Grapeseed Oil: Is It Healthy? Benefits, Uses & Smoke Point

Dr. Josh Axe · Free quiz

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Grapeseed oil is the oil pressed or extracted from the small seeds of wine grapes, and it's mostly linoleic acid, an essential omega-6 fat your skin and cell membranes are built with, plus a generous dose of vitamin E.19 It's a light, useful oil for your skin and an occasional raw dressing. But it's one of the least heat-stable oils you can cook with, so for everyday cooking, extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil are the better choices.78

If you've ever bitten down on a grape seed, you know how small and hard it is. Every bottle of wine leaves a heap of those seeds behind, along with crushed skins and stems, and those leftover seeds are where grapeseed oil comes from. Most of what you'll find on store shelves is then refined into a pale oil with almost no taste or smell of its own.910

My list of refined oils to limit runs from most to least: cottonseed, corn, soybean, regular sunflower and safflower, grapeseed, rice bran and peanut, then canola. Grapeseed sits fifth of those seven groups, marketed as gourmet but very high in omega-6 and highly refined.8 Now, it isn't toxic, and a little of it in an otherwise real-food diet isn't worth worrying about. The thing to fix is the bigger pattern: a diet built on fragile, refined and reheated omega-6 oils, with too little omega-3 to balance them. That pattern shows up in your cell membranes, because they're built from the fats you eat.811

Did you know?

• Grape seeds make up 10% to 12% of the solids left over from winemaking, and 6% to 20% of each seed is oil.9

• Besides the vitamin E on a nutrition label, grapeseed oil carries tocotrienols, a less common form of vitamin E. In ripening grape seeds, they can even outnumber the usual form.9

• Most of a grape seed's polyphenols stay behind in the pressed seed meal when the oil is made, which is why the oil and grape seed extract are very different products.10

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What is grapeseed oil?

There are two ways to get oil out of a grape seed. The common industrial route washes the crushed seeds in hexane, a petroleum solvent, and then refines the oil to remove the solvent, along with its color and smell.9 Pressing is simpler: it squeezes the oil out mechanically, the way you'd squeeze juice from an orange. You get less oil that way, but a 2020 review of grapeseed oil called pressed oil "a much safer source of health-beneficial phytochemicals," since no solvent is involved.9

You can taste the difference: refined grapeseed oil is neutral in taste and smell, while virgin, cold-pressed oil has a pleasant wine-like, fruity aroma that can remind you of raisins.10 Refining can also leave a little trans fat behind: in one lab study of five refined store-bought oils, trans fats made up 1.8% of the fatty acids in the grapeseed oil, the most of the five.12

Is grapeseed oil a seed oil?

Yes. Grapeseed oil is one of the common refined seed oils, along with soybean, corn, canola, cottonseed, sunflower, safflower and rice bran oil.8 Cold-pressed seed oils such as flaxseed oil, sesame oil and black seed oil are a different category when they're used unrefined, raw or at low heat, and grapeseed oil isn't on my list of them.8 Even a cold-pressed bottle is about 70% linoleic acid, the same fat your skin uses to hold in moisture, so it does its best work raw or on your skin.101

Grapeseed oil nutrition facts

Grapeseed oil per tablespoon and per 100 grams. Source: USDA FoodData Central, FDC ID 171028; per-tablespoon values calculated at USDA's 13.6-gram tablespoon; % Daily Value uses FDA reference values.12

Vitamin E is where grapeseed oil shines: at 28.8 mg per 100 grams, it carries twice the vitamin E of olive oil, which has 14.4 mg.113 Vitamin E dissolves in fat, so an oil is a natural carrier for it, and nuts, seeds and other vitamin E foods supply it too.

Where grapeseed oil falls short is the balance of fats on your plate. Picture a seesaw with the two essential fat families on either end. Per 100 grams, USDA lists 69.6 grams of linoleic acid and just 0.1 gram of alpha-linolenic acid, the plant omega-3, so every spoonful adds omega-6 and pushes that end down, with almost nothing on the omega-3 side to lift it back.1 The fruit oils I cook with carry far less linoleic acid: 12.5 grams per 100 grams in avocado oil, 9.76 grams in olive oil and 1.68 grams in coconut oil.14131511

Is grapeseed oil healthy?

The most defensible position, and the one I take with patients, is to build your kitchen around whole-food fats like extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil, and to raise your omega-3 intake. Go easy on heavily refined and deep-fried seed oils, and stop stressing about a little seed oil in an otherwise real-food diet.8 By that measure, grapeseed oil has real strengths, and it does its best work outside the frying pan.

Where I agree with the critics

• It's highly refined: Most grapeseed oil is solvent-extracted and refined, and refining strips out protective antioxidants that a cold-pressed oil keeps.98
• It's fragile under long heat: With about 70% of its fat as linoleic acid, it oxidized faster than olive, avocado or coconut oil in a lab stability test. The smoke-point section below has the numbers.7
• It tilts the omega balance: Our ancestors likely ate omega-6 and omega-3 in roughly a 1:1 to 4:1 ratio, and modern Western diets run closer to 15:1 or 20:1.8 Grapeseed oil adds omega-6 with almost no omega-3 alongside it.1

Where the critics go too far

This is one place the seed-oil critics get out over their skis.8

• Inflammation markers held steady: In a systematic review of 15 randomized trials in healthy people, adding linoleic acid to the diet didn't significantly raise C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen or other blood markers of inflammation.6 A diet trial of grapeseed oil itself pointed the same way: a key inflammation marker ended lower than on sunflower oil (the benefits below have the details).16
• Lower risk of dying: Cohort studies track what people eat over years, and these followed 811,069 people. Those who ate the most linoleic acid, from all foods, had a 13% lower risk of dying during follow-up than those who ate the least.17
• Less type 2 diabetes: A pooled analysis gathered 39,740 adults from 20 cohorts. People whose blood and tissue levels of linoleic acid sat near the top of the usual range were about 35% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those near the bottom. Two of its authors received research grants from a large food company for the work.18

So the trouble with grapeseed oil lies mostly in the refining, the heat and the balance, more than in its linoleic acid. As I said on my show, "The molecule isn't the villain; the food matrix is."11 Bring in more omega-3, and let grapeseed oil do the jobs it does well.

How grapeseed oil works in your body

Every one of your cells is wrapped in a membrane built mostly from fat, so the fats you eat, grapeseed oil's linoleic acid among them, become the raw material for those membranes.11

Linoleic acid is an essential fat, which means your body can't make it and has to get it from food, so some of it belongs in every healthy diet.9 But its two double bonds are also what make it fragile, and heat, light and air attack those weak points, much the way air turns a cut apple brown. When processed fats like industrial seed oils become oxidized, that causes inflammation and makes your cells sick.19 Fresh oil, gentle heat and the right partners on your plate keep that essential fat working for you.

Balance is the other half. Here's the point I keep coming back to with patients: the modern problem isn't only that we eat too much omega-6, it's that we eat too little omega-3 to balance it.8 Omega-6 fats can be very healthy if you're getting enough omega-3s from wild-caught fish oil, flax and chia, walnuts and seaweed.11 The most useful move, then, is to add omega-3 foods rather than fight over every gram of omega-6.8 One thing I do with my patients, and I encourage you to do it too, is an omega-3 test.20

Traditional Chinese medicine, which I practice alongside functional medicine, adds another lens. In that tradition, industrialized seed oils are seen as creating dampness, which in Western terms looks like more phlegm, more mucus and an overgrowth of unwanted microbes such as candida. They're also seen as heating, which means more inflammation.11

What happens right after you eat matters too. Endotoxin, a molecule from the outer wall of bacteria, can rise in your blood after a high-fat meal and set off inflammation.21 Does a grapeseed-oil meal do that? In a randomized trial of 20 healthy young adults, each person ate four oatmeal meals on separate days, without knowing which was which: three higher-fat meals made with grapeseed, coconut or fish oil, and a lower-fat comparison meal made with olive oil. After the grapeseed meal, endotoxin was no different than after the olive-oil meal, and none of the meals changed blood markers of inflammation such as IL-6 or TNF-α. Blood triglycerides did run higher after the grapeseed meal than after the fish-oil meal, one more reason the omega-3 side of your plate matters.21

On your skin, linoleic acid has a specific job: your skin builds it into ceramides, the waxy fats that seal water in. If you think of your skin's outer layer as a brick wall, ceramides are part of the mortar that keeps the water from leaking out. When linoleic acid was restored, in food or rubbed onto the skin, it repaired a leaky skin barrier in the studies below.22 Follow it from the bottle to your skin:

Grapeseed oil benefits

Grapeseed oil's strongest benefits start with your skin:

Grapeseed oil for skin

Grapeseed oil's use on the skin goes back a long way: a 2020 review recounts that in 14th-century Spain, a physician advised King Ferdinand IV of Castile to use it for skin problems, and the king named it "royal oil."9 It suits skin because of its linoleic acid, the fat your skin builds into the seal that keeps water in, as the step diagram above shows.322 In the face trial described with the benefits, a gel made with grapeseed oil left skin moister and more elastic.4 Plain grapeseed oil hasn't been studied on human skin as closely as that gel, so its long use and the way linoleic acid works in the skin carry much of the case for it.22

As the air turns cold and the heat comes on indoors, it's a good time to put it to work. If dry skin in winter is a yearly problem for you, smooth a few drops onto damp skin after a shower, on your face, hands, elbows or heels, or stir a few drops into your usual moisturizer for dry skin.

What is grapeseed oil's smoke point?

A high smoke point tells you less than you'd think about how an oil holds up in your pan. It's a bit like the redline on a car's dashboard, which tells you where trouble starts in a hurry, not how the engine wears over a long drive. An Australian lab that tests olive oil for a living showed why when it heated 10 supermarket oils and measured how each one changed.7 Grapeseed oil smoked last, at 268°C, against 206.67°C (about 404°F) for extra virgin olive oil. In a standard oxidation test, though, that same oil lasted only 6.57 hours before it began to break down, against 10.17 hours for avocado oil, 32.70 hours for extra virgin olive oil and 50.27 hours for coconut oil.

The lab's frying test tells the same story: after 6 hours at 180°C, coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil ended with the fewest polar compounds, 9.68% and 10.5%, while rice bran oil reached 15.66%, canola 17.32%, grapeseed 20.24% and sunflower 21.75%.7 Polar compounds are the breakdown products that build up in hot oil, so for your kitchen, lower is better.

Long, hot cooking also changes what's in the oil itself. A Spanish lab study heated three store-bought oils, coconut, rapeseed and grapeseed, for 90 minutes at 180°C, and volatile compounds rose sharply in all three. In the refined grapeseed oil, about 90% of them were aldehydes, a class of breakdown products, against 60% in the coconut oil. None of the heated oils showed mutation-causing activity in a standard bacterial test.27 Still, the longer a fragile oil sits at frying temperature, the more it changes.

So the better test for a cooking oil is how stable it is under heat. That stability comes from two things: how much fragile polyunsaturated fat an oil carries, and how many natural antioxidants it keeps.7 Even the smoke points on my own comparison chart are approximate and depend on refinement and freshness.8 I don't deep-fry at home, and if you do, use fresh oil every time, since reheated oil builds up the most breakdown products.8 For everyday sautéing and roasting, extra virgin olive oil holds up well, and avocado oil is my go-to for searing, stir-frying and high-heat roasting.8

How to use grapeseed oil

Grapeseed oil earns its place in your home on your skin and in raw dressings, and these uses make the most of it:

As a massage and carrier oil

Refined grapeseed oil has almost no scent, which makes it an easy base for massage oils and blends.10 You can use it plain, as the foot-massage trial did, or add essential oils for an aromatherapy massage.5 In my Top 50 Healing Herbs & Essential Oils protocol, everyday adult use is a 2% dilution: about 12 drops of essential oil per ounce (30 mL) of carrier oil, or 2 drops per teaspoon.28 The carriers that protocol names are jojoba, fractionated coconut, sweet almond and olive oil, and the same dilution works with grapeseed oil.28

How to buy and store grapeseed oil

Look for cold-pressed or virgin grapeseed oil in a dark glass bottle. It's squeezed out without a solvent, and it can keep more of the seed's vitamin E and protective compounds. It also smells faintly fruity, which gives you an easy way to check it.910

Buy small bottles and finish them quickly, treating grapeseed oil more like fresh food than a pantry staple that keeps forever. A year-long storage study kept five refined store-bought oils at room temperature, in their original light plastic bottles. In a standard heat-and-air test, grapeseed oil had the shortest stability of the five, 2.4 hours when fresh and 1.6 hours after 12 months, while the other oils lasted 4.77 to 5.02 hours when fresh. Every oil in the study lost about 30% of its stability over the year.12 I keep my oils in dark glass, away from heat.8 Your nose is a good guide, too: as virgin grapeseed oil ages, its pleasant aroma fades and breakdown products such as acetic acid, the sharp note in vinegar, build up, so a bottle that smells flat or sharp is past its best.10

What to use instead of grapeseed oil

By far the number one oil used in the Axe household, the one I recommend to every patient I have for the most part, is extra virgin olive oil.11 After that, I'd put my focus on the other fruit oils, avocado and coconut, and then ghee.11 And you don't want to go overboard with oils either; you want to get most of your fat from actual food, like walnuts, wild-caught salmon and pastured eggs.11

I do a lot of coconut oil when I bake.11 With holiday baking ahead, it's the easy trade for grapeseed oil in muffins, quick breads and cookies. Just keep it to about a tablespoon a day, rotated with olive oil, because coconut oil raises ApoB compared with unsaturated oils, and if your ApoB runs high, make olive oil the baking fat wherever a recipe allows.29

Grapeseed oil side effects and who should be careful

• Grape allergy. If you're allergic to grapes, ask your allergist before using grapeseed oil, and get emergency care for throat swelling, hives or trouble breathing. One published case describes a child with a severe grape allergy who had no reaction to grapeseed oil, but that's only one child.30

• Skin reactions. Before using it on your face or in a massage blend, patch-test it: apply a little to your inner forearm and wait 24 hours. If you see redness or itching, choose a different oil.28

• Long-heated or reused oil. Breakdown products build up most in oil held at frying heat for hours or used again. The smoke-point section covers how to cook around that.727

• Swelling in pregnancy. The foot-massage trial took in only ordinary ankle swelling and left out high blood pressure and preeclampsia. Call your OB or midwife the same day for sudden swelling of the face or hands, a bad headache or vision changes.5

• Calories. A tablespoon adds about 120 calories, so use it in place of other fats rather than on top of them.1

The bottom line

Grapeseed oil: frequently asked questions

References

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2. US Food and Drug Administration. Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels. fda.gov.
3. Hansen HS, Jensen B. Essential function of linoleic acid esterified in acylglucosylceramide and acylceramide in maintaining the epidermal water permeability barrier. Evidence from feeding studies with oleate, linoleate, arachidonate, columbinate and alpha-linolenate. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1985;834(3):357-63. doi:10.1016/0005-2760(85)90009-8 · PMID:3922424
4. Shawahna R. Effects of a grapeseed oil (Vitis vinifera L.) loaded dermocosmetic nanoemulgel on biophysical parameters of facial skin: A split-face, blinded, placebo-controlled study. J Cosmet Dermatol. 2022;21(11):5730-5738. doi:10.1111/jocd.15161 · PMID:35713012
5. Navaee M, Rakhshkhorshid M. Comparing the Effect of Foot Massage with Grape Seed Oil and Sweet Almond Oil on Physiological Leg Edema in Primigravidae: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020;2020:6835814. doi:10.1155/2020/6835814 · PMID:32419817
6. Johnson GH, Fritsche K. Effect of dietary linoleic acid on markers of inflammation in healthy persons: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2012;112(7):1029-41. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2012.03.029 · PMID:22889633
7. De Alzaa F, Guillaume C, Ravetti L. Evaluation of chemical and physical changes in different commercial oils during heating. Acta Sci Nutr Health. 2018;2(6):2-11. actascientific.com
8. Axe J. Seed Oils: Are They Bad for You? What the Research Really Says. DrAxe.com. September 23, 2026.
9. Martin ME, Grao-Cruces E, Millan-Linares MC, Montserrat-de la Paz S. Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) Seed Oil: A Functional Food from the Winemaking Industry. Foods. 2020;9(10):1360. doi:10.3390/foods9101360 · PMID:32992712
10. Matthäus B. Virgin grape seed oil: Is it really a nutritional highlight? Eur J Lipid Sci Technol. 2008;110(7):645-650. doi:10.1002/ejlt.200700276
11. Axe J. You Were Lied To About Seed Oils! The Truth About Butter, Tallow & Olive Oil. The Dr. Josh Axe Show. 2026 (cell membranes and fragile fats, 2:20-2:43; the food matrix, 14:06-14:10; omega-3 and omega-6, 14:39-14:53; Chinese medicine, 16:01-16:23; the oils in the Axe household, 23:44-24:02; industrially processed seed oils, 26:11-26:41; fruit oils and ghee, and most of your fat from actual food, 29:05-29:36).
12. Maszewska M, Florowska A, Dłużewska E, Wroniak M, Marciniak-Lukasiak K, Żbikowska A. Oxidative Stability of Selected Edible Oils. Molecules. 2018;23(7):1746. doi:10.3390/molecules23071746 · PMID:30018226
13. US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Oil, olive, salad or cooking. FoodData Central, SR Legacy, FDC ID 171413 (NDB 4053). Published April 1, 2019.
14. US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Oil, avocado. FoodData Central, SR Legacy, FDC ID 173573 (NDB 4581). Published April 1, 2019.
15. US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Oil, coconut. FoodData Central, SR Legacy, FDC ID 171412 (NDB 4047). Published April 1, 2019.
16. Irandoost P, Ebrahimi-Mameghani M, Pirouzpanah S. Does grape seed oil improve inflammation and insulin resistance in overweight or obese women? Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2013;64(6):706-10. doi:10.3109/09637486.2013.775228 · PMID:23506314
17. Li J, Guasch-Ferré M, Li Y, Hu FB. Dietary intake and biomarkers of linoleic acid and mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Am J Clin Nutr. 2020;112(1):150-167. doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqz349 · PMID:32020162
18. Wu JHY, Marklund M, Imamura F, Tintle N, Ardisson Korat AV, de Goede J, et al. Omega-6 fatty acid biomarkers and incident type 2 diabetes: pooled analysis of individual-level data for 39 740 adults from 20 prospective cohort studies. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2017;5(12):965-974. doi:10.1016/S2213-8587(17)30307-8 · PMID:29032079
19. Axe J. The Hidden Reason Your Body Can't Heal Itself! The Dr. Josh Axe Show. 2026 (oxidized seed oils and your cells, 29:07-29:23).
20. Axe J. You Were Lied To About Fat — Your Cells Are Paying the Price. The Dr. Josh Axe Show. 2026 (the omega-3 test, 20:29-20:32).
21. Lyte JM, Gabler NK, Hollis JH. Postprandial serum endotoxin in healthy humans is modulated by dietary fat in a randomized, controlled, cross-over study. Lipids Health Dis. 2016;15(1):186. doi:10.1186/s12944-016-0357-6 · PMID:27816052
22. Lin TK, Zhong L, Santiago JL. Anti-Inflammatory and Skin Barrier Repair Effects of Topical Application of Some Plant Oils. Int J Mol Sci. 2017;19(1):70. doi:10.3390/ijms19010070 · PMID:29280987
23. Elias PM, Brown BE, Ziboh VA. The permeability barrier in essential fatty acid deficiency: evidence for a direct role for linoleic acid in barrier function. J Invest Dermatol. 1980;74(4):230-3. doi:10.1111/1523-1747.ep12541775 · PMID:7373078
24. Di Pietro Fernandes C, Santana LF, Dos Santos JR, Fernandes DS, Hiane PA, Pott A, et al. Nutraceutical Potential of Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) Seed Oil in Oxidative Stress, Inflammation, Obesity and Metabolic Alterations. Molecules. 2023;28(23):7811. doi:10.3390/molecules28237811 · PMID:38067541
25. Kaseb F, Biregani AN. Effects of Olive Oil and Grape Seed Oil on Lipid Profile and Blood Pressure in Patients with Hyperlipidemia: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Food Nutr Sci. 2016;7(8):682-688. doi:10.4236/fns.2016.78069
26. Garavaglia J, Markoski MM, Oliveira A, Marcadenti A. Grape Seed Oil Compounds: Biological and Chemical Actions for Health. Nutr Metab Insights. 2016;9:59-64. doi:10.4137/NMI.S32910 · PMID:27559299
27. Ansorena D, Ramírez R, Lopez de Cerain A, Azqueta A, Astiasaran I. Oxidative Stability and Genotoxic Activity of Vegetable Oils Subjected to Accelerated Oxidation and Cooking Conditions. Foods. 2023;12(11):2186. doi:10.3390/foods12112186 · PMID:37297430
28. Axe J. Top 50 Healing Herbs & Essential Oils (protocol). DrAxe.com. 2026 (essential oil safety and dilution, p. 39).
29. Axe J. Coconut Oil Benefits: Heart Health, Uses, vs. Butter & MCT Oil. DrAxe.com. 2026 (about a tablespoon a day, rotated with olive oil; favor olive oil if ApoB is high).
30. Cardinale F, Berardi M, Chinellato I, Damiani E, Nettis E. A child with anaphylaxis to grapes without reaction to grape seed oil. Allergy. 2010;65(6):800-1. doi:10.1111/j.1398-9995.2009.02247.x · PMID:19886916

Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS

Doctor of Natural Medicine · Founder, DrAxe.com

Dr. Axe is a certified doctor of natural medicine, clinical nutritionist, and multiple New York Times bestselling author. He has spent 20+ years in clinical practice helping people heal at the root cause and founded one of the most-visited natural-health platforms in the world.

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