I’m going to say something that might get me in trouble with the internet wellness crowd: butter is not evil. Neither is ghee. And coconut oil is not a miracle food. The truth about fat in cooking is way more nuanced than any Instagram infographic will ever tell you, and after spending over a decade cooking in professional kitchens, I’ve got some opinions.
Let me start by saying I’m a chef, not a nutritionist. But I’ve worked alongside enough food scientists, dietary consultants, and health-conscious hotel guests to have a pretty solid understanding of how fats work — both in terms of flavour and in terms of what they do to your body. So here’s my honest, no-BS take.
Saturated vs Unsaturated: The Basics Without the Lecture
Every fat molecule is basically a chain of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms attached. Saturated fats have all their carbon slots filled with hydrogen — they’re “saturated” with it. This makes them solid at room temperature (think butter, ghee, coconut oil). Unsaturated fats have gaps in their hydrogen chain, which makes them liquid at room temperature (olive oil, mustard oil, sesame oil).
The old-school thinking was: saturated fat bad, unsaturated fat good. The reality is more complicated. We now know that moderate amounts of saturated fat are fine for most people, and that the real villain is trans fat — artificially created by hydrogenating vegetable oils. Trans fats are found in vanaspati, cheap margarines, and a lot of processed snack foods. Those are the fats you actually want to avoid.
In my kitchen, I use a mix of both saturated and unsaturated fats depending on what I’m cooking. And honestly? The “best” fat depends entirely on what you’re doing with it.
Smoke Points: Why This Actually Matters in Your Kitchen
Every fat has a smoke point — the temperature at which it starts to break down, smoke, and produce harmful compounds. This is the single most practical thing you need to understand about cooking fats.
Extra virgin olive oil has a lower smoke point (around 190°C). Beautiful for dressings, light sautéing, finishing dishes. Terrible for deep frying. I’ve watched home cooks try to deep fry with extra virgin olive oil and the kitchen fills with smoke before the oil even gets hot enough. Use refined olive oil or something else for high-heat cooking.
Ghee has a gorgeously high smoke point (around 250°C) and is my go-to for Indian cooking that needs high heat. It also tastes incredible. There’s a reason our grandmothers cooked everything in ghee — it’s genuinely one of the best cooking fats out there. Stable at high temperatures, beautiful nutty flavour, and it’s been a staple in Indian cooking for thousands of years for very good reasons.
“Use the right fat for the right job. Olive oil for your salad, ghee for your tadka, butter for your cake. Stop trying to make one oil do everything — it can’t.” — My approach to fat, simplified.
Mustard oil, once it’s heated past its initial pungent stage, is excellent for high-heat cooking and has a distinctive flavour that works beautifully in certain dishes. Rice bran oil and sunflower oil are neutral-flavoured options for when you don’t want the fat to dominate.
The Coconut Oil Conversation
I need to address this because coconut oil has been marketed like it’s the second coming. “Put it in your coffee! Cook everything with it! Rub it on your skin!” Calm down, internet.
Coconut oil is about 82% saturated fat — higher than butter. It does have medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) which are metabolised differently than other saturated fats, and there’s some evidence they can be beneficial. But calling it a health food while demonising butter (which is about 63% saturated fat) is just inconsistent logic.
I use coconut oil when I want coconut flavour — in certain desserts, in some South Indian cooking, in specific recipes where it makes sense. I don’t use it as my everyday cooking oil because it’s not neutral enough for most dishes and it’s expensive for what it is.
What I Actually Use in My Kitchen (And Why)
After all these years, here’s my fat lineup and I’m very comfortable with it:
Ghee for Indian cooking, high-heat sautéing, and tadkas. Nothing beats it. Butter for baking, finishing sauces, and anywhere I want that rich, creamy flavour. Extra virgin olive oil for salad dressings, finishing dishes, and light cooking. Regular refined oil (sunflower or rice bran) for deep frying and neutral-flavoured cooking. Mustard oil for specific regional dishes where that flavour is essential. Sesame oil as a finishing oil for Asian-inspired dishes.
I don’t keep margarine in my kitchen. Ever. Butter tastes better, behaves more predictably in baking, and doesn’t contain the processed ingredients that most margarines do. If I’m choosing between butter and margarine, butter wins every single time. At least I know exactly what’s in it — cream and sometimes salt.
The bottom line? Fat is not your enemy. Bad fat choices and too much of any fat — that’s the problem. Use variety, match your fat to your cooking method, and stop believing that any single oil is a magic solution. Cook with common sense, eat with pleasure, and stop letting the internet make you afraid of your own kitchen. Your grandmother had it right all along.