This Kitchen Staple Is *Not* Nutritionist-Approved

When a professional makeup artist tells us about his favorite skin-care products, we listen. When an acclaimed chef tells us about amateur cooking mistakes, we take notes. So when a nutritionist tells us about a common kitchen staple she would never keep in her own pantry, we head to our kitchen to correct our ways, ASAP.

We recently checked in with Monica Auslander Moreno, MS, RD, LD/N, nutrition consultant for RSP Nutrition, who told us about the one ingredient she's shocked to still see in people's kitchens.  

What is it? Vegetable oil. 

Yep, it turns out vegetable oil is one of her biggest pantry no-nos. “The fact that people still cook with this (and canola oil) is mind-boggling,” Auslander Moreno said. She explained that this particular oil has too much omega-6 (in relation to omega-3), which could contribute to inflammation. For salads and sauces, she recommends using olive oil, and for cooking at high temperatures, she’s a fan of avocado oil, in addition to grass-fed butter and ghee.

Ghee, for the uninitiated, is a byproduct of butter, made by slowly simmering the golden good stuff and straining off the milk solids. What’s left is pure butter fat...also known as ghee. Think of it as simply a more durable, more flavorful butter replacement. 

Update your grocery lists accordingly, folks.