Different Between Vegetable Oil and Olive Oil...

If you have a subscription to Cook's Illustrated from American Test Kitchen in their current magazine they have an article about exactly that question. Their top choice is a vegetable oil blend with sunflower oil. This one tasted good when used to make mayonnaise and to fry French fries in in.
My personal favorites are extra virgine olive oil for dressings and light to medium heat sauteing and grapeseed oil for many other things like high heat cooking and mayonnaise making. I hope this helps, A.

Olive oil is good for you unless you heat it to a high temp., then it gets damaged and actually turns into a trans fat.

In everyday cooking the biggest differences are flavor and cost. Olive oil (especially EVOO) has a very distinctive taste... I cook a LOT... and go through a ton of extra virgin olive oil (thank goodness for trader joes, where a $20 bottle from elsewhere costs $6), as it's my stock oil of choice... but I never never never use it in asian dishes or hawaiian dishes (yuck), nearly never use it for deep frying (cost and taste... but there are a few fried Roman dishes that are killer done in olive oil), & only use corn oil for baking (the moisture level achieved with corn oil even in boxed cake mix is phenomenal).

From a non-nutrition/purely cooking standpoint oils all have a certain personality in addition to their innate flavors.

From a nutrition standpoint oils are also all different. But that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish.

There are a couple of things to consider when choosing an oil. Technically olive oil is a vegetable oil, but for different applications you use different types of oil.
One thing to consider is the flavor. Olive oil has a pretty strong flavor that just doesn't harmonize well with some applications... just imagine pancakes with olive oil...yuck!
Another consideration is the smoke point. That is the temperature at which oil starts to burn. If you need to fry something at a high temperature, peanut or certain vegetable oils are a better option.

Then you also have to look at how the oil was processed. Cold pressed, unrefined oils generally retain more health benefits, but you cannot cook well with them and they do not store well. Those oils are best bought in small bottles, refrigerated and used in Salads and other cold applications.
Oils that have been highly processed are generally for better for large scale applications such as your deep fat fryer.

The main difference is the source of the oil. The names are pretty obvious, but the real difference is the amount of saturated vs. unsaturated fat.

Usually, olive oil is said to have more "good" fat (monosaturated) and Omega-3 fatty acids. Vegetable oils tend to have more saturated fats.

There was a study released today that states that there is no link between coronary artery disease and saturated fats (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61341020100204?feed....

It used to be believed that margarine was better than butter, now science is leaning the opposite direction.

The basic answer is no one really knows which is better and will have an impact on your cardiovascular health down the road.

I hope that helps.

Hi M.,

Olive oil is wonderful for most things but you should never fry with olive oil. Olive oil, when it hits a certain temperature, lets off toxic fumes. Canola or vegetable is better for frying. Most people don't know this because most people that use olive oil are usually somewhat health conscience and don't fry often.

Hope I helped!

M.

Also, to add to the previous responder, vegetable oil burns at a higher tempurature than olive oil, and so from a flavor standpoint, if you are frying, vegetable oil is the better choice. Extra virgin olive oil has a nice flavor to it, so you can use it for salads or dipping bread, or to drizzle over roasted items like vegetables or garlic bread.

in addition to Dawn W below and the health benefits:

certain oils are used for cooking certain things because of the heat point.
ie: peanut oil is used for frying usually because it has a high heat point.. it can heat up higher without burning.

Olive oil, can be used for pretty much anything... AND it does have a "taste" to it, especially the extra virgin olive oil, versus the "light" olive oil. Its great for marinating too or dipping or drizzling or making salad dressings.

Some vegetable oils, have no taste.
"nut" oils, like macademia nut oil, is a "light" oil and is good for salad dressings for example.
Sesame Oil is used sparingly, for adding a touch of flavor to Asian foods because it has a stronger taste.
Peanut oil can also be used for stir-fry.

Just try researching it doing a Google search.

All the best,
Susan