"I know you have to be careful with these. Vegatable oil is ok in moderation though right?"

Astral, I think what you're asking is, "is vegetable oil a healthy oil?" and I believe the answer to that question is no. All of the commercial vegetable oils that you can buy in clear bottles on the shelf of your regular grocery store (with the exception of olive oil) have been partially hydrogenated to extend shelf life, and the manufacturing process that produces them involves truly awful chemicals.

Think about it this way: if you grind a bunch of olives between two stones you get olive oil. If you crushed a bunch of corn in the same manner, you'd get a milky, starchy fluid with almost no oil in it at all. It takes chemicals and a lot of technology to get that oil separated out and purified enough to use. And then, once you do get them extracted, the polyunsaturated oils are very unstable. They are easily damaged by light and heat and go rancid very quickly, so they either have to be refrigerated, or hydrogenated to have any shelf life at all. Even light will turn them, which is why all those clear bottles on the supermarket shelf are a dead giveaway.

Even if you buy cold-pressed polyunsaturated oil from a health food store, you shouldn't cook with the stuff. Heat damages it. Store it in the refrigerator, and use it on salads, or to make your own mayonaise.

Having said all that, do I think using vegetable oil will kill anyone? No. But if your concern is about the health benefits or lack thereof, you're better off cooking with olive oil, animal fats, or one of the tropical oils.

--Ruth