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Healthy Fats · Foods That Heal
Avocado Oil: Benefits, Smoke Point & How to Buy a Good One
What avocado oil is, what a tablespoon gives you, what the studies of the oil itself show, how high its smoke point runs, refined versus unrefined, and how to buy a bottle that's fresh and pure.
Evidence-based31 sources citedUpdated October 9, 2026
The Dr. Axe Score™
Scientific Evidence
5.0/10
Three human studies of eating the oil, with 11 to 31 people each, plus rat studies and lab heating and composition tests.
Antioxidant & Anti-Inflammatory
7.6/10
Held up about as well as olive oil under long heating, formed fewer breakdown compounds than four refined seed oils, and improved after-meal inflammation markers in 13 adults.
Clinical Effectiveness
8.2/10
Our judgment: a high-heat cooking oil, a direct swap for refined seed oils and a fat that helps you absorb carotenoids.
Nutrient Density
7.2/10
Rated oil against oil: 70.6 grams of monounsaturated fat per 100 grams and only 11.6 grams saturated, with vitamin E and plant sterols in lab analyses.
Why this score?
Why Avocado Oil scores 6.9 / 10
It's Dr. Axe's number two cooking oil, after extra virgin olive oil. Weighting: Evidence 30% · Antioxidant & Anti-Inflammatory 25% · Clinical Effectiveness 25% · Nutrient Density 20% (5.0×0.30 + 7.6×0.25 + 8.2×0.25 + 7.2×0.20 = 1.50 + 1.90 + 2.05 + 1.44 = 6.89, shown as 6.9).
A transparent, weighted index built for foods. See how it’s calculated →
Interaction check: Low. No medication interactions have been documented for avocado oil. Case reports in a 1991 letter linked eating avocados, the fruit, to a weaker effect of the blood thinner warfarin, and a 2015 review of fruit and warfarin reports lists avocado among the foods to ask about when INR, the clotting test used to adjust warfarin, becomes unstable.2829 If you take warfarin, keep the amount of avocado and avocado oil you eat steady from week to week, and tell the doctor who manages your dose before you make a big change in your diet.
Avocado oil at a glance
Avocado oil is the oil pressed from the soft green flesh of the avocado, a fruit oil like olive oil rather than a seed oil. About 71% of it is monounsaturated fat, the steady kind that also dominates extra virgin olive oil, and a tablespoon has 124 calories.12
- Cooking: a high smoke point and good stability under heat make it a natural fit for searing, stir-frying and roasting34
- Nourishment: in a study of 11 adults who each ate every version of a salad, avocado oil on the salad raised absorption of the salad's carotenoids as much as adding avocado did5
- Buying: choose a fresh bottle from a brand that publishes third-party testing, and store it cool and dark
- Safety: a food with no documented medication interactions; skip it if you're allergic to avocado
Avocado oil starts as the soft green flesh of the avocado, and when it's freshly cold-pressed, it pours out a brilliant emerald green, with a grassy, buttery, faintly mushroom-like taste.3
The kind of fat in that oil is what makes it so useful in a hot pan. Monounsaturated fat has a single double bond, the weak point where heat, light and air attack a fat, so it holds up better under heat than the polyunsaturated fat that dominates most refined seed oils.2 Avocado oil does a quieter job at the table too: drizzled on a salad, it helps your body absorb the carotenoids in the vegetables.5
Now, this is my number 2 because it does well with high heat. It's mostly monounsaturated fats like olive oil and has one of the highest smoke points of any of these. And it's great for searing, great for stir-fry.Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNSFrom You Were Lied To About Seed Oils! The Truth About Butter, Tallow & Olive Oil, The Dr. Josh Axe Show (2026), at 23:17
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Fresh cold-pressed avocado oil gets its emerald color from chlorophyll and carotenoids carried over from the fruit.3
Extra virgin avocado oil is new to the market: two New Zealand companies began making it in 2000 and pioneered the cold-pressing process.3
In a lab cooking study, when eggplant was deep-fried in virgin avocado oil, the oil's main fats and plant sterols held steady, and some of those sterols and unsaturated fats moved into the eggplant.6
What is avocado oil?
Quick answer
Avocado oil is the oil taken from the flesh of the avocado, the fruit of the Persea americana tree. Unrefined avocado oil, sold as cold-pressed or extra virgin, is extracted mechanically below about 122°F (50°C) with no solvents and stays green and flavorful; refined avocado oil is bleached and deodorized into a pale, mild oil.73
Pressing an avocado works much like pressing an olive: you crush the fruit and the oil comes out.2 For cold-pressed oil, the flesh is ground to a paste and slowly mixed at 113°F to 122°F (45°C to 50°C) until the oil separates, and that simple pressing keeps the fruit's vitamin E and natural antioxidants in the bottle.32 Refined avocado oil goes through refining, bleaching and deodorizing, which leaves it pale yellow and odorless.3
Is avocado oil a seed oil?
No. Avocado oil is a fruit oil, pressed from the flesh that surrounds the pit.2 My top three cooking oils, olive, avocado and coconut, are all fruit oils.8
The oils at the center of the seed-oil debate, such as canola, soybean, corn, cottonseed, sunflower, safflower, grapeseed and rice bran, are rich in the omega-6 fat linoleic acid and almost always industrially refined.2 Avocado oil is mostly oleic acid, the same monounsaturated fat that leads in olive oil, with about 1.8 grams of linoleic acid per tablespoon.1 There's no need to obsess over trace seed oils, but there's no reason to choose them when better fats are available.2
Avocado oil nutrition facts
Quick answer
One tablespoon (14 grams) of avocado oil has 124 calories and 14 grams of fat: 9.9 grams monounsaturated, 1.9 grams polyunsaturated and 1.6 grams saturated.1 It has no protein, carbohydrate or fiber. USDA's record doesn't measure vitamin E or plant sterols, but in a lab analysis a tablespoon carried about 3.4 milligrams of vitamin E, roughly 23% of the daily value, and about 48 milligrams of plant sterols.910
Avocado oil per 1 tablespoon (14 g) and per 100 g. Source: USDA FoodData Central, FDC ID 173573; per-tablespoon values calculated at the record's 14-gram tablespoon; % Daily Value uses FDA reference values. Vitamin E and plant sterols come from a separate lab analysis, since USDA's record doesn't include them.1109
| Nutrient | 1 tablespoon (14 g) | % Daily Value | Per 100 g |
|---|---|---|---|
Calories | 124 | n/a | 884 |
Total fat | 14 g | 18% | 100 g |
Monounsaturated fat | 9.9 g | n/a | 70.6 g |
Oleic acid (within the monounsaturated fat) | 9.5 g | n/a | 67.9 g |
Polyunsaturated fat | 1.9 g | n/a | 13.5 g |
Linoleic acid (omega-6) | 1.8 g | n/a | 12.5 g |
Alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3) | 0.13 g | n/a | 0.957 g |
1.6 g | 8% | 11.6 g | |
Protein, carbohydrate, fiber | 0 g | 0% | 0 g |
Vitamin E (lab analysis) | 3.4 mg | 23% | 24.5 mg |
Plant sterols (lab analysis) | 48 mg | n/a | 339.64 mg |
One tablespoon of avocado oil: 9.9 grams of monounsaturated fat
A tablespoon of avocado oil is almost entirely good fat: about 71% of it is the monounsaturated kind, and its vitamin E and plant sterols, plant compounds such as beta-sitosterol that resemble cholesterol in structure, travel with that fat.16
What is avocado oil good for?
Quick answer
Avocado oil is best supported as a stable oil for high-heat cooking and as a fat that helps your body absorb carotenoids from vegetables. In a study of 13 overweight adults, it also improved the after-meal response to a rich breakfast compared with butter, and rat studies point to blood pressure, heart and liver benefits.945111213
Where the research stands
Three studies have fed people avocado oil itself: two single-meal studies, with 11 and 13 adults, and a 12-week trial of 31 adults.51114 The rest of the evidence comes from lab heating and composition tests and from rat studies. A 2021 review found that the oil's effects on heart disease, diabetes and cancer had been shown in lab and animal research, with human studies still to come.15
| Benefit | Evidence | What was studied | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
Carotenoid absorption | Emerging | 24 g of avocado oil vs. 150 g of avocado on a salad | The oil raised absorption of alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and lutein as much as the avocado did5 |
After-meal blood sugar, blood fats and inflammation | Emerging | Avocado oil in place of butter in a rich breakfast | Better after-meal insulin, blood sugar, cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides, CRP and IL-611 |
Stable under high heat | Preclinical (lab) | Avocado oil vs. olive oil and other supermarket oils | Stability similar to olive oil over 9 hours; fewer polar compounds than four refined seed oils94 |
Blood pressure and heart markers | Preclinical (animal) | Rats with drug-induced high blood pressure; sugar-fed rats | Diastolic pressure down 21.2% and systolic 15.5%; lower LDL and hs-CRP1216 |
Liver | Preclinical (animal) | Rats on a high-fat, high-fructose diet; sugar-fed rats | |
Skin and wound healing | Emerging | Avocado oil on wounds; a B12 cream containing avocado oil for psoriasis | Faster wound healing in rats; psoriasis results similar to a prescription cream by week 121819 |
How avocado oil works in your body
One of avocado oil's best-documented jobs in your body is carrying the fat-soluble pigments in vegetables into your bloodstream.
1Vegetables carry carotenoids, but little fat
Carrots, spinach and tomatoes are rich in carotenoids, but like most carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables, they're low in fat.5
2Without fat, almost none get in
When 7 adults each ate the same salad of spinach, romaine, cherry tomatoes and carrots three ways, in random order, the carotenoids reaching their blood with a fat-free dressing were negligible.20
3More fat, more absorption
A reduced-fat canola oil dressing (6 grams of oil) on the same salad raised absorption, and a full-fat dressing (28 grams) raised it again.20
4Avocado oil supplies the fat
In a study of 11 adults who each ate every version of a salad, about 1¾ tablespoons (24 grams) of avocado oil raised absorption of alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and lutein as much as 150 grams of avocado did.5
Avocado oil benefits, ranked by evidence
Ordered by the weight of the research, avocado oil does the most for the carotenoids you absorb from vegetables and your body's response to a rich meal. It also holds up well in a hot pan, and rat studies point to heart and liver benefits.
1
More carotenoids from your vegetables
Emerging evidenceHuman studyEach person ate every salad · 11 adults · single mealsEleven healthy adults each ate every version of the same salad, and adding about 1¾ tablespoons (24 grams) of avocado oil raised absorption of alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and lutein as much as 150 grams of avocado did. The avocado version raised them to 7.2, 15.3 and 5.1 times the levels after the salad with no avocado, and neither the source of the fat nor the amount of avocado changed the result.5 The study measured absorption rather than eye health, and absorption comes first: lutein is one of the macular carotenoids that collect in the eye, and your body turns beta-carotene into vitamin A.
Study takeaway: a salad dressed with avocado oil delivered as many carotenoids to the blood as one topped with avocado.
2
A gentler response to a rich meal
Emerging evidenceHuman study13 overweight adults · one meal; double-blind 12-week trial · 31 adultsIn a study of 13 overweight adults with an average age of 65, swapping the butter in a high-calorie, high-fat breakfast for Hass avocado oil improved the after-meal response of insulin, blood sugar, total cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides and the inflammation markers CRP and IL-6 compared with the butter meal, while HDL and the gut hormone GLP-1 responded about the same to both.11 Over a longer stretch, a 12-week trial in 31 adults with metabolic syndrome added 2 teaspoons a day of avocado oil or soybean oil with no other diet changes. Neither the people nor the researchers knew who got which oil, and blood fats didn't change significantly in either group. The avocado oil used in that trial tested at 48.7% monounsaturated and 40.9% polyunsaturated fat, against the 70.6 grams and 13.5 grams per 100 grams USDA lists for typical avocado oil.141 The breakfast study tested the way most people use a cooking oil: in place of another fat in a real meal.
Study takeaway: swapping butter for avocado oil in a rich breakfast improved after-meal blood sugar, blood fats and inflammation markers.
3
Holds up under high heat
Preclinical (lab heating tests)In vitro (lab)2 lab heating studiesHeated beside olive oil at 356°F (180°C) for 9 hours, avocado oil's stability was similar to olive oil's, and it still had more plant sterols at the end, about 270 milligrams per 100 grams against about 210 for olive oil.9 In a lab test of 10 supermarket oils, it formed fewer breakdown compounds than four refined seed oils; the numbers are in the smoke point section below.4
Study takeaway: in lab heating tests, avocado oil held up about as well as olive oil and better than refined seed oils.
4
Blood pressure and heart markers
Preclinical (rat studies)Animal studyRats · 2 studiesRats with drug-induced high blood pressure that were given avocado oil for 45 days had 21.2% lower diastolic and 15.5% lower systolic blood pressure, and the oil brought the energy output and oxidative stress of their kidney mitochondria back toward normal, about as well as losartan, the blood pressure drug the researchers used for comparison.12 In rats drinking a 30% sugar solution, avocado oil lowered LDL significantly, with smaller drops in triglycerides and VLDL, left HDL unchanged and lowered the inflammation marker hs-CRP.16
Study takeaway: in rats, avocado oil lowered blood pressure and LDL without lowering HDL.
5
Liver support
Preclinical (rat studies)Animal studyRats · 2 studiesIn rats with fatty liver brought on by a high-fat, high-fructose diet, avocado oil, either added to that diet or given with a switch back to regular chow, eased the fatty liver, high blood sugar and abnormal blood fats and improved how the liver's mitochondria worked; switching to regular chow without the oil didn't correct many of those problems.13 In sugar-fed rats, avocado oil and olive oil had similar effects on markers of liver function.17
Study takeaway: in rats, avocado oil eased diet-induced fatty liver.
6
Skin and wound healing
Emerging evidenceHuman studyRandomized, each person used both creams · 13 adults · 12 weeks; rats · 14 daysIn a randomized trial of 13 adults with plaque psoriasis, each person used a vitamin B12 cream containing avocado oil on one side of the body and calcipotriol, a prescription cream, on the other. The prescription cream worked faster at first, but by week 12 the results were similar, the B12 cream's effect held steady, and both the people and the researcher rated it significantly easier to tolerate.19 Vitamin B12 is an active ingredient in that cream, so the result belongs to the blend. On its own, avocado oil helped wounds heal in rats: over 14 days, plain oil and a cream made with 50% avocado oil helped wounds close and resurface faster than petroleum jelly, with more collagen and fewer inflammatory cells.18
Study takeaway: by week 12, a vitamin B12 cream made with avocado oil gave psoriasis results similar to a prescription cream.
What is avocado oil's smoke point?
Quick answer
Avocado oil's smoke point is high: about 480–520°F by DrAxe.com's guide, and fresh extra virgin oil from Hass avocados has a smoke point of 482°F (250°C) or higher.23 How well an oil resists breaking down under heat matters even more, and avocado oil held up well in lab heating tests.4
The smoke point is the temperature at which an oil starts to smoke in the pan. Smoke points are approximate and depend on refinement and freshness, which is why you'll see a range of numbers for avocado oil.2 When an Australian olive oil testing lab heated 10 supermarket oils, its avocado oil, made by mechanical pressing alone, broke down far less than canola oil, even though the canola sample started smoking later: about 492°F (256°C), against about 386°F (197°C) for the avocado oil.4
That breakdown is oxidation, which heat, light and air set off. The lab heated each oil two ways, a 20-minute climb to 464°F (240°C) and 6 hours at 356°F, and measured polar compounds, the breakdown products that build up in frying oil. Averaged across both tests, avocado oil ended at 11.60%, against 14.35% for rice bran oil, 15.57% for sunflower oil, 19.79% for grapeseed oil and 22.43% for canola oil. Extra virgin olive oil did best at 8.47%, followed closely, the researchers wrote, by coconut oil at 9.30% and other virgin oils such as avocado. And the higher an oil's smoke point, the more polar compounds it tended to form.4
Averaged over two heating tests, avocado oil ended with about half the polar compounds of canola oil
For high-heat cooking, avocado oil is among the most stable choices, along with ghee and small amounts of tallow, because they resist oxidation better than delicate polyunsaturated seed oils. Never reuse frying oil, since reheated oil builds up the most oxidation products, and the bigger win is simply deep-frying less often.2
In the kitchen, that means heating the pan, adding the oil and getting the food in before the oil smokes. If a pan of avocado oil smokes much sooner than you expect, the bottle may be past its best.2
Refined or unrefined avocado oil: which is better?
Cold-pressed avocado oil is the closer-to-nature choice, and refined avocado oil makes a handy neutral backup. Unrefined avocado oil, sold as cold-pressed or extra virgin, is simply pressed, so it keeps the fruit's green color and buttery flavor, which makes it lovely in dressings and drizzled over food as well as in a hot pan while it's fresh. Refined avocado oil is pale and mild, so it won't flavor your food, which makes it an easy choice wherever a recipe calls for a neutral oil.2321
| Unrefined (cold-pressed, extra virgin) | Refined | |
|---|---|---|
How it's made | Flesh ground to a paste and mixed at 113°F to 122°F; oil separated mechanically, with no solvents37 | Refined, bleached and deodorized after extraction3 |
Color | Green21 | Light yellow and almost clear21 |
Flavor | Grassy, buttery and a little like mushrooms21 | Neutral; odorless after deodorizing3 |
Best for | Dressings, drizzling, roasting and searing while it's fresh | Searing, stir-frying, baking and any recipe that needs a neutral oil |
Is avocado oil better than olive oil?
Quick answer
Avocado oil and extra virgin olive oil do different jobs, and both belong in your kitchen. The two share a similar, mostly monounsaturated fat profile, and in a lab study that heated them side by side for 9 hours, their stability was similar.29
Make extra virgin olive oil your default bottle, for dressings, drizzling and most cooking, and use avocado oil for higher-heat searing and roasting.2 Each oil carries its own extras: before heating in the same study, avocado oil had more plant sterols (about 340 vs. 228 milligrams per 100 grams) and olive oil had more vitamin E (about 35.5 vs. 24.5 milligrams).9 Extra virgin olive oil also keeps its polyphenols, plant antioxidants that refining strips out.2
Fat profile (saturated / monounsaturated / polyunsaturated, as a percentage of the oil's weight, rounded) and processing from the DrAxe.com cooking oil chart, with coconut oil's fat profile from USDA; best uses from DrAxe.com's cooking oil guide.2822
| Fat | Saturated / mono / poly | Processing | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extra virgin olive oil | 14% / 73% / 11% | Cold-pressed | Your everyday fat: dressings, drizzling and most cooking |
| Avocado oil | 12% / 71% / 13% | Mechanical | Higher-heat searing, stir-frying and roasting |
| Coconut oil | 82% / 6% / 2% | Minimal to moderate | Baking and medium-heat cooking |
| Ghee | 65% / 28% / 4% | Minimal | Small amounts when a recipe wants a richer, more heat-stable fat |
| Beef tallow | 50% / 42% / 4% | Minimal | Small amounts when a recipe wants a richer, more heat-stable fat |
| Soybean oil | 16% / 23% / 58% | Highly refined | Not an everyday cooking fat |
How to buy and store avocado oil
Quick answer
Choose avocado oil from a brand that publishes third-party testing, check that it looks, smells and tastes fresh, buy a size you'll finish, and store it in a cool, dark cabinet away from the stove.821
The bottle you choose matters. In 2020, UC Davis researchers tested 22 domestic and imported avocado oil samples: 15 had oxidized before their expiration date, and 3 labeled "pure" or "extra virgin" were nearly 100% soybean oil. Three more had unusual profiles that, the researchers wrote, could reflect other oils such as high-oleic sunflower or safflower, natural variation in the fruit or processing.23 The only samples that were both pure and unoxidized came from two brands of refined avocado oil, and among the virgin oils, one brand's was pure and fresher than the rest of its grade.21 In 2026, the same group found other oils in 48 of 54 packaged foods that listed avocado oil as their only oil, including 93% of the chips, 71% of the mayonnaises and all of the dressings tested.2425
It's the catch I pointed to on my show: "You want to buy a trusted third-party tested brand because studies have found many cheap avocado oils are oxidized and secretly laced with seed oils. And the same goes for olive oil, by the way."8 Standards are catching up too. In November 2024, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the international food-standards body of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization, agreed to include avocado oil in its international standard CXS 210, which sets science-based quality, purity and food-safety criteria.26
The right color and taste. Virgin avocado oil should be green and taste grassy, buttery and a little like mushrooms; refined avocado oil is light yellow and almost clear.21
A fresh smell. Rancid avocado oil smells stale, a bit like play dough. If yours does, replace it.21
A size you'll finish. Buy a bottle you can use up before the oil oxidizes.21
Cool and dark. Light, heat and air all oxidize oil, and the chlorophyll in green, unrefined oil can speed that breakdown in light, so keep the bottle capped in a cool, dark cabinet rather than next to the stove.213
Keep your oils in dark glass, away from heat.2
How to use avocado oil in your kitchen
Use avocado oil wherever you want a clean-tasting oil that can take the heat: searing, stir-frying and roasting, plus dressings and baking in place of refined vegetable oil.
Sear fish and chicken. Pat wild-caught salmon or chicken dry and sear it in a hot pan with a spoonful of avocado oil for a crisp crust.
Stir-fry over high heat. A salmon stir-fry with crisp vegetables is exactly the kind of cooking it handles well.
Roast vegetables. Toss sweet potatoes or carrots in avocado oil and roast them hot; a little fat helps your body absorb their carotenoids.20
Dress a salad. Whisk unrefined avocado oil with lemon juice or vinegar and pour it over greens, carrots and tomatoes, the kind of salad the carotenoid study tested.5
Swap it for vegetable oil. Use the same amount in muffins, pancakes and other recipes that call for a neutral oil; refined avocado oil won't change the flavor.
Choose avocado-oil mayo. The Biblio Diet names avocado-based mayo as the swap for soy-oil mayo; pick one that lists avocado oil as its only oil and comes from a brand that tests its products.27
How much avocado oil should you use a day?
There's no set daily amount of avocado oil; the goal is to use it in place of other fats, not in addition to them, since each tablespoon adds 124 calories.1 Even with good oils, you don't want to go overboard; as I put it on my show, get most of your fat from actual food, like walnuts, wild-caught salmon and pastured eggs.8 For a sense of scale, the 12-week trial used 2 teaspoons a day, and the salad study used about 1¾ tablespoons in a single meal.145
Have a question about cooking with avocado oil?
Ask Dr. Axe AI. Answers are grounded in this library, with sources shown.
Avocado oil side effects and who should be careful
Quick answer
As a food, avocado oil is very safe for most people. Skip it if you're allergic to avocado, be careful if you have a latex allergy, patch-test before using it on your skin, and count its 124 calories per tablespoon.30311
Avocado or latex allergy. Avocado is one of the fruits most often involved in latex-fruit syndrome, along with banana, kiwifruit and papaya, and most of the reported symptoms affected the whole body rather than one spot.30 If you're allergic to avocado or latex, skip avocado oil unless your allergist says otherwise, and get emergency care for throat swelling, hives or trouble breathing.
On your skin. Contact allergy to avocado oil has been reported, in one case from a sunscreen that contained it, so test a small patch of skin before using it more widely.31
Beyond those, the main thing to watch is freshness, and the buying section above covers how to keep a bottle at its best.
The bottom line
Should you cook with avocado oil?
Yes. Avocado oil is a stable, mostly monounsaturated fruit oil that takes high heat in stride, which makes it the right bottle for searing, stir-frying and roasting. In a study of 11 adults who each ate every version of a salad, it also helped them absorb the salad's carotenoids about as well as avocado itself did.5 The principle with fats is simple: choose fats closer to the way they're found in nature, and a fresh, pressed fruit oil fits that well.2
The cooking-stability and carotenoid results come from direct measurements of the oil, and the heart, liver and skin findings are promising.
Let extra virgin olive oil stay your everyday bottle, and reach for avocado oil when the pan gets hot. Buy it from a brand that tests, keep it cool and dark, and finish it while it's fresh. As I say on my show, food is medicine, and every meal is medicine; a good fruit oil in place of a refined one puts that into practice each time you cook.8
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Open the free protocol →Avocado oil: frequently asked questions
Is avocado oil good for you?
Yes. It's mostly monounsaturated fat, it holds up well under high heat, and in a study of 11 adults who each ate every version of a salad, avocado oil on the salad raised absorption of the salad's carotenoids as much as avocado did.195 In a study of 13 overweight adults, swapping butter for avocado oil in a rich breakfast also improved after-meal blood sugar, blood fats and inflammation markers.11
Is avocado oil a seed oil?
What is avocado oil's smoke point?
It's high: about 480–520°F by DrAxe.com's guide, and fresh extra virgin oil from Hass avocados has a smoke point of 482°F (250°C) or higher.23 Freshness and refining move it, and in a lab test of 10 supermarket oils, avocado oil formed fewer breakdown compounds under heat than canola, grapeseed, sunflower and rice bran oils.4
Is avocado oil better than olive oil?
Dr. Axe ranks extra virgin olive oil first and avocado oil second.8 The two do different jobs: extra virgin olive oil suits dressings, drizzling and most cooking, and avocado oil suits higher-heat searing and roasting.2 In a lab study that heated the two side by side for 9 hours, their stability was similar.9
Is avocado oil good for frying?
Should you buy refined or unrefined avocado oil?
Can you use avocado oil instead of vegetable oil?
Does avocado oil lower cholesterol?
It improved cholesterol after a meal: in a study of 13 overweight adults, avocado oil in place of butter in a rich breakfast improved the after-meal response of total cholesterol, LDL and triglycerides.11 In a 12-week trial of 31 adults, where neither the people nor the researchers knew who got avocado oil and who got soybean oil, 2 teaspoons a day with no other diet changes didn't change blood fats significantly in either group.14 The clearest benefit so far comes from using avocado oil in place of a more saturated fat, as the breakfast study did.11
Is avocado oil mayo healthy?
How can you tell if avocado oil is real?
Only lab testing can confirm what's in the bottle, so start with a brand that publishes third-party purity testing, then check the color and smell: virgin avocado oil should be green and taste grassy and buttery, refined oil should be light yellow and almost clear, and oil that smells stale, a bit like play dough, has gone rancid.23821
Does avocado oil go bad?
Yes. Like any oil it oxidizes over time, and faster with light, heat and air, so keep it capped in a cool, dark cabinet away from the stove and buy a size you'll finish while it's fresh.21
Can you put avocado oil on your skin or hair?
Yes, on your skin, after a patch test: a vitamin B12 cream containing avocado oil gave psoriasis results similar to a prescription cream by week 12 in a randomized trial of 13 adults, and plain avocado oil helped wounds heal in rats.1918 Its use on hair hasn't been studied in people. Contact allergy to avocado oil has been reported, which is why the patch test comes first.31
How many calories are in a tablespoon of avocado oil?
124 calories, all from its 14 grams of fat: 9.9 grams monounsaturated, 1.9 grams polyunsaturated and 1.6 grams saturated.1
Freshness & update log
October 9, 2026 — Trimmed repeated book references.
October 8, 2026 — Reworded the kitchen tips drawn from DrAxe.com's seed oils guide as general advice rather than Dr. Axe's personal habits, so his first-person lines are only what he has said on his show. No facts or numbers changed.
October 4, 2026 — Rebuilt to the current DrAxe.com standard. Added the Dr. Axe Score (6.9) with its math, a USDA nutrition table for one tablespoon, the three human studies of the oil itself (a salad study of carotenoid absorption, a breakfast study comparing it with butter and a 12-week trial), measured smoke points with a chart of a lab heating test, guidance on refined versus unrefined oil, purity testing and the 2024 international standard, and one safety section. Removed the arthritis claim, which came from a capsule extract of avocado and soybean, and the blood pressure, cholesterol, fullness and antioxidant claims drawn from studies of monounsaturated fat, whole avocados or animals rather than people eating the oil. Corrected the calories and vitamin E per tablespoon, the smoke point comparison with olive oil and the advice to keep unrefined oil to low heat, and clarified that the warfarin reports involve the fruit.
References
- US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Oil, avocado. FoodData Central, SR Legacy, FDC ID 173573 (NDB 4581). Published April 1, 2019.
- Axe J. Seed Oils: Are They Bad for You? What the Research Really Says. DrAxe.com. September 23, 2026.
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