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What to look for to choose healthy sunflower oil rather than the unhealthy kind used widely in processed foods, even if cold-pressed and organic!
As a kid, I remember Summer, baseball, and sunflower seeds. Kids throughout my neighborhood enjoyed munching on this healthy treat during baseball games both in the dugout and in the stands. While most adults don’t eat sunflower seeds like their kids, many do consume sunflower oil even if they aren’t aware of it.
In recent years, sunflower oil has become a very popular fat to use in natural and/or organic snacks and chips. It is also popular as a cooking oil. This trend is in response to growing consumer awareness of the dangers of other polyunsaturated oils such as soy, corn, and canola which are also usually of GMO origin.
Since the oil comes from the beloved seeds, it seems logical that sunflower oil is a healthy fat to choose for the kitchen. Let’s dig in and see if this conclusion makes sense.
Sunflower Oil Uses
Most people are familiar with the source of sunflower seeds – the beautiful and stately sunflower. These lovely, large, and very diverse plants are grown across the country as parts of gardens and landscaping for their beauty, pollinator attraction, and other benefits.
Sunflowers are an excellent plant to help the birds, bees, and other wildlife in and around your property (1).
Food
Speaking of seeds, sunflower plants are prolific seed producers. A single plant may produce close to 1,000 seeds! While most people are familiar with eating sunflower seeds, many do not realize soaking and drying seeds prior to eating makes them even more digestible and nutritious.
Animal Feed
Another popular use of sunflower seeds is for animal feed. They make a quality replacement for lots of processed or genetically modified ingredients.
Tip: If you grow them for animal feed, you may need to take measures to protect the plants from the birds, squirrels, and other creatures who also love to snack on this nutritious seed!
Manufacturing
In recent years, sunflower seed oil is commonly used in food manufacturing. If you check ingredients on the chip aisle of the health food store, many list sunflower oil as a primary ingredient.
Straights facts on Sunflower Oil Nutrition
The general nutrition data on sunflower oil gives the following breakdown of the fatty acid profile.
- Saturated fat (as Palmitic and Stearic acid): 11%
- Monounsaturated or omega-9 fat (as Oleic acid): 30%
- Polyunsaturated fat or omega-6 PUFAs (as linoleic acid): 59%
Beyond the fatty acid profile, there isn’t much else to say about sunflower oil save that it is high in vitamin E and natural lecithin, which isn’t chemically extracted like soya lecithin. This is only true if it is cold-pressed and unrefined, however! Refined versions processed with heat are low nutrients oils.
High in Omega-6
As you can see, this golden oil is very high in omega-6 PUFAs clocking in at about 60%. This amount is not as high as other popular oils at the health food store such as:
- Grapeseed oil (70-76%)
- Hemp seed oil (72-81%)
- Pumpkin seed oil (64%)
Nonetheless, it is still high enough to be a concern. Note that rice bran oil, used by Chipotle for cooking, is significantly lower in PUFAs at 38%.
The peanut oil used by Chick-fil-A and Five Guys Burgers have a PUFA content of 32%. However, Chipotle uses sunflower oil to fry its chips and Chick-fil-A/Five Guys use peanut oil to make french fries. So, you’re still getting plenty of vegetable oils if you eat at either of these restaurants.
What’s more, the sunflower seed oil and peanut oil used in these chains are highly refined, so you’re consuming rancid vegetable oils too.
No Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Another concern is that sunflower oil contains no beneficial, inflammation-reducing omega-3 fats like those found in unrefined walnut oil or flaxseed oil. This is a problem if someone consumes sunflower oil regularly, as it will unbalance the crucial ratio of omega-6 / omega-3 fats in the diet. If we were exposed to only minuscule amounts of this oil, it wouldn’t be a concern.
The worry is that sunflower oil is everywhere in the food supply most especially if you eat organic! Thus, if you cook with it, you’re compounding the problem of excessive exposure.
But, this isn’t necessarily a problem if you are a savvy consumer. Read on for more details!
Sunflower Oil in the Modern Diet
Sunflower oil is exceptionally common in most Americans’ diets. Its clean, mild taste and high smoke point (450 F/ 232 C degrees), along with ease of cultivation make it a favorite for the processed foods industry. The high smoke point doesn’t mean it is appropriate for frying, however! It most likely indicates that it is refined instead of cold-pressed, which says “avoid” in flashing neon colors.
If you’ve ever looked at the back of many foods in the chip aisle, the label often reads “made with canola, sunflower, or safflower oil.” Translation: Whatever oil is the cheapest and most convenient at the time is what is used! Crackers, chips, cookies, and many other foods may contain it. Fast food and prepackaged foods depend on it, including the organic food industry.
*Buying organic is no protection from exposure to rancid, health-robbing oils.
The Problem with Frying with Oil from Sunflower Seeds
Even worse, when used for frying and a few other applications, sunflower and other oils are often heated REPEATEDLY. The European Union, after seeing studies that showed the dangerous chemical changes these repeated cooking cycles had on the oils, now prohibits the reuse of such oils after they reach certain levels of these dangerous compounds (2).
But, if you really love the mild taste of sunflower oil, you will be happy to learn that not all sunflower oils are the same.
Different Types
Sunflower seeds are interesting because various types have quite different fatty acid profiles. Since the plants are easy to breed, this also permits the fatty acid profile of the seeds to be altered via hybridization. This process of selective breeding affects the end products made from them too, most especially the oil pressed or chemically extracted from the sunflower seeds.
Consumers now have a number of sunflower oils to choose from including:
- Low oleic sunflower oil – around 30% oleic acid (monounsaturated), around 60% linoleic (omega-6 PUFA)
- Mid-oleic sunflower oil – at least 69% oleic acid (monounsaturated), 26% linoleic (omega-6 PUFA)
- High oleic sunflower oil – at least 82% oleic acid (monounsaturated), 9% linoleic (omega-6 PUFA)
- High stearic sunflower oil – around 72% oleic (monounsaturated), 18% stearic (saturated). This oil is so stable, it doesn’t require any hydrogenation, which creates trans-fats.
Mid, Low, or High Oleic?
Mid-oleic is currently the standard sunflower oil in North America, and what you are most likely to be consuming at restaurants or in processed and packaged foods.
Unfortunately, it is still unacceptably high in omega-6 PUFAs at around 26%. On the positive side, it does contain a large amount of monounsaturated fat, a definite improvement over low oleic varieties (3).
Refined vs Cold-Pressed and Unrefined
Educated consumers win when it comes to sunflower seed oil. They know to avoid processed versions of the oil which are hexane extracted. Some are also hydrogenated presenting the health risks from transfats. Avoid these always!
Warning: The labels of processed foods like chips and cookies that are made using sunflower oil do not differentiate between the type of sunflower oil used.
In other words, you don’t know how it was processed, extracted, hydrogenated, handled, and the like. Hence, it is best to avoid processed foods even if organic brands contain sunflower oil.
Smokepoint
Another important note: As mentioned above, cold-pressed, unrefined sunflower oil has a much lower smoke point than refined. The price of getting that higher smoke point is basically the destruction of the oil into a rancid fatty acid fest! Here’s a brief description of what you’re getting with refined sunflower oil:
Refining sunflower oil through solvent extraction, de-gumming, neutralization, and bleaching can make it more stable and suitable for high-temperature cooking; but, will also remove some of the oil’s nutrients; flavor; color (resulting in a pale-yellow); free fatty acids; phospholipids; polyphenols; and, phytosterols. Unrefined sunflower oil is less heat-stable (and therefore well-suited to dishes that are either raw or cooked at low temperatures); but, will retain more of its original nutrient content, flavor, and color (light-amber). (4)
Industrial Uses
This processed oil is certainly appropriate for industrial purposes, but not for human consumption!
An interesting fact to consider is that sunflower oil can be mixed with diesel fuel and used to power diesel engines if outdoor temperatures are warm enough!
Best Type to Choose
Even if you don’t heat refine sunflower oil in your home after you buy it, the likelihood is that it has already been heated to temperatures that denature it prior to your purchase at the store. Processed sunflower oil also may very possibly contain trace amounts of carcinogenic solvents from this processing. Shockingly, even after the chemical extraction of sunflower oil from the seeds, the oil may be refined further. This removes still more nutrients resulting in a low nutrient fat that has no place in the diet.
Discerning the quality of a sunflower oil brand can be tricky, though. Take the bottle in the picture above, for example. It says all the right things at first glance.
- Organic
- Expeller Pressed (i.e., no chemical solvents used)
- NonGMO verified
- High Oleic (says this on the back label – means it is low in omega-6 PUFAs)
Read Labels Carefully!
Would it be a good idea to buy this product? Probably not because it says refined [for] high heat at the bottom of the bottle. In other words, manufacturers heat treated or refined the oil prior to bottling. This process partially or completely destroys nutrients like natural Vitamin E and sunflower lecithin. Free radical damage is also likely.
Read the labels carefully!
Best to avoid any foods cooked with refined sunflower oil and stick with coconut or avocado oil chips.
High Oleic Sunflower Oil is Best
If you choose to use or consume this oil in your home, it is best to use cold-pressed, high oleic, unrefined, organic sunflower oil (this brand is excellent). Used traditionally in salad dressing as in Eastern European cuisine is a great way to enjoy it.
Remember that healthy fats naturally liquid at room temperature require careful handling and storage. They are prone to rancidity even if high oleic. Carefully choosing a good brand as mentioned above is important. Also, use it quickly, or be sure to refrigerate. In moderation, these oils make a wonderful addition to your kitchen and cuisine.
Sunflower Oil in Homemade Formula
One other important note. While high oleic sunflower oil is great to use for home cooking, it is inappropriate as an ingredient in homemade baby formula. This nutritionist-developed recipe for baby formula includes sunflower oil that is cold-pressed, unrefined, organic, and LOW oleic (this brand is recommended). This ensures that the appropriate level of essential omega-6 fats is in the formula.
My vitamin D3 liquid supplement contains sunflower oil, but the company won’t tell me how much is in each serving because it is proprietary information. Should I worry about whether it’s hydrogenated or not? Should I worry about it at all?
I would not worry about it, as it would be a very tiny amount.
i don’t understand. if it says refined by cold pressed (expeller pressed), why do you say it’s heat treated?
We love to make our mayonnaise with sunflower oil. It whips up great and give us mayo with no olive taste. Thanks for the tips n buying the good stuff 🙂
I thought saturated fat/oil is the only safe thing to cook with but I see you recommend avocado oil potato chips. Is avocado oil the exception to the rule of only using stable saturated fat/oil to cook with?
You can cook with fats that are primarily monounsaturated like tallow, olive oil and avocado oil too. Olive oil is a special case .. it has powerful and very beneficial phenols that are destroyed by heat but the oil is not going to form free radicals if you cook with it. Quality extra virgin olive oil is very expensive, though, which is why I don’t cook with it (if your olive oil was cheap, it probably isn’t 100% olive oil!). Avocado oil is very mild tasting so is a popular choice or, of course, butter, ghee, coconut oil and other primarily saturated fats. Lard is about half saturated fat and half monounsaturated fat. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/cooking-with-olive-oil-yea-or-nay/
What healthy fat you choose to cook with is dependent on a lot of factors. I pretty much have all these options either in my pantry or refrigerator so that I can use the appropriate one for a given recipe 🙂
I only use sunflower lecithin in a mixture that is primarily coconut oil. I brush a small amount in my pans and start preheating. I then use a fat appropriate to the heat I intend to use. What do you think of this? The lecithin is no more than a tsp to a cup of coconut oil I keep in a jar by the stove–tiny amount in pan–no scrubbing
Why would you use it in salad dressings when olive oil is so much better? It may not be as neutral, but isn’t that part of the charm. There is nothing better than a salad with bitter greens, a good olive oil, a pinch of salad and nothing else! We use high oleic sunflower oil for one purpose only: making our own homemade mayo. It is almost impossible to purchase a mayo that is not made with soybean oil and olive oil will not stay in emulsion. We make the mayo in the food processor and it keeps in the fridge for weeks.
You are absolutely right. Extra virgin olive oil would be ideal. The cost of a quality brand that is vetted to be 100% pure olive oil can be a challenge for some folks, however. It’s good to have alternatives and a Plan B in your pocket 😉 Also, salad dressing and mayo made with olive oil is stronger tasting than dressing made with sunflower oil. So if your tastebuds prefer the mild tasting sunflower oil, it is good to know how to source the best type for your health.
I have been using Tessamae’s dressings and I called this morning and was told they only use high-oleic, cold-pressed, unrefined sunflower oil. that makes me happy. Hope it stays that way.
Wonderful! Yes, stay on top of it and check back every now and then. Companies get sold and ingredients get cheapened as a result, and this is not a rare occurrence!
I don’t think the article mentioned the flavor of the oil (unless I missed it). Don’t unrefined seed oils usually have a really strong taste that affects anything they’re used for? Which is why people tend to prefer refined oils… I once tasted unrefined canola oil – the flavor was sort of like eating grass – not appealing!
Yes, refined oils tend to have a milder flavor. However, with sunflower oil, even unrefined is surprisingly mild, which is why so many people love to use it.
Hi. Here in Winnipeg, a local bakery makes an organic, cold-pressed, unrefined sunflower oil. How can I find out if it’s high oleic is this isn’t indicated on the label? Is it dependent on the variety of sunflower used?
Yes, the label will tell you. If it is high oleic, it will list the fat mostly under the “monounsaturated” portion.
And yes, it is the variety of sunflower used to make the oil that determines whether it is high oleic or not.
I must admit I found this article confusing. This is the first time I’ve commented so I’d better add that I read all your articles and have found them very informative and useful. A very big THANK YOU.
Sunflower oil is one of the most confusing fats for sure! So many caveats! Is there anything in particular that you need clarification on?
The brand that the author of this article recommended is Dr. Adorable. The label says it is organic, but there is no USDA label on it to verify it as such. In fact, I couldn’t find much information at all on this brand, other than that it is made by a medical doctor who has gotten into the hobby of making cosmetic and beauty products. I’m not sure I would trust this brand.