Cooking Oils' SAFE Temperatures

Heating cooking oils to their smoke point can causes serious indoor air pollution. A kitchen stove hood/vent is a very good idea to help reduce this form of indoor air pollution in the home.

Another really good way to reduce smoke from burning cooking oils is to choose your oils carefully, so you cook with oils that can handle high heat without smoking. For example, refined avocado oil can be heated to just under 500 F before smoking, while unrefined safflower oil will smoke when heated to just under 225 F.

Below is a chart adapted from research published by oil manufacturer Spectrum Naturals, that gives the smoke point of many oils. Try to never heat oils to their smoke point. Even if you do get a stove hood, using the right oil for the right heat is important.

Below 212 F
–Cooking Methods
Boil, steam, scald, stew, simmer, steep, parboil, salad dressings
–Oils You Should Use
Unrefined canola oil (smoke point is below 225 F)
Unrefined flaxseed oil (smoke point is below 225 F)
Unrefined safflower oil (smoke point 225 F)
Unrefined sunflower oil (smoke point is below 225 F)

Below 320 F–Cooking Methods
Low-heat baking, light sauté, pressure cooking
–Oils You Should Use
Unrefined corn oil (smoke point is below 32 F)
Unrefined peanut oil (smoke point is below 320 F)
Semirefined safflower oil (smoke point is below 320 F)
Unrefined soy oil (smoke point is below 320 F)
Unrefined high-Oleic sunflower oil (smoke point is below 320 F)
Unrefined walnut oil (smoke point is below 320 F)

Below 375 F
–Cooking Methods Baking sauté, stir-fry, wok cooking
–Oils You Should Use
Semirefined canola oil (smoke point is below 350 F)
Refined canola oil (smoke point is below 400 F)
Refined corn oil (smoke point is below 450 F)
Unrefined olive oil (smoke point is below 320)
Refined peanut oil (smoke point is below 450 F)
Refined safflower oil (smoke point is below blow 450 F)
Unrefined sesame oil (smoke point is below 350 F)
Semirefined sesame oil (smoke point is below 450 F)
Semirefined soy oil (smoke point is below 350 F)
Refined soy oil (smoke point is below blow 450 F)
Semirefined sunflower oil (smoke point is below 450 F)
Refined high-oleic sunflower oil (smoke point is below 450 F)
Semirefined walnut oil (smoke point is below 400 F)

Below 500 F
–Cooking Methods
Sear, brown, deep-fry.
–Oils You Should Use
Refined avocado oil has a smoke point of below 520 F, the highest temperature of all the plant oils.

choosing the right cardio equipment

Choosing the right cardio equipment Taking together the research on caloric expenditure and the amount of skill needed to acquire a cardiovascular and caloric benefit, the treadmill would have to be considered the best piece of cardio equipment, followed by the cross-country skiing machine (e.g., NordicTrack), rowing machine, stair stepper and stationary cycle. So, next time one of your clients asks which piece of cardio equipment is best, tell him or her to choose equipment that uses a lot of muscle mass, is weight-bearing and has a low skill level so he or she can get more out of the activity.


Your clients expend approximately 5 calories for every 1 liter of oxygen consumed (which varies slightly depending on how much fat and carbohydrates are used). Using more muscle mass during exercise also increases energy expenditure after exercise, as the post-exercise metabolic rate (as measured by the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) has been found to be significantly greater and take longer to return to resting values following lower-body exercise (stationary cycling) than following upper-body exercise (arm cranking) performed at the same relative intensity.

Weight-bearing activities are associated with a significantly greater caloric expenditure than non-weight-bearing activities,5 even when the two types of exercise are performed at the same level of intensity.1 Among weight-bearing activities, running uses more calories than most everything else, being equaled only by cross-country skiing and sports that require a lot of running, like soccer, squash, handball and racquetball

Comparing the rates of energy expenditure at RPE values of 11 (fairly light), 13 (somewhat hard) and 15 (hard) on the Borg scale of 6 to 20 between six indoor exercise machines — Airdyne, cross-country skiing simulator, stationary cycle, rowing machine, stair stepper and treadmill — Zeni, et al.,11 found that the treadmill induced a significantly higher rate of energy expenditure at each RPE compared to all of the other exercise equipment. Among the other equipment, the cross-country skiing simulator, rowing machine and stair stepper induced significantly higher rates of energy expenditure than the Airdyne and stationary cycle. The highest HR occurred on the treadmill and the stair stepper, and blood lactate concentration (another marker of exercise intensity) was highest on the stair stepper and rowing machine. The authors concluded that the treadmill is the optimal indoor exercise machine for enhancing energy expenditure when perceived exertion is used to establish exercise intensity.