Canola Oil: Heart Disease in a Bottle

Why is this much-touted oil, used by almost every restaurant and marketed as a healthy oil, so dangerous?

Manufacturing

Canola oil goes through a caustic manufacturing process that includes abrasive refining, bleaching and degumming using scorching temperatures. The oil is also treated with chemicals like hexane, an unregulated petroleum derivative used in the textile and roofing industries to create glue. When heated, Canola oil produces high levels of 1,3-Butadiene, benzene, acrolein, formaldehyde, and other related compounds which are absorbed into your food. Formaldehyde jack cheddar omelette—nasty!

Transfat content

Canola oil is high in omega-3 fatty acids, which is part of its appeal, but it becomes rancid and putrid-smelling when subjected to oxygen and high temperatures and therefore must be deodorized. Deodorant in my broccoli—nasty! The healthy fatty acids are transformed into trans fatty acids, or partially hydrogenated oil, and the healthy omega-3s are damaged or destroyed. While the Canadian government lists the trans-fat content of Canola at a mere 0.2 percent, research at the University of Florida at Gainesville detected levels as high as 4.6 percent. Since the label obscures this inconvenient fact, consumers like you are unaware. Transfat in disguise—nasty!

Industrial Oil

Canola oil was traditionally used as an industrial oil in applications such as candles, soaps, lipsticks, lubricants, inks, biofuels. The oil is actually an EPA-registered pesticide. It’s introduction into the market as an edible oil occurred only after a massive transformation and marketing campaign. Pesticide sausage with Lubricants—nasty!

Genetically Engineered

In 1995 Canola oil was genetically engineered to contain bacterial DNA that would make it resistant to toxic herbicides (Monsanto’s Roundup). Currently, 90% of Canola oil is genetically modified. These seeds are such an extreme deviation from their original rapeseed that Monsanto was able to obtain a patent. Canola has been through two separate generations of genetic engineering: first to create the low erucic acid rapeseed that was renamed “Canola”, and then further genetic modification to make it herbicide resistant. No Canola in the United States has any labeling to indicate that it is genetically engineered or that it is a variety of rapeseed. GMOs in my chicken cutlets—nasty!

History of Use

Canola oil does not come from the Canola plant because there’s no such plant. It comes from the rapeseed plant. Rapeseed oil contains erucic acid which is poisonous. The U.S. banned rapeseed in 1956 after thousands of soldiers and civilians experienced blistered lungs and skin. Rapeseed is also the source of the notorious chemical warfare agent, mustard gas. Canola is Rapeseed and Rapeseed is nasty!

Marketing Deception

In 1964, the food industry collaborated with both the chemical and nuclear industries to reduce the toxicity levels of rapeseed. After a decade and a tremendous amount of genetic engineering to get rapeseed oil to be acceptable to the U.S. market, the product was rolled out. The name was changed to LEAR (Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed), but this did not appeal to consumers because of the association with Rapeseed and the word “rape”. In 1978 the food industry merged the words “Canada”, “Oil”, and “Low Acid” and started promoting it as an inexpensive and heart healthy oil. Making crap up—nasty!

Health Studies

There are many animal and human studies showing the negative health effects of consuming Canola and other polyunsaturated oils dating back to the 70s . They range from reduced kidney and liver function to increased incidence of lung, breast, and other cancers, dangerously depleted levels of critical vitamin E, and even death. Many of these reports are available on PubMed, the premier online medical library of the National Institutes of Health. Health-destroying oil—nasty!

The Takeaway:

Food manufacturers use hydrogenated canola oil to ensure a long shelf-life. You can have a pantry full of foods that won’t spoil for months or even years, but you’ll be consuming lots of (undisclosed) trans fats. So don’t buy it, be aware that it’s in most prepared food, in restaurants ask your server what your food is cooked in and request an alternative like olive or coconut oil. Print out this post and pass it along to a manager or owner, so that you can be part of the awareness campaign that results in the elimination of Canola from our food— OUT! Nasty, toxic oil.

This short industry video exalts the health benefits of Canola oil while simultaneously showing you the grisly details of how it’s made. Decide for yourself!

Here’s one of the best reads (from a reliable source) on what Canola really is, and why it’s so dangerous.

It’s movie night! Check out this fascinating tell-all account of how the American people were tricked into eating food that has made them sick, and continues to make them sicker. The Oiling of America will change your understanding of good fat vs. bad fats and the mythical dangers of high cholesterol.

Additional Studies

The unfortunate reality is that human studies on Canola oil have not been funded. There is very little money for independent researchers who go up against Big Ag, genetic bioengineering, government agencies, and prestigious, established organizations such as the powerful and well-known American Medical Association and the equally powerful but lesser known National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. The biggest companies are only concerned about protecting and increasing profits, and there is a revolving door between them and the government and medical agencies and organizations that write policy and dietary recommendations. Surprise!