The Nutritional Institute

Based on Ian’s recent talk on good, bad and ugly fats, plus the fact that there seems to be so much uncertainty regarding canola oil, I thought I would do a little investigating to find out whether we should include it in our daily eating, or not.

Way back in the 1930’s, canola oil was used for industrial purposes. In fact canola is not a unique plant - it is a derivative of the rapeseed plant, which are the beautiful yellow flowers that can be seen spread across multiple fields, as in the picture above. It was a cheap oil back in the day, but people couldn’t eat rapeseed as it contained erucic acid (a fatty acid that caused heart damage in some rats) and glucosinolates (meaning that it was a very bitter tasting oil).

Canadian scientists wanted to transform rapeseed oil into an edible oil, so they used selective breeding techniques to create seeds that were less bitter. This is how canola oil got its actual name; believe it or not, it’s an abbreviation for Canadian Oil. Additionally, over and above this transformation, Monsanto decided to further genetically engineer the seeds (1995) to be resistant to the herbicide RoundUp for weed control. Which, from my understanding, would suggest that the actual seeds now contain a poison to prevent weed growth. So not only has the rapeseed been selectively breed in the 1930’s, but also had a poison injected into the seeds in the 1990’s. Research states that over 90 per cent of the canola oil produced in the world is genetically engineered. For me, this rings loud alarm bells.

But if altered plant DNA doesn’t bother you, then the process of manufacturing the oil might. To produce the oil, the plant seeds are crushed and then heated. This exposure to high temperatures damages the heat sensitive polyunsaturated fats, resulting in oxidation of the oil. So the oil molecules turn rancid, meaning that deadly trans fats are created and that the omega 3 characteristics (that this oil is supposedly known for) are destroyed. The oil is also subject to chemical solvents (like hexane) to extract the oil. The manufacturers will claim that most of the solvent is removed (but so too would anyone wanting to place profits over our health - this is unfortunately the norm these days). It is still unclear wether trace residues might be harmful to our health; but it is known that hexane is harmful to the environment… Food for thought…

And the final step to complete the refining process of canola oil is deodorising. This gives the oil a bland taste that consumers apparently want. So we went from an inedible, bitter tasting oil, to engineering it into a more palatable oil with health consequences (I can think of a few other edible products that follow the same format).

Because canola oil is supposed to be a really good source of omega 3, it has been heralded as one of the healthiest oils around. I think the only way to get the best out of this oil is if you buy organic cold pressed non-GMO canola oil which has therefore not gone through the above process of extraction. However, I have not seen a dark glass bottle of cold pressed organic canola oil available for purchase yet and I can imagine it would be superbly expensive as it’s such a rare commodity.