Is Sunflower Oil Really Heart Healthy? Omega-3 vs Omega-6 in Indian Cooking Oils

The two fats, and why the ratio matters

Omega-3 and omega-6 are both essential fatty acids: the body cannot manufacture them, so they have to come from food. The complication is that they are not interchangeable, and they compete for the same enzymes during metabolism.

Broadly, omega-6 supports inflammatory pathways and omega-3 supports resolving them. Both are necessary. The concern in nutrition science is not omega-6 in itself but the ratio between the two. Modern diets have shifted heavily toward omega-6 while omega-3 intake has fallen, and it is that imbalance, rather than any single bottle of oil, that researchers point to.

What the common Indian oils actually contain

The profiles diverge more sharply than the shelf suggests. Mustard oil carries both omega-3 and omega-6, which among widely used Indian cooking oils is relatively unusual. Sesame oil carries omega-6 but effectively no omega-3. Sunflower oil is likewise an omega-6 oil with no meaningful omega-3 content.

Arjun Khanna, Managing Director of Biosash, had these oils independently tested while researching fatty acids for the company's sea buckthorn work. Cold-pressed mustard oil returned roughly 15 per cent omega-3, a figure he has described as higher than he expected.

“Kahan heart friendly hai woh?” he asked of sunflower oil's long-standing positioning, speaking on the Readers Books Club podcast with host Amiett Kumar. His argument is that decades of advertising displaced traditional cold-pressed oils before the nutritional case was properly examined.

The cold-pressed distinction

Processing matters as much as the seed. Cold pressing extracts oil mechanically at low temperature. Refining uses heat and frequently chemical solvents, followed by bleaching and deodorising.

Refining produces a neutral, shelf-stable, high-smoke-point oil, which is precisely why it displaced traditional oils commercially. But heat degrades polyunsaturated fats, and omega-3 is the most fragile of them. An oil that contained omega-3 in the seed may carry considerably less by the time it reaches a refined bottle.

This is why the same seed can yield meaningfully different oils, and why “mustard oil” on a label is not a single product.

The practical takeaway

None of this makes any one oil poison or medicine. Cooking oil is one input among many, and total diet, portion size and cooking temperature all matter more than brand choice.

What the omega profiles do suggest is that using one oil for everything is the weaker strategy. An omega-6-only oil, used at every meal, every day, in a diet already low in omega-3, tilts the ratio further in the direction researchers are concerned about.

Rotating oils, keeping a cold-pressed oil for low-heat use, and matching smoke point to cooking method is a more defensible approach than hunting for one perfect bottle.

Where the omega-3 gap actually gets filled

Cooking oil is a marginal contributor either way. The larger dietary sources of omega-3 are oily fish, flaxseed, walnuts and chia. For vegetarian diets that list is short, which is part of why the gap is common in India.

The point about cooking oil stands on its own, though, and it is worth acting on: the everyday oil is used at every meal, so it compounds in a way an occasional addition to the diet does not.

Watch the full conversation

This article draws on Arjun Khanna, Managing Director of Biosash, in conversation with Amiett Kumar on the Readers Books Club podcast.

This article is for general information and is not medical advice. Consult a qualified doctor or registered dietitian before making significant dietary changes.

THE SCIENCE