The oils most likely to raise your cholesterol are those high in saturated fat, particularly coconut oil, palm oil, and palm kernel oil. These tropical oils contain between 50% and 82% saturated fat, which is several times more than most other plant-based cooking oils. Industrial trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils were once the worst offenders, but the FDA completed their removal from the U.S. food supply in 2023.
How Certain Oils Raise LDL Cholesterol
Not all saturated fats affect cholesterol equally. The ones that matter most are specific fatty acids with 12 to 16 carbon atoms in their chemical chain: lauric acid, myristic acid, and palmitic acid. These three fatty acids reduce your liver’s ability to pull LDL cholesterol out of your bloodstream. Normally, your liver has receptors that grab LDL particles and clear them from circulation. Saturated fats with 12 to 16 carbons suppress the production of those receptors, so LDL accumulates in your blood instead of being removed.
This means the problem isn’t just “how much saturated fat” an oil contains. It’s which types of saturated fat dominate. An oil loaded with palmitic or myristic acid will have a stronger cholesterol-raising effect than one with the same total saturated fat but a different fatty acid profile. Myristic acid is the most potent cholesterol raiser, followed by palmitic acid, then lauric acid.
Coconut Oil
Coconut oil has been marketed as a health food, but its fatty acid profile tells a different story. It is 82% saturated fat, making it more saturated than butter. Its dominant fatty acids are lauric acid (47%) and myristic acid (16.5%), both of which fall squarely in the cholesterol-raising range.
A meta-analysis of 16 clinical trials found that coconut oil raised LDL cholesterol by about 10.5 mg/dL compared to nontropical vegetable oils like canola, soybean, and sunflower oil. It also raised HDL (the “good” cholesterol) by about 4 mg/dL. Some coconut oil advocates point to that HDL increase as a benefit, and lauric acid does raise HDL more than other saturated fats. But the net effect on your total cholesterol to HDL ratio, which most doctors want below 5:1 and ideally below 3.5:1, still tilts in the wrong direction when you’re comparing coconut oil to unsaturated alternatives.
Palm Oil
Palm oil is the world’s most widely consumed cooking oil, and it shows up in everything from packaged snacks to restaurant fryers. Its dominant saturated fat is palmitic acid, which makes up about 45% of its total fat content.
The clinical data on palm oil is consistent. Compared to oils rich in polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats, palm oil raises LDL cholesterol by roughly 0.20 to 0.30 mmol/L (about 8 to 12 mg/dL). One meta-analysis found it increased total cholesterol by nearly 12 mg/dL when it replaced oils high in polyunsaturated fat. Palm oil does raise HDL slightly (about 2 mg/dL over polyunsaturated oils), but not enough to offset the LDL increase. If you’re checking ingredient labels, palm kernel oil is even more saturated than regular palm oil and behaves more like coconut oil.
Partially Hydrogenated Oils and Trans Fats
For decades, partially hydrogenated oils were the single worst type of fat for cholesterol. The hydrogenation process created artificial trans fats, which raised LDL cholesterol while simultaneously lowering HDL, a double hit that no other fat delivers. These oils were staples in margarine, commercial baking, and deep frying.
The FDA set a final compliance date of January 1, 2021, for manufacturers to stop using partially hydrogenated oils, and completed the last regulatory actions revoking their approved uses in December 2023. That means they’re largely gone from the U.S. food supply. However, trans fats still occur naturally in small amounts in meat and dairy, and trace levels can form in any oil during high-heat processing. If you’re buying imported or unregulated products, check labels for “partially hydrogenated” in the ingredients list.
What Happens When You Overheat Any Oil
Even oils that are otherwise healthy can become problematic if you repeatedly heat them past their smoke point. When cholesterol-containing foods (meat drippings, lard, butter) are exposed to high heat, the cholesterol oxidizes into compounds that are more damaging to arteries than regular cholesterol. Animal studies have shown that diets containing oxidized cholesterol increased early-stage arterial plaque by 32% to 38% compared to diets with unoxidized cholesterol. These oxidized compounds are toxic to the cells lining your blood vessels and can make circulating cholesterol particles more prone to further oxidation in the body.
This is most relevant if you’re reusing cooking fat multiple times, deep-frying with animal fats, or cooking with butter at very high temperatures. Plant oils without cholesterol don’t produce cholesterol oxidation products themselves, but they can still degrade into other harmful compounds when overheated.
Oils That Lower Cholesterol by Comparison
The contrast between tropical oils and unsaturated plant oils is large enough to matter. Oils rich in polyunsaturated fat, like soybean, sunflower, corn, and walnut oil, consistently produce the lowest LDL levels in head-to-head trials. Oils rich in monounsaturated fat, like olive and canola oil, fall in the middle but still perform far better than coconut or palm oil.
The U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend keeping saturated fat below 10% of daily calories, which works out to about 22 grams on a 2,000-calorie diet. A single tablespoon of coconut oil contains roughly 12 grams of saturated fat, more than half that daily limit. A tablespoon of olive oil, by contrast, has about 2 grams.
Swapping oils matters more than you might expect. Replacing butter or tropical oils with unsaturated alternatives in clinical trials reduces LDL cholesterol by roughly 0.20 to 0.42 mmol/L (8 to 16 mg/dL), depending on the specific swap. That’s a meaningful shift, roughly equivalent to what some people achieve with early-stage dietary interventions before medication becomes part of the conversation.
Interesterified Fats: The New Unknown
As manufacturers phased out trans fats, many replaced them with interesterified fats, oils that have been chemically restructured to behave like solid fats in baked goods and spreads. These are now common in commercial pastries, cookies, and margarines. The safety data is still limited. Most studies have found they either reduce or don’t change blood fat levels after a meal compared to their non-processed equivalents. But one study using a commercially relevant palm-based blend found that interesterified fat actually increased blood triglycerides for up to four hours after eating, compared to the same fat in its natural form.
The bottom line is that interesterified fats aren’t clearly worse than the saturated fats they’re made from, but they aren’t clearly safe either. If you see “interesterified” or “fully hydrogenated” on a label (different from “partially hydrogenated”), the product is likely using this newer process. The base fat still matters: an interesterified palm oil product is still delivering palmitic acid to your liver.