The Truth About Avocado Oil

If you've been on the crunchy side of the internet lately, you've probably seen the avocado oil news. Sometimes it feels like us crunchy folk just can’t win, so we get why everyone is freaking out.

You go to the grocery store and spend time actually reading the labels. You opt out seed oils by choosing the “clean” chips, crackers, mayo and dressings made with avocado oil because you thought you were making the better choice. Then a new study comes out and suddenly you're wondering: Can I trust anything at the grocery store anymore?

Unfortunately, that question isn't completely unreasonable. If you have no idea what news we’re talking about, here’s the breakdown:

A new study from researchers at the University of California, Davis found that 48 out of 54 processed foods labeled as containing avocado oil contained other oils as well. That's nearly 89% of the products tested. This means that while consumers thought they were intentionally avoiding seed oils by choosing a premium “avocado oil” product, they were being misled. The study included products from more than two dozen brands, including Siete and other popular “better-for-you” brands. Currently in Texas, this is being investigated.

What consumers just learned is that a label isn't always the whole story. We can read the ingredient list, do our research, and pay more for what we believe is a cleaner alternative, only to find out that what's in the package may not be what we thought. For those of us who have spent years, and often considerably more money, trying to avoid highly processed ingredients, that's frustrating.

Quick Links:

Want real food instead?
See what we’re putting in our meals and why we choose traditional fats over highly processed cooking oils. Build Your Own Box
Want to see the research for yourself?
Read the UC Davis study on avocado oil quality that sparked a closer look at what’s actually in many products labeled “avocado oil.” Read the UC Davis Study
What happened after the study?
Texas launched an investigation into Kraft Heinz and PepsiCo following concerns raised about the accuracy and labeling of avocado oil products. Read About the Investigation
Looking for nourishing meals you can actually make?
Check out our top postpartum recipes made with real, nourishing ingredients. Get the Postpartum Recipe Guide

We've Been Watching This Pattern for a While

The avocado oil story is actually part of a much bigger conversation we've been having in the real-food community. Over the last few years, we've watched smaller, mission-driven food brands get acquired by massive food corporations.

Siete is a perfect example.

Siete started as a family-founded company with a mission centered around Mexican-American food and ingredients many health-conscious consumers felt good about buying. Then, in January 2025, PepsiCo completed its $1.2 billion acquisition of Siete Foods. PepsiCo says it intends to preserve the qualities that made Siete special while using its scale to expand the brand.

To be fair, an acquisition doesn't automatically mean a brand becomes bad. We were actually very hopeful at first. It felt like consumers were finally being heard and Big Food was recognizing the demand for cleaner, healthier products and making them more accessible.

There's nothing wrong with holding out that hope, by the way!

The concern is what happens behind the scenes as these brands scale. Even when the label looks the same, sourcing, suppliers, manufacturing and quality can change. So, consumers rightfully became skeptical.

It’s frustrating to lose a brand you love, but even more frustrating when on paper, everything looks the same, yet something behind the scenes has changed. And as consumers, there’s really no way to know until studies like this come out. Let’s be real, it’s left a lot of us feeling a little gaslit.

But truthfully, this is why we've always been skeptical of relying too heavily on packaged “better-for-you” foods in the first place.

We Don't Want You to Need a PhD to Read a Label

As a meal company ourselves, we know food margins aren't easy to maintain, especially when using quality ingredients. Customers don't see the food waste, labor, sourcing, and countless details that go into making a truly nourishing meal. But, we didn't get into this industry just to cut corners and make a product just like every other processed food out there.

We started Restorative Roots to be the alternative and fill the gap. We saw the need in the ready-made meal space when it came to quality, sourcing, and real nourishment. We also saw how postpartum women were struggling to get quality food. Our goal is and always will be to bridge that gap and heal real people with real food.

It may not be cheap, but we'd rather use pasture-raised butter and grass-fed ghee than build a meal around a trendy cooking oil. The same goes for making a nourishing stew with meat, vegetables, bone broth and traditional fats than creating a “healthy” frozen meal with 27 ingredients that require a Google search to understand.

We're going back to tradition, intentionally.

Why We Use Butter and Ghee

Butter and ghee aren't new. They're traditional foods that have been used in cooking for generations. And when we're building nourishing meals for postpartum moms, we don't feel the need to reinvent the wheel.

We use pasture-raised butter and grass-fed ghee because they're simple, recognizable fats that fit the way we think food should be prepared. This doesn't mean we're claiming that every traditional food is automatically healthy or that every modern ingredient is bad.

It's simply about our philosophy: When you have the option to use a real, recognizable food, why complicate it?

Grid of open meal containers showing congee, berry oatmeal, stew, and porridge varieties

We Want To Make It Easy To Eat Nourishing Food

This is especially important to us because Restorative Roots was started for a very specific season of life: Postpartum.

You're recovering from birth which is exhausting. You’re feeding a baby approximately 37 times a day and battling your own hunger. The last thing we want is for you to spend your limited energy standing in the grocery aisle trying to figure out which packaged food company you can trust this week. We want to make nourishing food easier.

That's why our meals are built around ingredients like:

Pasture-raised meats
Regeneratively sourced ingredients
Bone broth
Pasture-raised butter
Grass-fed ghee
Made with Organic produce
Whole-food ingredients
Traditional herbs and warming spices

We're not trying to make food that looks and sounds healthy. We're trying to make real food that you don’t have to give a second thought about.

organic regenerative farm with bison by a lake for postpartum meals

And This Is Why Sourcing Matters

One thing this avocado oil story has reminded us of is that ingredients don't exist in a vacuum. You can look at an ingredient list and see “avocado oil.” But where did that oil come from? Who supplied it? How was it processed? Was it actually 100% avocado oil? How was it transported and stored? Was the supplier trustworthy?

Those are questions most consumers don't have the ability to answer. And that's why we believe brands have a responsibility to be transparent about sourcing. At Restorative Roots, we're constantly asking those questions because we want to know what we're putting into our own food, too.

Resist Panicking

We don't want this article to leave you thinking:

“Great. Now I can't eat anything.” Please don't panic. You don't need to throw out your entire pantry. The reason being is an unpopular truth: even if you find a packaged snack made with a truly clean, high-quality oil, it's still a packaged snack.

And that's okay sometimes. We're moms. We understand convenience. But there's a difference between occasionally choosing a packaged food with a better ingredient list and making processed food the foundation of your diet.

A bowl of nourishing stew made with quality meat, vegetables, broth and traditional fats is still fundamentally different from a highly processed snack, even if that snack uses avocado oil instead of a conventional vegetable oil. That's why we don't want to spend all of our energy trying to find the “perfect” packaged food. We'd rather get back to real meals.

So yes, we're disappointed by the avocado oil findings.

We're frustrated that consumers have to question whether “made with avocado oil” actually means what they think it means. We're also committed to watching the continued consolidation of the food industry closely. At Restorative Roots, we'll keep choosing simple ingredients, transparent sourcing and nourishing meals because, at the end of the day, that's what we believe food should be.

Mongolian Beef with mushrooms, carrots, and peppers in a large bowl

Nourishing Meals You Don’t Have to Second-Guess

Whether you’re recovering postpartum, healing from surgery, or simply looking for better everyday meals, quality food shouldn’t be something you have to compromise on. Stock your freezer with Restorative Roots meals made with thoughtfully sourced, nourishing ingredients. You don’t have to choose between convenience and real food.