You've Been Lied To About Canola Oil

The truth about canola will shock many health conscience people, especially when they realize how much they have been lied to by the people who have been giving them alternative health advice. This report will be a bomb shell for many such people.  Much of the information contained herein comes from, Genetic Control of Fatty Acid Biosynthesis in Rapeseed - The Journal of the American Oil Chemists Society (1964), so this report is based upon verifiable scientific facts, and not mere rumors.

Back in the 1960's and 70's, the food industry was in search of an oil that they could produce cheaply, but market toward health conscious consumers. While olive oil was preferred among those who cared about their health, it was never easy or cheap for manufacturers to mass produce. As a result, they began using rapeseed oil, and attempted to reduce rapeseed's poisonous erucic acid content. Serious problems were found with the erucic acid in unmodified rapeseeds, like the fact that it directly attacked the heart muscles to cause problematic lesions in the heart itself. In fact, rapeseed is so poisonous that insects will not eat it, but manufacturers decided to use it in our foods anyway, at least until they realized the liability that they were placing themselves in. Thus began their research and development of a less toxic version of rapeseed oil. Their less toxic version of rapeseed would eventually come to be known as canola.

Prior to 1976, the canola plant did not exist.

Since then, the origins of canola oil have been hotly contested in an information (public relations) war across the Internet. The manufacturers of canola, and the sellers of its seeds say that rapeseed plants were naturally refined into a new species called canola through a process of controlled cross-pollination. The resultant plant from this work was originally called L.E.A.R. (Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed), before being renamed to canola for marketing reasons, because no company wanted to market a plant known for its toxicity (rapeseed), and few companies wish to be associated with a product having "rape" in its name. The people who promote canola admit that its name was changed for marketing purposes only: to deceive us about its true linage in other words; yet they expect us to trust their integrity about canola's supposedly all natural genetic history.

While they lie about it, they matter-of-factly boast about their genetic engineering amongst their partners in industry. For instance, this comes from the official Canola Council of Canada:

"Here are some key facts on growing genetically modified (GM) canola in Canada.

"GM or transgenic canola varieties have been modified to be resistant to specific herbicides. They are called herbicide-resistant varieties. The plants are modified, but the oil is not modified. It is identical to canola oil from non-modified or conventional canola.

"Herbicide-resistant GM [Genetically Modified] canola is grown on about 80% of the acres in western Canada. GM canola was first introduced in 1995."

In the U.S.A., at least 55% of the canola is admitted to be genetically engineered, and that number was for 2004. They are actually proud of it, while we are told lies about canola not being genetically modified. What follows cites the process that was used to chemically engineer canola oil, for those who still believe the industry spin-doctors about canola oil being natural.

Here's how 'canola oil' (L.E.A.R.) began life:

"Self-pollinated seed harvested from each plant was oven-dried, weighed and crushed with a glass rod in a 50-ml Erlenmeyer flask containing 10 ml solution of methanol, acetyl chloride and benzene in the ratio of 20:1:4. The mixture was refluxed under an air condenser for 1 hr to extract and esterify the seed oil. A known wt of internal standard (dibutyl sebacate dissolved in carbon tetrachloride) was added and 0.2-0.4 ~1 of the sample injected into an F and M model 500 gas chromatograph operated at 208c with a helium flow rate of 75 ml / min and using an 8 ft • 3/16 in."

This is just the beginning of the natural process through which canola oil was first made. The equally deceptive claim that high fructose corn syrup is natural has been made by many from the food industry, and canola oil is created through a much more complex engineering process that carries even more long-term health implications. Alas, let us return to the natural process of creating Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed canola oil.

"At the base of each pod, 10 ~1 aqueous solution of radioactive sodium acetate (0.2,c methyl labelled) was injected with a Hamilton micro-syringe. A branch from a rapeseed plant bearing 15 pods was excised below the lowest pod, the pods were similarly injected and the cut end of the branch placed in a beaker partially filled with distilled water. All cutting operations were carried out under water to prevent air entrapment. The seeds were dried in a vacuum oven, at 85c for 2 hr, and the oil extracted in a Swedish tube (10) using a chloroform-methanol (2:1) solvent system. The solvent was removed under reduced pressure and residue extracted with diethyl ether which also was removed under reduced pressure. The sample was saponified, and unsaponifiable material was separated by extracting the soaps in aqueous ethanol with ethyl ether. The soaps were converted to free fatty acids and esterified with methanol using boron trifluoride-etherate complex as a catalyst (8)."

This goes on and on, until the desired affect is achieved; low erucic acid, while not affecting the overall oil content. I do not believe that any sane person could see this process as one that is in any way natural. What is noticeably absent from the actual procedure is any mention whatsoever of the controlled pollination, which the canola marketers have been swearing was at the core of the process. Instead, what we can clearly see is the use of industrial chemistry to alter the canola oil just as practically all of the canola plants being used are themselves admittedly genetically engineered. What is described here is by any standard genetic engineering and chemo-genetic modifications. Could any sane and honest person refer to anything in this process as natural selective breeding? More importantly, would you feel secure having radioactive sodium acetate being a key part of your food chain?

When we eat foods that have been genetically modified, what sort of assurance do we have that they will not affect our own genes; and how long will it be before we see the long-term effects? Will we first see them in our mutant grandchildren?

If you would like to see the entire study for yourself, you can find it here: Genetic Control of Fatty Acid Biosynthesis in Rapeseed. I do warn you, that it has a tendency to make one's head spin. We expect this official scientific report to disappear as ours becomes popular, so we are keeping a back-up copy of it. In case they attempt to edit the file, the MD5 checksum (digital fingerprint) for it is: 724fe221c54fea4bdb16a41e0a1ffc83. We recommend you download and archive a copy for yourself, because industry has a tendency to make such documents disappear when it realizes they have been exposed.

If you have any doubts about the dangers of canola oil, then be advised that the F.D.A. is tacitly recommending it by allowing canola manufacturers to make medical claims. It reminds me of the smoking doctor commercials from yesteryear. Perhaps an even better example is the establishment's long standing recommendation that we consume the new hydrogenated oils (high in omega-6s), since these are supposedly so much safer than the natural saturated fats like butter, and the cardiac business is booming as a result.

For much more information, see our in-depth investigative report, Toxic Cooking Oils Redux: Lies and Deceptions Of Cooking Oils and Their Labeling.