent oleic acid and relatively low levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids compared to many common cooking oils.
This structure makes it comparatively stable during typical household cooking while maintaining a simple processing pathway when cold pressed.
Why Processing Matters
Many industrial oils undergo extensive refining steps including:
• solvent extraction using hexane
• degumming
• bleaching with absorbent clays
• deodorisation through high temperature steam treatment
These processes create neutral, shelf stable oils that perform well in manufacturing.
By contrast, cold pressed oils are mechanically extracted and filtered with minimal alteration. Their flavour, colour, and composition remain closer to the original raw ingredient.
Fancy Farmer macadamia oil is produced as an unrefined cold pressed oil, meaning the characteristics of the nut are largely preserved rather than chemically modified.
This approach does not claim perfection. It simply prioritises minimal processing.
So Are Cooking Oils Causing Inflammation?
The honest answer is that context matters more than any single ingredient.
Inflammation is influenced by many factors including:
• overall dietary pattern
• body weight
• physical activity
• sleep
• metabolic health
However, the types of fats used consistently in cooking and food manufacturing can contribute to long term patterns.
Reducing heavy reliance on highly processed industrial oils while incorporating more stable, minimally processed fats is one practical step many people choose to take.
The Practical Takeaway
You do not need to panic about cooking oils.
But it is reasonable to ask a few simple questions:
What is the fatty acid structure of this oil?
How heavily processed is it?
How often will it be exposed to heat?
Where does it come from?
Cold pressed macadamia oil offers one answer to those questions by combining high monounsaturated fat content, minimal processing, and a transparent supply chain within Australia’s macadamia industry.
In a food landscape filled with conflicting advice, sometimes the most useful step is simply understanding the structure of what you cook with every day.