Seed Oil Swaps: Skip This, Pick This

Skip: Standard flour tortillas (soybean oil or shortening) · Most store brand and Mission flour tortillas use soybean oil or shortening, and they add up over a week.

Pick: Siete tortillas (avocado oil) or corn tortillas
Brands: Siete Foods, La Banderita Corn Tortillas

Siete tortillas use avocado oil with cassava or almond flour. Corn tortillas are made from masa and usually have no oil at all (some add preservatives, which is fine), so check that the label shows no oil.

Skip: Standard sandwich bread (soybean oil) · Most supermarket bread lists soybean or canola oil. Whole wheat and multigrain loaves often have it too.

Pick: Real sourdough or a bakery loaf with no added oil
Brands: Local bakery sourdough (ask what's in it)

Traditional sourdough is flour, water, salt and starter, no oil. Popular 'healthy' loaves often still use canola oil, so read the label before you switch.

Skip: Packaged crackers and grain snacks (seed oils) · Goldfish, Wheat Thins and Cheez-It use soybean, canola or sunflower oil in the dough. Easy to mistake for a light snack.

Pick: Plain pork rinds
Brands: 4505 Chicharrones, Epic Pork Rinds (check the label)

Plain pork rinds are cooked in pork fat with no seed oil added, which makes them one of the few crunchy snacks with none. Flavored ones can add oil, so read the label.

Skip: Standard potato chips (canola or sunflower oil) · Lay's, Ruffles and Pringles are made with canola, sunflower or similar oils, and it is easy to eat several servings.

Pick: Tallow-fried or avocado-oil potato chips
Brands: Masa Chips, Vandy, Siete (avocado oil)

Masa Chips and Vandy fry in beef tallow. Siete uses avocado oil. Both are a big step down in PUFA from canola fried chips and still crunchy.

Skip: Vegetable oil (soybean blend) · About 50% PUFA in the app's oil table (soybean oil alone is about 54%). Found in a huge share of packaged food.

Pick: Avocado oil or refined coconut oil
Brands: Chosen Foods, Primal Kitchen, Nutiva

Avocado oil is about 14% PUFA in the app's oil table and has a high smoke point, so it works for high heat and everyday cooking. Refined coconut oil is mostly saturated fat and very stable.

Skip: Vegetable shortening (Crisco style) · Today's Crisco is soybean oil plus palm oil. Older shortenings were partially hydrogenated and carried trans fat. Either way the soybean part is high in PUFA.

Pick: Lard or grass-fed butter
Brands: Fatworks, Kerrygold, local butcher lard

Lard is a traditional baking fat that produces flaky crusts without the seed-oil burden of shortening. Grass-fed butter adds flavor and is mostly saturated fat.

Skip: Canola oil · One of the most common seed oils. About 28% PUFA in the app's oil table, and refined under high heat. Many restaurant fryers use it.

Pick: Beef tallow or butter
Brands: Fatworks, EPIC Provisions, Kerrygold

Beef tallow and butter are mostly saturated and monounsaturated fat with little PUFA (about 10% and 2% in the app's oil table), so they hold up well to heat. They were the everyday cooking fats for most of history.

Skip: Standard frozen chicken nuggets (canola/soy fryer) · Tyson, Perdue and most store brand frozen nuggets are breaded and par-fried in canola or soybean oil before packaging. Even 'natural' brands like Applegate list sunflower and canola oil.

Pick: Plain frozen chicken tenderloins or unbreaded chicken strips
Brands: Good & Gather plain chicken (check the label)

Unbreaded frozen chicken has no added fryer oil, so the PUFA is just what's in the chicken. You pick the cooking fat when you finish it at home.

Skip: Standard frozen pizza (soybean oil in dough and sauce) · DiGiorno, Totino's and Red Baron use soybean or canola oil in the crust or sauce. The cheese is fine, the crust is the problem.

Pick: Cauliflower-crust or grain-free frozen pizza
Brands: Cali'flour Foods, RealGood Foods, Cappello's

Many cauliflower and grain-free crusts skip seed oil, but not all: check the label. Cappello's and Cali'flour's plant-based crust use olive oil.

Skip: Miracle Whip (soybean oil and added sugar) · Soybean oil is the fat in it, and unlike mayo it adds sugar too.

Pick: Avocado oil mayo with a splash of apple cider vinegar
Brands: Primal Kitchen, Chosen Foods

A small splash of apple cider vinegar in avocado oil mayo gets you close to the tangy taste of Miracle Whip without the soybean oil.

Skip: Standard mayo (soybean oil) · Most supermarket mayos (Hellmann's, Best Foods, Kraft) are made mostly from soybean oil. The app counts about 6.2 g of PUFA in a tablespoon of store mayo.

Pick: Avocado oil mayo
Brands: Primal Kitchen, Chosen Foods, Sir Kensington's

Avocado oil mayo uses a lower PUFA base oil and tastes close to standard mayo in most dishes. Primal Kitchen is the easiest one to find.

Skip: Standard ranch dressing (soybean oil) · Hidden Valley and most bottled ranch use soybean oil as the base. The app counts about 7.7 g of PUFA in 2 tablespoons of bottled ranch.

Pick: Avocado oil ranch, or olive oil and herbs
Brands: Primal Kitchen, Chosen Foods

Primal Kitchen makes ranch on an avocado oil base, which carries far less PUFA than soybean oil. Check the label on other brands: some 'better' ranches use high-oleic sunflower oil instead.

Skip: Standard Caesar dressing (soybean/canola oil) · Most bottled Caesar dressings are soybean or canola oil whipped with egg yolk.

Pick: Olive oil, lemon and Parmesan, or an avocado oil Caesar
Brands: Primal Kitchen Caesar

Olive oil is about 10% PUFA in the app's oil table and is a classic base for a Caesar. Primal Kitchen makes a bottled Caesar with avocado oil that is easy to find.

Skip: Bottled Italian dressing (soybean or canola oil) · Ken's, Wish-Bone and most bottled Italian dressings are soybean or canola oil with herbs.

Pick: Extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar and Italian herbs
Brands: Any extra virgin olive oil you like

Homemade Italian dressing takes 30 seconds and has far less PUFA than a bottled one. Olive oil is about 10% PUFA in the app's oil table.

Skip: Standard BBQ sauce with added soybean oil or high-fructose corn syrup · Some BBQ sauces add soybean oil for mouthfeel, and most big brands sweeten with high-fructose corn syrup.

Pick: BBQ sauce with no added oil
Brands: Primal Kitchen BBQ, Stubb's Original

Stubb's and Primal Kitchen add no vegetable oil. Sugar in BBQ sauce is a choice you can make on purpose. Seed oil in it is easy to miss unless you read the label.

Skip: Store brand ketchup with added oil · Heinz and Hunt's don't add oil, but some store brand ketchups do. Most regular ketchups use high-fructose corn syrup, while organic versions often use cane sugar.

Pick: Ketchup with no added oil
Brands: Primal Kitchen Ketchup (no sugar), Annie's Organic, Sir Kensington's

Most big ketchups have no oil at all, so this is a small win. If you want the whole pantry clean, these skip both the oil and the corn syrup.

Skip: Margarine and butter spreads (vegetable oil) · Country Crock, Blue Bonnet and similar spreads are made from soybean, canola or other seed oils.

Pick: Grass-fed butter or ghee
Brands: Kerrygold, Vital Farms, Tin Star Foods ghee

Real butter is mostly saturated fat with very little PUFA (about 2% in the app's oil table). Kerrygold and Vital Farms are in most grocery stores.

Skip: Standard jarred pasta sauce (soybean or canola oil) · Many jarred marinara and pasta sauces add soybean or canola oil on top of the tomatoes. Check the label, it's often near the top.

Pick: Pasta sauce made with olive oil (or no added oil)
Brands: Eat Happy Kitchen, Rao's Homemade

Eat Happy Kitchen makes its sauces with extra virgin olive oil and no seed oils (Seed Oil Free Certified). Rao's Homemade is the easiest olive oil sauce to find. Both skip the soybean and canola oil most jarred sauces use. Where to buy →

Skip: Standard packaged cookies (canola or soybean shortening) · Oreos, Chips Ahoy and Nilla Wafers use soybean, canola or palm oil blends as the main fat.

Pick: Cookies made without seed oil
Brands: Siete Grain-Free Cookies, Simple Mills (check the label), homemade butter cookies

Siete uses avocado oil. Simple Mills uses palm shortening or coconut oil instead of soybean or canola. Homemade cookies made with real butter are the gold standard.

Skip: Low-fat or non-dairy frozen dessert (seed oils added for creaminess) · Many low-fat and non-dairy frozen desserts add canola or coconut oil to copy the texture of cream. Read the label.

Pick: Full-fat ice cream or real frozen custard
Brands: Häagen-Dazs (simple ingredient list), Tillamook (check the label)

Full-fat ice cream made from cream, eggs and sugar has no seed oil added. Häagen-Dazs vanilla is five ingredients.

Skip: Milk chocolate candy with added vegetable oil · Some milk chocolate candy swaps part of the cocoa butter for vegetable oil to cut costs. Hershey's bars use PGPR, an emulsifier, rather than a seed oil, so read the label on the specific candy.

Pick: Dark chocolate (70% cacao or more, no added vegetable oil)
Brands: Hu Chocolate, Endangered Species (check the label)

Dark chocolate at 70% and up is mostly cocoa butter, a stable fat with very little PUFA. Hu makes its bars without palm oil or emulsifiers.