Canola oil: Separating fat from fiction

With a hint of panic in his voice, a concerned reader called to ask how safe canola oil is because there’s been a spate of e-mails going around about it, and his family has been cooking with this kind of oil for so long now. Okay, oil right, nutritionist Dr. Angel Respicio Jr. tells us everything there is to know about canola — the good, the bad, and the oily.

According to Dr. Jun Respicio, much has been said about the virtues of canola oil. But its downside is not far behind. To the confused consumer who can barely make both ends meet, canola and the other polyunsaturated vegetable oils are the cheaper alternative — or is it? Confused consumers are bound to get mixed information — separating fat, er, fact from fiction is even more tricky.  First  of all, canola is not a vegetable or a tree.To quote Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary G. Enig in their article “The Great Con-ola,” “Canola oil is widely recognized as the healthiest salad and cooking oil available to consumers. It was developed through hybridization of rapeseed. Rapeseed oil is toxic because it contains significant amounts of a poisonous substance called erucic acid. Canola oil contains only trace amounts of erucic acid and its unique fatty acid profile, rich in oleic acid and low in saturated fats, makes it particularly beneficial for the prevention of heart disease. It also contains significant amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, also known to have health benefits. This is what the food industry says about canola oil.

On the other hand, this is what detractors say about canola: “Canola oil is a poisonous substance, an industrial oil that does not belong in the body. It contains “the infamous chemical warfare agent mustard gas,” hemagglutinins and toxic cyanide-containing glycosides; it causes mad cow disease, blindness, nervous disorders, clumping of blood cells, and depression of the immune system.”

So, how is the consumer to sort out the conflicting claims about canola oil? Is canola oil a dream come true or a deadly poison? And why has canola captured so large a share of the oils used in processed foods? 

Rapeseed oil was a monounsaturated oil that had been used extensively in many parts of the world, notably in China, Japan, and India. It contains almost 60-percent monounsaturated fatty acids (compared to about 70 percent in olive oil). Unfortunately, about two-thirds of the monounsaturated fatty acids in rapeseed oil are erucic acid, a 22-carbon monounsaturated fatty acid that had been associated with Keshan’s disease, characterized by fibrotic lesions of the heart. In the late 1970s, using a technique of genetic manipulation involving seed splitting, Canadian plant breeders came up with a variety of rapeseed that produced a monounsaturated oil low in 22-carbon erucic acid and high in 18-carbon oleic acid. The new oil was referred to as LEAR oil, or Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed oil.

According to Fallon and Enig, “Before LEAR oil could be promoted as a healthy alternative to polyunsaturated oils, it needed a new name. Neither ‘rape’ nor ‘lear’ could be expected to invoke a healthy image for the new ‘Cinderella’ crop. In 1978, the industry settled on ‘canola,’ for Canadian oil, since most of the new rapeseed at that time was grown in Canada. The new name did not come into widespread use until the early 1990s.

Most of the negative comments on canola oil — like its being genetically modified (banned in Europe), questionable GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) status, harmful emissions especially in China, one-year shelf life (they must be referring to the cool climate in the US), association with cyanide and mustard gas, among others — were well addressed by the Canola Council of Canada. Scientists could now endorse canola oil in good conscience because it is a heart-healthy oil, low in saturated fat, high in monounsaturates, and a good source of omega-3 fatty acids. But most of the omega-3s in canola oil are transformed into trans fats during the deodorization process. To maintain canola’s reputable status, some makers in the US now manufacture trans fat-free canola oil. This should silence all detractors and make them join the bandwagon, but nobody’s biting.

With all the merits heaped on canola oil, why are health-conscious people avoiding it? It must have something to do with its processing. Rapeseed has been used as a source of oil since ancient times because it is easily extracted from the seed. Interestingly in China and India, the seeds are first cooked before the oil is extracted using small stone presses that press out the oil at low temperatures. What the merchant then sells to the housewife is absolutely fresh.

However, modern oil processing is an entirely different thing. The oil-bearing seeds are crushed and heated to 230°F (110° C), then the oil is squeezed out at pressures from 10 to 20 tons per inch. This generates more heat, causing  the weak carbon bonds of unsaturated fatty acids, especially the triple unsaturated linolenic acid (predominant in vegetable oils), to break apart, thereby creating dangerous free radicals, notably lipid hydroperoxides (LP) and 4-hydroxy-trans-2-noneal (HNE).

Dr. Catey Shanahan warns us of the dangers of lipid hydroperoxides and HNE in her article “Heart of Darkness.” We should be careful with commercial vegetable oils: soybean oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, and canola oil. Lipid hydroperoxides harm our arteries and joints, deactivate vital enzymes, cause tissue inflammation, resulting in skin rashes, wrinkles, and premature aging, heartburn, liver problems, arterial spasm, blood clots, and cancer. 

So, what is the best oil to consume then?

Of course, the tried-and-tested oil that has sustained mankind from creation up to 1960. These are the traditional oils from lard, butter, chicken, tallow (beef), coconut and palm oil. In temperate and tropical regions, the essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6) should come from legumes, grains, nuts, green vegetables, fish, and olive oil, but not from commercial vegetable oils.

One frequently voiced objection to the consumption of butter and other animal fats is that they tend to accumulate environmental poisons. Fat-soluble poisons, such as DDT (banned in the US in 1972), do accumulate in fats; but water-soluble poisons, such as antibiotics and growth hormones, accumulate in the water fraction of milk and meats.

Vegetables and grains also accumulate poisons. It is correct to assume that all of our foods, whether of vegetable or animal origin, may be contaminated. The solution to environmental poisons is not to eliminate animal fats — so essential to growth, reproduction, and overall health — but to seek out organic meats and butter from pasture-fed cows, as well as organic vegetables and grains. Fortunately, these are becoming increasingly available in health food stores and supermarkets, and through mail order and cooperatives. 

Dr. Respicio notes that Procter and Gamble introduced the liquid vegetable oil Crisco (crystallized cottonseed oil) in 1960. In 1976, they introduced sunflower oil known as Puritan, which later became 100-percent canola oil in 1988. 

Did you know that canola seems to retard growth, which is why the FDA does not allow the use of canola oil in infant formulas (Dr. Enig, The Skinny on Fats)? The next time somebody tells you to avoid traditional animal fats because your cholesterol will go up, tell them: “How right you are, LDL-cholesterol goes up a little bit, but did you know the so-called good HDL-cholesterol goes up even more?

Oil’s well that ends well.

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