Wednesday, March 9, 2011

canola oil - deadly or not so deadly?

I was baking and talking to Constance about ingredients and the question "what is canola oil made out of?" came up. A lot of vegan recipes use it, and allergen-free recipes like it because it is not made from soy. Incidentally, vegetable shortening is mainly soy, unless you can find a very expensive non-soy shortening somewhere. So I looked up Canola Oil in my nutrition book and was so surprised by the information. I guess that almost everybody asks "what's a canola?" at some point in the kitchen.

What's weird is this: my nutrition book and lots of online sources say that canola oil was developed by a Canadian company that pressed rapeseeds and named it "can" for Canada, "ol" for oil, and added the "a" for flair. If you read the stuff online, you will see information about how rapeseed is one of the most toxic, deadliest things you can grow and "even insects won't eat it."
However, if you read the Canola Oil FAQ website, you will learn that "Canola oil is the healthiest of all commonly used cooking oils" and this:
"Canola oil comes from pressed canola seed. The seed is harvested from pods that are formed after those beautiful yellow flowers you’ve probably seen in the summer fade away. North American farmers have been growing canola seed for over 30 years. "

very suspicious. and, "over 30 years!" Wow! Were people alive back then?

So if you know the truth about canola, please let me know.

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