Why should I use olive oil?

Question

So many recipes list olive oil in the ingredients, as the oil to fry things in. What are the benefits or reasons that I should use olive oil over regular generic "cooking oil" and should I always use olive oil over other oils?

Answer

According to Harold McGee, using olive oil to fry is basically a waste of money. "After I’d heated them, none of the olive oils had much olive flavor left. In fact, they didn’t taste much different from the seed oils."

According to a Spanish study I have access to, you could use high oleic sunflower oil for frying as it degrades better.

Check more discussion of this question.