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Oil on a plant based diet: what the doctors say
Oil on a plant based diet: what Esselstyn, McDougall, Barnard, Willett and other doctors say about olive oil and no oil, where they agree and differ.
Updated . For education only, not medical advice.
Our view
Oil is not a whole food but a fat pressed out of one, with the fiber, protein, starch, vitamins and minerals left behind; McDougall and Barnard both make this point, Barnard noting that a bottle of olive oil means thousands of olives with their fiber thrown away12. At 9 calories per gram it is the most calorie-dense thing people eat, roughly 4,000 calories in a pound34.
Oil is also where the doctors on this site disagree most openly56. Walter Willett, in 2020, and David Jenkins, in 2026, accept unsaturated plant oils, Jenkins pointing to the PREDIMED trial in Spain, where people given extra virgin olive oil on top of their usual diet had fewer heart events and lower total mortality57. Caldwell Esselstyn, John McDougall, Peter Rogers and Jeff Nelson hold that no added oil at all is the rule for anyone trying to stop or reverse heart disease68910.
We give more weight to the no-oil side, and above all to Esselstyn, because his position comes from treating heart patients: in his 2014 report on 198 of them, a patient counted as adherent only after dropping added oil as well as meat, fish and dairy11. His argument, made in a talk posted in 2009, is that the short studies in which olive oil improved cholesterol misled doctors, while longer angiogram studies in people and a five-year autopsy study in monkeys found as much artery disease on monounsaturated fat as on saturated fat12. McDougall cited the same angiogram work by David Blankenhorn in 2016, and Rogers added in 2022 that a meal of olive oil impaired artery function for hours1314. As Jenkins describes it, PREDIMED added olive oil to a Spanish diet; it never set olive oil against a whole food diet with no oil at all, so in our reading it leaves the question Esselstyn asks open76.
Where they agree
Nearly all of them see oil as a refined product rather than a food: Goldhamer groups it with salt and sugar as concentrated parts of foods, and Campbell in 2020 put added oil with refined sugar among the parts taken out of plants that tend to do harm1516. Even Barnard, who rates olive oil far above butter, told viewers in 2023 to keep oils low17.
On calories the agreement is close to complete: McDougall, Rip Esselstyn, Chef AJ, Doug Lisle, Rogers and Nelson all give the same figure of 9 calories per gram, or about 4,000 a pound3418192021. Jeff Novick showed in 2010 that two tablespoons of olive oil carry more calories than half a cup of premium ice cream22, and Hana Kahleova reported in 2024 that oil, like other added fats, slowed weight loss in her team’s analysis23.
They also agree that the most saturated oils are the worst choice: Barnard in 2024 and Esselstyn on a 2023 cooking show singled out coconut and palm oil, Rip Esselstyn’s site gives coconut oil as 92 percent saturated fat, and Willett prefers unsaturated oils over palm oil2425265. Jenkins makes the same split from the other side, putting lard and beef tallow on the cholesterol-raising list27.
Where they differ
The split runs over three questions: whether olive oil helps or hurts the heart, whether a little oil matters, and whether fat from whole foods such as olives, avocados and nuts belongs on the plate7122829.
Olive oil and the heart
Jenkins in 2026 credited first-pressed oils with polyphenols that may lower heart risk, granting that extra virgin oil is costly but worth it2730. Willett, on a 2020 panel shared with Esselstyn and T. Colin Campbell, said decades-long trials of one oil against another cannot be run, so cohort studies have to guide the choice5. Against that, Esselstyn and McDougall rely on angiogram studies in which arteries narrowed as fast on vegetable or olive oil as on saturated fat1213, and Rogers in 2022 cited Robert Vogel’s study of a 31% drop in artery dilation three hours after olive oil14. Debating Garth Davis, a surgeon who argued for moderate amounts of extra virgin olive oil, in 2025, Rip Esselstyn reported that some of his father’s patients had their angina come back after they returned to olive oil31.
None at all, or very little
Rogers said in 2026 that advice merely to cut back on oil falls short, and backed Esselstyn’s rule of none at all, which he said McDougall shared9. The Ornish program reaches its 10% fat cap by adding no oils, yet its guidelines allow low-fat packaged foods that may hold traces of canola or olive oil, while one of its recipe videos from 2014 wipes the pan with a little olive oil293233. Lisle in 2025 called a trace of oil in a bought sauce irrelevant while warning that an oily dressing every night adds up28, and Kahleova’s trial diets asked for oil to be kept to a minimum rather than banned outright34.
Fat from whole foods
Campbell said in 2020 that he knew of no evidence against fat eaten as part of a whole nut or avocado, and Chef AJ in 2022 told people who want fat to eat it whole, from nuts, seeds and avocado3518. The Ornish program goes further for its heart patients and leaves out avocados, olives and coconut as well as oils29. A 2026 VegSource video, from Nelson’s channel, accepted that fat raises blood carotenoids for a few hours after a salad, but asked where the vegans are who go short of vitamin A for want of dressing3637.
Older and changed views
Some views belong to their dates3839. Campbell recalled in 2018 that from the late 1960s Americans were told to swap lard and butter for corn oil and the margarine made from it3840. In 1982 Nathan Pritikin was already warning that corn, safflower and sunflower oils raised colon cancer risk, and predicted the American Heart Association would have to drop its support for them39. Denis Burkitt, in a recording posted in 2013, still offered vegetable margarine as a swap for butter41. Chef AJ, oil-free for most of her career, said in July 2026 that she had eaten some oil for about a year and would now add a spoonful of sesame oil for flavor4243.
What each expert says
JMJohn McDougall
McDougall’s program, as he summed it up in 2013, is starches with fruits and vegetables, no animal foods and no free oils8. In a 2016 webinar on oil he called it a medicine at best and a toxin at worst, never a food, and said olive, coconut and flaxseed oil all end up stored as body fat13. His August 2007 newsletter puts it in a phrase he often repeats, “the fat you eat is the fat you wear”44.
For Esselstyn, no added oil of any kind is a core rule, from olive, corn, soybean and sunflower oil in a lecture posted in 2014 to coconut and palm oil in 2023, including the oil hidden in bread and crackers4525. His FAQ says oils injure the lining of the arteries and are empty calories46. The same FAQ sees no problem with skin lotions that contain oil47.
Campbell treats added oil as one of the fragments pulled out of plant foods that tend to cause harm, and observed that people eating plant based generally steer clear of it16. He separates that from fat eaten inside whole nuts and avocados35.
Barnard ranked olive oil well ahead of butter in 2023, at about 14% saturated fat, yet advised keeping all oils low and said piling more olive oil onto a Mediterranean diet is a mistake1748. In 2024 he told Chef AJ to leave out coconut and palm oil because they push cholesterol up, and said that even canola oil can quickly bring on insulin resistance2449.
The Ornish program keeps fat to 10% of calories by adding no oils, avocados, coconut or olives, while tolerating small amounts in low-fat packaged foods2932. In 2019 Ornish said that when eating out he asks for vegetables cooked without oil, butter or salt50.
Goldhamer said in 2025 that oil, salt and sugar are added back to foods to trigger dopamine and drive overeating, and that frying turns a potato into a sponge for grease1551. In 2026 he said his TrueNorth center advises whole plant foods with no added salt, oil or sugar52. He admits most plant based doctors accept that diet in principle yet doubt people can keep to it socially53.
Rogers called olive oil pure liquid fat in 2022 and rejected claims that it protects the heart or brain, pointing to research where soybean, palm and olive oil each pushed up triglycerides and damaged the artery lining205455. In 2025 he said the coronary arteries do best on a vegan diet of whole foods, low in fat and free of oil56.
In a 2010 talk Novick judged olive oil on its nutrients and found little: no protein or carbohydrate, a trace of vitamin E, and about 1,900 calories of oil needed to meet omega-3 needs5758. That year he also wrote that the olive oil story of the Mediterranean diet is a hoax, tracing the view to his own 1999 article59. In a 2016 talk he put the oil use of traditional Okinawans at about 3 grams daily60.
Nelson said in 2025 that he stays oil-free for reversing disease, citing his wife and father, whose health improved on an eating plan modeled on Esselstyn and McDougall1061. In another 2025 video he doubted that flax oil causes weight loss and suggested any loss could come from poor absorption2162.
In a talk posted in 2018 Rip Esselstyn told listeners to drop olive oil, even extra virgin, along with canola, safflower and grapeseed oil, at about 120 calories a tablespoon63. His PLANTSTRONG site wrote in 2022 that one tablespoon of olive oil equals roughly forty-five olives’ worth of fat26, and in 2025 he argued against Garth Davis that whole plant foods bring more antioxidants for fewer calories31.
Chef AJ said in 2018 that she avoided oil for health and calorie density rather than as an addiction64, and in 2022 called dropping it the easiest change for weight loss18. By July 2026 she had relaxed, eating some oil for about a year though still little fried food4243.
Willett accepts oil in the diet; at the 2020 panel he said that among oils people eat, unsaturated ones beat highly saturated palm oil5. He added that soybean oil also leaves a large land footprint, so feeding about 10 billion people has costs whatever oil is chosen65.
Jenkins said on the Physicians Committee’s podcast in 2026 that plant oils, especially first pressings, bring unsaturated fats and polyphenols that may lower heart risk, unlike lard and beef tallow27. He cited the PREDIMED trial’s fewer heart events and lower mortality with extra virgin olive oil7.
Kahleova said in 2024 that oil slowed weight loss like any added fat, so she does not count it among healthy plant foods23. Her trial’s low-fat vegan group was asked to use as little oil as possible, which, she noted in 2023, even shaved a few cents off daily food costs34.
Pritikin told McDougall in 1982 that a recent National Cancer Institute statement named total dietary fat as the leading cause of colon, breast and prostate cancer, and that polyunsaturated oils doubled colon cancer risk39.
Lisle said in 2025 that he had not studied the heart evidence on oil himself, but that as the most concentrated processed food it makes a diet far denser in calories6619. In 2026 he drew a line between frying and a salad dressed with olive oil, a dressing he still would not use because it works against weight loss67.
Burkitt told McDougall that fat, mostly saturated and from animals, supplied about 45% of the energy in Western diets, and urged as little fried food as possible, with vegetable margarine in place of butter41.
We cook without added oil, following Esselstyn, McDougall and Rogers, and take our fat from whole foods689. Water, broth or a good nonstick pan do the work of oil in sautéing and roasting. Whether a little olive oil is harmless for someone without heart disease is where the doctors differ, so that is a question for your own doctor. This page is education, not medical advice.
Each small number links to its reference below: the video at the exact second, or the page where it was said.