7 Cooking Oil Brands to Never Buy (And 3 That Are Actually Pure)

Grab any bottle of vegetable oil off a grocery store shelf and the label tells you almost nothing — no plant name, no origin, no processing method. That's the starting point for this deep dive into seven cooking oil brands that exploit exactly that gap, and three oils that don't. This video goes past the usual "seed oils are bad" talking points and into the actual processing chain: hexane solvent extraction, high-heat deodorization, FDA labeling loopholes, and how a bottle bought last month can legally contain a completely different oil blend than the one bought today. Brands Covered (Avoid List) Starting at #7, Wesson Vegetable Oil is broken down as mostly soybean oil run through refined, bleached, deodorized (RBD) processing using hexane, a petroleum byproduct. At #6, Crisco Pure Vegetable Oil is examined for the gap between its "pure" branding and its full industrial refining process, including the loss of natural vitamin E during deodorization. #5 covers Mazola Corn Oil and why its high polyunsaturated fat content makes it especially prone to oxidizing under grocery store lighting before it's even opened. #4 looks at generic store brand vegetable oil and how FDA rules let manufacturers change the actual soybean-to-canola-to-cottonseed ratio batch to batch without updating the label. #3 covers Smart Balance and the rise of "high oleic" sunflower and soybean oils as the industry's direct response to consumer skepticism about seed oils. At #2, canola oil gets a full history lesson — how it was developed from rapeseed through plant breeding at the University of Manitoba in the 1970s, why the name "canola" (Canadian Oil, Low Acid) was trademarked in 1978 to distance it from its industrial rapeseed origins, and how national brands like Kirkland and Great Value canola go through deodorization at 450–500°F that can generate measurable trans fat not reflected on the nutrition label. #1 covers Crisco shortening and other partially hydrogenated blends, tracing how hydrogenation created industrial trans fat and why fully hydrogenated versions are still legally on shelves today. The Reheating Factor A key section addresses what most seed oil content gets wrong: the difference between a fresh bottle used occasionally at home and a restaurant fryer reheating the same oil hundreds of times. Research from Professor Martin Grootveld at De Montfort University is cited, showing corn oil and sunflower oil produce the most aldehydes under heat, while butter, lard, olive oil, and coconut oil produce far fewer. The Three Safe Oils The video closes with three oils worth buying: extra virgin olive oil from a single-origin, verified source (and why olive oil fraud makes brand selection critical); expeller-pressed, unrefined avocado oil, prized for its natural oleic acid content and high smoke point; and organic, cold-pressed, unrefined coconut oil, valued for its heat stability due to its saturated fat content. Timestamps 0:00 – Intro: What "vegetable oil" on a label really means 1:07 – #7 Wesson Vegetable Oil 3:06 – #6 Crisco Pure Vegetable Oil 4:27 – #5 Mazola Corn Oil 5:43 – #4 Generic Store Brand Vegetable Oil 7:00 – #3 Smart Balance & High-Oleic Oils 8:19 – #2 Canola Oil (Kirkland, Great Value) 11:27 – #1 Crisco Shortening & Partially Hydrogenated Oils 12:38 – The Truth About Reheated Frying Oil 14:13 – Safe Oil #1: Extra Virgin Olive Oil 15:12 – Safe Oil #2: Avocado Oil 16:08 – Safe Oil #3: Coconut Oil 16:53 – Final Takeaway By the end of this video, you'll understand exactly what happens to cooking oil between the seed and the bottle, why certain labeling terms are legally allowed to hide the real ingredients, which of your current pantry staples deserve a second look, and which unrefined, minimally processed oils are actually worth spending more on.