Many of us view Canola oil as an inexpensive alternative to Olive Oil. It is marketed as being healthy, a source of Omega 3 fatty acids and is FDA approved to claim its potential to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Canola oil is a resent entry to our food chain, appearing only thirty to forty years ago. Since then, Canola has quickly become one of the top cash crops in many countries around the world. Due to successful marketing, we all have heard of Canola oil but few of us know what Canola is.
The following video produced by DGTV eloquently addresses this question.
Canola is a genetically engineered plant developed in Canada between the late 1950s to mid 1970’s. It is derived from the rapeseed plant and was engineered to remove two of its toxic components. The statutory definition for Canola is defined as several varieties of the Rape plant (or Rapeseed plant) having seeds that contain less than 2% erucic acid and whose solid components contains less than 30 micromoles pre gram of glucosinolates. When ingested by humans, erucic acid can cause heart lesions and glucosinolates can cause thyroid enlargement. Rape and Canola plants are weeds. Thus since the 1990’s Canola plants have been further modified to be resistant to herbicides.
The term Canola comes from words Canada and oil. It is said to stand for “Canada oil, low acid”. The oil was also known as “LEAR” oil, for Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed. Trademarked in Canada in 1978, it is now a generic term for “Canadian Oil”.
The Rapeseed plant, which is part of the mustard family, has long been used to produce oils for industrial purposes. Through out the world it was originally used as a lamp oils and then as a cooking oil. It is toxic for humans and animals and has been used as an insect repellent, for lubricants and fuels. It is used to make soap, synthetic rubber, dyes and other products. Rape oil was also used to make mustard gas used in WW1. When ingested it is know to cause emphysema, respirator distress, anemia, constipation, irritability, blindness and other health concerns. Recently, when introduced into animal feed in England and Europe between 1986 and 1991, it was thought to be linked to outbreaks of Mad Cow disease and “Scrapies” in sheep. Both conditions disappeared when Rapeseed was removed from their diets. Few studies have been done on humans to determine the affects of regular consumption of the oils. In light of this, the health benefits and safety of Canola oil maybe questionable.
How Oil is Made
If you were to Google how cooking oils are made, you will find many articles detailing the procedure. Commercial grade cooking oils are highly processed manufactured products. This includes Canola oil. Depending on the extent of processing, the nutritional value of the oils is reduced and the concentration of harmful components increased. How an oil is stored and its age can also affect quality. Enjoy the video. Thank you Dr. Irene Grant for providing the link. Http://daghettotymz.com/dgtv/videoarticles5.html
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Angel "Mitsukai" Sosa // Jun 12, 2008 at 6:49 pm
It is a disgrace what the F.D.A. will allow Americans to use as a food source and allow companies to call them “Heart healthy”!
2 Annette S. // Jun 13, 2008 at 4:14 am
I found the article to be very informative, however what would be suggested as a better alternative?
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