I’ve just read a post called “When did you last eat a shirt” on WellFed.net, an enjoyable read about the inappropriateness of cotton seed oil in the human diet. In the comments section following, a discussion about canola oil included a comment from the author of the post which greatly disturbed me. She says, “There’s nothing wrong with canola oil, it’s actually quite healthy - as long as you buy organic.”
I beg to differ…
The first Big Con
Some of you may remember the unprecedented increase in Heart attack mortality from the 1930s onward. Some may remember the media freak out the mortality figures caused. Some may remember, mid 1980s, Agribusiness coming to the rescue. In collusion with the American Heart Association, government agencies and corrupt university nutrition departments, big brother Agribusiness finally convinced the American public that polyunsaturated oils were a “heart healthy” alternative to saturated fat. (No mind Heart attacks didn’t exist at the turn of the century when vegetable shortening began replacing butter in commercial baked goods.)
Some may remember questions emerging around consuming oils which had never been used in the history of humanity, oils which needed stainless steel and chemical processing to extract, concerns that soy and corn oil were causing numerous health problems including cancer.
Big brother Agribusiness and the Food Giants’ money machine was beginning to come off the rails. Convincing consumers of the value of these new fangled oils was getting difficult.
Where could they go? They certainly couldn’t go back to using old fashioned fats like coconut oil, lard, tallow and ghee, which have been used for millenia. They are just too expensive and there’s too much money to be made from mechanised agriculture. So the next best thing was to find a new miracle oil.
Studies had shown that olive oil, a traditional oil used by mediterranean and middle eastern people, was “heart healthy” because it contained monounsaturated fats. But of course, the cost and difficulties with using olive oil made it just as prohibitive as traditional fats.
Canola Oil to the Rescue!
The new wonder oil, Canola oil, was born - well not born, not even grafted but GENETICALLY ENGINEERED. Canola, or CONola as Sally Fallon and Mary Enig call it, was also high in monounsaturated fats and Omega 3 - the new darling of the Heart Association. COnola was originally engineered from Rape Seed using a seed splitting technique to create it’s mutant sister, LEAR or Low Euric Acid Rapeseed. (Euric Acid is associated with heart lesions and other ailments) Before it could be marketed LEAR had to be renamed Canola to be sellable. ‘Can’ stands for Canada where most LEAR was grown and ‘ola’ meaning oil makes the word sound suspiciously like “Cashola” to me.
While Rape seed has been used for millenia in asian cultures, it was always used in small doses and immediately after crushing. They certainly did not deep fry in it. Lard or Ghee was used for that. Nor did they genetically engineer it, use solvents to extract it (hexanes solvents are still present in the end product), deodorise it (rendering most Omega 3 rancid) and hydrogenate it (turning it into trans fats). They didn’t have to worry about the Euric Acid content - associated with fibrous legions of the heart, vitamin E deficiency, undesirable changes in the blood platelets and shortened life-span - because they included quality saturated fats in their diet which protected them. The connection between Omega 3 fats and the protective factors of Saturated Fats has only recently been proven - late 1990s.
But how can the food industry go back?
They have spent billions of dollars bribing governments, convincing nutrition experts and conning consumers. “One informant in the publishing industry told us that since the mid 1990s, major publishers would not accept cookbooks unless they included canola in the recipes.” (see Sally Fallon and Mary Enig’s essay, The Great Conola, for the dig on this.)
If Sheryl “When did you last eat a shirt” Kirby thinks cotton seed oil is every where - you’ll find it on labels cleverly disguised as ‘vegetable oil’ - she should check out CONola oil. Its even more insidious. Sold as a health food, it is commonly used in sterol-containing margarines and spreads recommended for ‘cholesterol lowering’. Biscuits and cookies are full of it. Almost all restaurants use it in hydrogenated form, and Asian countries import millions of tons of it. You can even by it “organic” in health food shops.
CONola oil may be a coup for Agribusiness but in the forms and amounts we eat it, it’s a disatster for human health. A disaster we may remember in centuries to come that brought our planet’s population to its knees.
About the Author...
Joanne Hay, Editor of Nourished Magazine, Chief Nourisher and Mother of three is very grateful to live in Byron Bay and be able to share all she has learned about Nourishment. She has trained as an Acupuncturist (unfinished), Kinesiologist (finished) and parent (never finished). She serves the Weston A Price Foundation as a chapter leader. She loves sauerkraut, kangaroo tail stew, home made ice cream, her husband Wes and her kids Isaiah, Brynn and Ronin (in no particular order…well maybe ice cream first).
Jul 25th, 2006 at 11:52 am
I think soy oil is the best personally. The only thing is it gives some foods a very sweet taste, expecially fish.
Janos
—
http://www.monaviedrink.com
Now available in Australia
Jul 26th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
This was an excellent article - I really hadn’t thought about it much. Which oil do you think is best? I was looking for an about you page but I didn’t see one … I am nosy!
Jul 27th, 2006 at 9:22 am
Tanya
I’m not trying to be mysterious, maybe just a little. We are in the process of redevoping the site and we’ll include more info about us. Here is a list of traditional oils the Weston A Price Foundation recommends:
The following nutrient-rich traditional fats have nourished healthy population groups for thousands of years:
* Butter
* Beef and lamb tallow
* Lard
* Chicken, goose and duck fat
* Coconut, palm and sesame oils
* Cold pressed olive oil
* Cold pressed flax oil
* Marine oils
The following new-fangled fats can cause cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, sterility, learning disabilities, growth problems and osteoporosis:
* All hydrogenated oils
* Soy, corn and safflower oils
* Cottonseed oil
* Canola oil
* All fats heated to very high temperatures in processing and frying
Bless
Joanne
Aug 13th, 2006 at 6:39 am
Interesting article, but I was curious about the claimed increase in heart attack mortality, so I checked out CDC data. This shows that age-adjusted death rates from cardiovascular disease are far lower than they were in the early 1900s. There was an increase from 1900 to 1950, but a much greater decrease since then. Data on heart attacks is available only from the late 1950s, but it shows a 50% decrease. I don’t think this data supports the thesis that “traditional” fats like lard and butter are healthier than “modern” fats like canola.
Aug 13th, 2006 at 11:39 am
There has been a slight decrease in mortality in the last 20 years, due to better surgical techniques and more importantly, anti clotting medications given to heart attach victims. However, the morbidity has increased. . . more people are getting heart disease. Sally
Aug 14th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Check out this post of Chris Gupta’s for more information on the benefits of Saturated Fat.
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2006/03/27/the_benefits_of_saturated_fats.htm
Aug 17th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Stuart
You may want to check out this article about Saturated Fat and why it’s not the demon it’s made out to be.
http://www.theomnivore.com/One_High-Saturated_Fat_Meal%20.html
Also Sally Fallon and Mary Enig of the Weston A Price Foundation have a lot to say about The Heart Diet issue.
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/fats_junkscience.html
Joanne Hay
Oct 3rd, 2006 at 12:03 pm
I have to agree about GM and heating /pressing techniques, but how about organic, non GM cold pressed canola oil…..it has a good fatty acid profile, so could it be the way we adulterate it for quick and easy manufacture rather than the intrisic properties of the oil?
Oct 3rd, 2006 at 4:57 pm
Sarah,
There are some much better sources of Omega 3 fatty acids. Olive Oil is as good as Canola and has not been engineered to lower Euric Acid, a dangerous toxin found in traditional Rape seed. It is also a very large part of the mediterranean and middle eastern diet, unlike Rapeseed, which was used in very small amounts, freshly ground. My money’s on Olive oil.
Joanne
May 9th, 2007 at 1:17 am
It’s more about how an oil is processed that is beneficial. You’re going to pay a premium for any cold pressed oil, including: extra-virgin rape seed and extra-virgin olive, and for good health reasons. Just like refined olive-pomace oil (sold in many US supermarkets) extracted with solvents from the last possible pressing is *barely* fit for human consumption. Sorry, but I just don’t trust the close-ended diatribe created by Enig and Fallon, or any source from which rhetorical terms such as “Conola” emanate. Don’t give me the contrarian viewpoint or politicized science, just give me well-founded truth followed by healthy debate.
May 31st, 2007 at 3:17 am
“I think soy oil is the best personally. The only thing is it gives some foods a very sweet taste, expecially fish.”
Janos
did you miss the part about how it gives you cancer?
Jul 9th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Thought I would throw in my two cents worth. I only use rice bran oil. It is the most balanced of all the oils, in terms of poly, mono and unsaturated fats. It has loads of natural Vitamin E (antioxidant properties), gamma oryzanol (liver cleanser), contains omegas 3 and 6, is hypoallergenic and has virtually no flavour or odor. With a high smoke point of 250 degrees it eliminates the trans fat issue altogether and you can’t burn it so no stinky house. Low viscosity means the oil does not soak into your food. It is the healthiest oil available today and it is not expensive. Whats more it is easy to clean off your cookware. What more could you want!
Jul 10th, 2007 at 2:23 am
Lesley, I’m wondering how easy it would be to get the oil out of rice bran? Rice doesnt seem to be a very oily substance to me - unlike sesame seeds, or flaxseeds? Does the package tell you how it is extracted?
Nicole
Jul 11th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Aside from all the good attributes of rice bran oil, I read that it also lowers cholesterol. If that is confirmed, perhaps it reduces the unhealthiness of deep fried foods, too.
Jul 13th, 2007 at 9:57 am
We do not recommend rice bran oil. It is high in polyunsaturates. It must be extracted at high temperatures so any unsaturated fatty acids would be ruined right off the bat. Plus they use hexane, a very carcinogenic solvent, in the extraction process. For cooking use extra virgin olive oil or animal fats such as butter, ghee, lard, tallow, duck fat or goose fat. All of these are stable and good for cooking, low in polyunsatures (which is desirable), contain vitamin E and anti-oxidants. Plus the animal fats are sources of valuable fat-soluble activators–vitamins A, D and K.
Jul 16th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Because of my belief that food available to the western masses is adulterated by the need to make money from it, I have set myself a very easy plan to follow. If I could not learn to make a food stuff with simple tools at home then I leave it alone. If you need complicated machines or chemicals to extract oils from plants then my theory is that we were probably not meant to consume them. I could churn my own butter, I do render down animal fats. I could press olives for olive oil. Actually when you think about it you could churn butter and press olives even with out electricity, and rendering animal fat could be done over a fire. This to me is meant to be eaten. Keep it simple. Humans make life to complicated, looking for the next big thing that will offer the answers to long life and happiness, stress and to many choices shorten life and leave people unhappy.
Oct 12th, 2007 at 8:12 am
just to clarify a point- the development of low euric acid rapeseed was done by standard cross-breeding techniques and not by genetic modification. that happened after.
Nov 11th, 2007 at 10:07 am
ok i just bought a wok and have been using conola oil to cook with could some one tell me what is the best oil for this that will not kill me !?
Nov 12th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Traditional oils for woks, coconut oil, lard (pasture fed piggies), palm kernal oil (strong tasting though), peanut oil (expeller pressed), small amounts of sesame for taste.
Nov 20th, 2007 at 7:41 am
No offense to any of you, but here is the deal that most of you are missing. Regardless of what Doctors say about the different oils, sooner or later they were sprayed with a chemical, either A. before planting or B. after. Now I know that most of the people posting here are probably more health conscience then I am, but to you I say this. I will use whatever oil I feel like. I use cottonseed for my deepfrying because of its long lasting abilty over peanut oil, and cost. Personal choices are important, but until something is published to prove me wrong, I will use it. If it kills me, well you were right, but if I out live you, I will laugh. Growing up on lard sandwhiches and dipping the bread into the cracklings of the bacon or side pork, i doubt that the oil I cook in will kill me. Besides, all the oils that have been discussed, well how are they fertilized? Most likely with some natural substance, aka animal waste. Interesting huh. So either I die of cancer, or I die from a heart attack. I choose both as long as I enjoy the food that comes from my workings.
Nov 20th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
For Asian cooking, I use extra virgin macadamia nut oil - mostly monounsaturated (similar profile to olive oil). Lard and peanut oil are more traditional, but are out for me due to allergies in the family. Lovely flavour too!
Nov 21st, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Allergic to piggy fat? never heard of that. Traditional fats like raw butter actually have components that heal the gut lining, a big step to healing allergies. Forgive my fat fetish again. : ) see pastureperfect.nourishedmagazine.com.au for grass fed, organic lard. xx
Dec 5th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
I have been a coconut oil tragic for the best part of two years now. I am frustrated by the fact we have been conned and deliberately misinformed about saturated fats. Your Heart will stop without a supply of saturated fat!Linoleic acid present in Canola and other veg oils (small amount in Palm) is used as an Imunosupressor in transplant patients to aviod rejection, but if given in too high strength causes cancer! Why is there an epidemic of breast cancer? MODERN OIL HABBITS , why is there not an investigation into this? Too much money at steak!Why , if saturated fat is so bad for you do hospitals feed it intraveniously to unconcious people to keep them nourished? Why do mothers feed babies monolauric acid derived from saturated fats in breast milk! Coconut oil contains the next richest source of Lauric acid after Mothers milk! Saturated fat carries coenzyme Q10 to your heart and other vital organs to energise cells , in turn coenzyme Q10 stops Cholesterol going rancid!Coconut oil contains no cholesterol however One third of your brain is cholesterol, so why starve your brain of a cholesterol containing diet!One half of cell walls are made of saturated fat to protect us from invasion by fat soluble viruse and bacteria. Please empower yourself and friends to research the truth about nutrition not media driven textbook nutrition which is killing innocent but ignorant people.Stay Well!
Dec 6th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I think Mark misses the point. Sure, go ahead and eat whatever you like, that’s your choice. I wouldn’t think it is a laughing matter though. Sure you might outlive me, but I will live my life to the full until I die. You on the other hand face the possibility of spending the last years of your life having no quality of life, waiting for impending heart attack, stroke… living in fear or agony.. but, thats your choice. The proof is out there, you just need to understand it.
Incidentally, i don’t remember hearing about coconuts being sprayed. What about Cod fish? ahhh nuh.. I don’t think they have srayed either. Mercury I hear you say? Nope.. http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/codliveroil.html
I have been taking both for 6 months or more now. I have never felt more energetic and found it so easy to keep my weight at an optimum level. I have less muscle soreness after a workout and cycling.
No offense to you Mark either… get your head out of the sand, this information has been published in many places. The marketing machines of the big corporates keep it buried… for now! It’s all about the money
Jan 27th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Canola is a very toxic oil, and I am very much in support of any education that informs the public of this fact. The Journal of Nutrition has an interesting article about Canola - it reduces the lifespan of rats by 8%, and that of their offspring by 20%! You can check that reference on my website at the following url: http://www.ultimatehealthsolutions.com.au/health.html.
Jan 29th, 2008 at 7:56 am
What an interesting article and debate. I think that this subject is similar to so many issues out there now. There is evidence that Canola and Cottonseed oils are contributors to health issues. It’s hard to pinpoint many times when someone is a victim of a heartache what the cause is. It may be the cigarettes, genetics, the diet, the lack of exercise. It’s probably all three. I find it disturbing when someone would chose to ignore evidence and say ‘prove it and then I’ll listen’. Where did common sense go? Where did simplicity and reason go? Instead of listening to our bodies, and to the facts from unbiased research we wait until it is set in stone. Which is usually too late. I completely agree with you Louise. I know that it may be viewed as traditional, or not wanting to keep with the times, but I believe in simplicity in our diets and in our lives. However, one must be at a place where they are ready to embrace that in order to see and accept it’s benefits.
Jul 17th, 2008 at 12:13 am
I’m not here to sing the praises of Canola. But Joanne your article is total bullshit, abstract information out of context, and some of it just totally untrue.
Yes it was derived from rapeseed, and yes there are some health concerns including high blood pressure, but this is with excessive intake. Versions of Canola were later genetically modified, but it wasn’t created by genetic modification. The name came from CANada and LO Acid, but everything new needs a new name from somewhere.
Get your facts right before righting articles Joanne. And people reading, find your self I more reliable source to get your information from.
Jul 24th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I personally only use rice bran oil. I have read so much about it that I am convinced that it is the healthiest oil available. I switched 2 years ago and my cholesterol levels have greatly decreased. Plus, it has more antioxidants and vitamin E than most oils. I have never liked the strange taste of canola and olive oil is too strong for me.
Sep 7th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
In the first paragraph about canola oil, you have an “it’s” where you should have “its”–”it’s” stands for “it is” whereas “its” is the possessive. You also have several other typos including missing periods and inconsistent capitalization of this “CONola” word. Grammatical errors like this cause you and your blog to lose credibility.
Sep 20th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I like to do a lot of research on this issue because it is confusing. I like rice bran oil for many reasons. I called the company and got a good explanation on the process and they even sent me a lab report. Rice Oil is very nutritious and I like cooking at high tem[eratures so it works for me. I feel like I have enough info on rice oil and I will continue to use it. I starting all this when canola oil was discussed as being not a good choice. I agree and I don’t like the flavor of canola so I would never use it again.
Sep 21st, 2008 at 10:53 pm
It’s taken me 8 years now to get my head around using sat fat in my
diet. It’s been a slow process, first ghee, then butter, then coconut
oil (fantastic for pan fried chips!), now duck and pig fats and
drippings rendered down.
Growing up in the 1970’s in Australia and the first “margarine”
generation of my family. I have vague memories of a drippings container
in the back of my mum’s fridge as a very young child, of course she
never fed it to us….:(.
Food now tastes better than it ever has in my life! But my mum always
had real butter for baking, and it was this that I ate by the slab when
no one was looking in my adolescence (I now know why) and my sister who
did not but stuck to the margarine is infertile and has suffered
lifelong from an eating disorder. Hmmmmm. Love this list! Thanks Joanne!