In the South, in particular, one of the great delicacies of Christmas cooking is deep-fried turkey. While frying is not the healthiest way to prepare meat, I can understand the tradition.

So if you have decided to fry, you should at least use one of the healthy oils. Avoid harmful omega-6 oils (also called n-6 oils) such as:

• Corn oil

• Peanut oil

• Safflower oil

• Sunflower oil

• Canola oil

• Soybean oil

These are all pro-inflammatory oils. When used in excess, they have been shown to promote cancer growth, damage the brain, and also promote other inflammatory disorders such as arthritis and autoimmune diseases.

Unfortunately, most foods you find in the grocery store — including cookies, pies, and other pastries — are either cooked in one of these unhealthy oils, or have the oils as one of their ingredients.

The healthiest thing to do is make these kinds of holiday treats from scratch using coconut oil instead of one of the harmful omega-6 oils.

Another place you may find these oils is in salad dressings. Virtually all commercial salad dressings use one of the omega-6 oils, even if they say “Made With Extra Virgin Olive Oil” on the label.

But if you read the fine print, you will see that they usually also contain safflower, sunflower, or soybean oil.

There are, however, a number of companies that mix pure extra virgin olive oil with a wide assortment of herb and spice flavorings. These make delicious salad dressings.

Use them alone or combine them with vinegar for a tasty, healthy salad dressing.