Organic Canola Oil: A Food Fallacy

February 20, 2017  By Catherine J. Frompovich

Ever since the late 1990s, when canola oil started to become a ubiquitous ingredient in food processing and restaurant fare, consumers have been ingesting it, literally, by the tons!

Canada produces 20 percent of the world’s canola oil.  The U.S. imports an average of 510,000 tons of canola oil per year!

Canola is a heated and processed oil using anywhere from 80 – 90°Celsius and even 120°Celsius temperature in the processing, or 176 – 194° Fahrenheit to 248° Fahrenheit.  That would be in addition to any additional heating a cook uses when preparing foods—something to factor in to your cooking.

Christened “Canola” from “Can” (for Canada) and “ola” (for oil low acid), canola is not, strictly speaking, rapeseed. There is a internationally regulated definition of canola that differentiates it from rapeseed, based upon its having less than two percent erucic acid and less than 30 umoles glucosinolates. Oilseed products that do not meet this standard cannot use the trademarked term “Canola.”  [1]   [CJF emphasis]

That 2 percent of erucic acid gets a lot of human digest tracts very upset, I’ve found as a nutritionist!  The Free Medical Dictionary by Farlex defines erucic acid as:

a monounsaturated fatty acid that is a major constituent of certain oils, such as rapeseed oil.  Because it [erucic acid] has been linked to cardiac muscle damage, oils such as canola oil were developed that are low in erucic acid. [2].

At one time, rapeseed oil was not permitted to be sold in the USA by the U.S. FDA, because of its toxicity.

By the way, there was a petition [3] that was delivered to Whole Foods about their using canola in all the edible products they make and sell, including its fresh food and soup bars! As an aside, since the late 1990s, I was in contact with Whole Foods various VPs about using canola oil.  The letters I received from WF, in my opinion, showed shamefully woeful concerns for human health issues.  Whole Foods was more concerned about the costs of producing products.  I have refused to purchase any food products from Whole Foods since then, which contain canola oil, e.g., their “organic canola oil” is bunk, in my opinion.      Activist Post