This evenings diatribe is about Canola Oil. That's right, that stuff that is marketed to be a healthy cooking oil, because it is low in saturated fat, and high in wonderful stuff like Omega-3 fatty acids. It's everywhere, it's affordable, it's Canadian. What could be bad?
OH my. Here we go. First of all, let's look at the name. Corn oil comes from corn. Olive oil comes from olives. Soybean oil comes from soybeans. Canola oil comes from...no no no there is no such thing as a canola. Canola is an acronym. It stands for "CANadian Oil, Low Acid". Yummy.
Ever heard of a Rape? No, silly, not that. Canola oil is derived from rapeseed oil. The rape plant is a member of the mustard family. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am a HUGE fan of mustard. Mustard seed, mustard greens, any kind of mustard. Cabbage, horseradish, and turnips are also in the rape family.
Rapeseed oil was originally used as an industrial lubricant. It wasn't edible. It was cheap, but it had two things going against it, as far as being a food: it had high amounts of Erucic acid, a fatty acid that can cause heart damage, and it had Glucosinolates, bitter compounds that made it taste bad. Oh wait, I forgot to tell you, it's also an excellent insect repellent. Oh wait, did I forget to tell you, it's also used to make mustard gas. Please don't make me get into that.
Ok, let's focus on the key word in the last paragraph. CHEAP. It's cheap to manufacture. So the Canadians said, "hey, let's find a way to make this shit edible, and market it to those dopes in the lower 48." They used selective breeding techniques, AKA Genetic Modification, to reduce the bitter, inedible crap. Guess who the leader in this GMO paradise was? Yep. Monsanto.
Have you thrown your bottle of oil away yet? I've got more. Let me tell you a bit about how it is made. The best oils are cold processed. It is a simple process to extract the oils from the fruit/vegetable without compromising the quality of the oil, or the taste. Think of olive oil. If it were exposed to high heat during the extraction, the polyunsaturated fats would oxidize, and become rancid. With canola oil, a toxic solvent called Hexane is used to extract the oil from the rapeseed. Trace amounts of this can still be found in the oil. Additionally, because the oil gets stinky during this process, it also has to be deodorized. Yummy. And just to make it worse, all this high heat processing can cause the formation of trans fats. Artificial trans fats are bad. Really bad. Boo hiss.
Now, there actually is organic canola oil. If you can find it. Good luck with that. Let me know where you get it.
Let's talk nutrional analysis. Because it is so highly refined, canola oil is low in essential nutrients. yes, it is low in saturated fat, and relatively high in polyunsaturated fats.It has Omega-6 and Omega-3. It has a good level of monounsaturated fats, which are good guys. They are also found in olive oil. Let's talk about those polyunsaturated fats for a minute, though. Yes, they are the good guys, but we don't need a lot of them on a daily basis. Having a lot of canola oil in your diet would give you much more than you need, and could possibly become harmful over time. And those wonderful Omega-3s? Well, they are ALA (alpha lineolic acid). This is the plant form of Omega-3, and is useless unless it can be converted into EPA or DHA, which are the animal form. (think salmon). The human body is not very efficient in converting ALA to EPA, so much of that touted health benefit actually is wasted. My advice? Eat good fatty fish a couple of times a week, or use a fish oil supplement.
I have stopped using any oil in my restaurant that has canola oil. It just makes sense to me. I pay a little more for my fryer oil and cooking oil, but that's how I roll. And I never buy the stuff at home.
Did you make it this far? Thank you! I like to teach you how to make good tasting, beautiful, healthy food, but I also want to keep you informed and educated.
I will post some food very soon. I've pretty much just been wallowing in tomatoes. What a great year it has been so far. I eat them three meals a day.
Ok, I'll leave you with a pretty food picture. Be well, my friends. Enjoy summer. Talk at you again soon.
