Info on canola oil

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Earlier today, I posted a question about canola oil. I am overwhelmed with the number of responses in just a few hours. So, I decided to post the info I received on canola oil, especially since there have been some conflicting responses. This is obviously some old information because canola oil has been available for many years. Here goes! Sorry that the formatting was lost when posting. This is rather lengthy.

Subject: Fw: Canola Oil - A must Read

Before you buy your next bottle of cooking oil...

I think it's important that as many people as possible KNOW about the origins of this product. Then, if you choose to buy it, at least you're doing so with your eyes open.

RAPE IN A DIFFERENT GUISE Dear Editors

Recently I bought a cooking oil that's new to our supermarkets, Canola Oil. I tried it because the label assured me it was lowest in "bad" fats. However, when I had used half the bottle, I concluded that the label told me surprisingly little else and I started to wonder: where does canola oil come from? Olive oil comes from olives, peanut oil from peanuts, sunflower oil from sunflowers; but what is a canola? There was nothing on the label to enlighten me, which I thought odd. So, I did some investigating on the Internet. There are plenty of official Canola sites lauding this new "wonder" oil with all its low-fat health benefits. It takes a little longer to find sites that tell the less palatable details.

Here are just a few facts everyone should know before buying anything containing canola. Canola is not the name of a natural plant but a made-up word, from the words "Canada" and "oil". Canola is a genetically engineered plant developed in Canada from the Rapeseed Plant, which is part of the mustard family of plants. According to AgriAlternatives, The Online Innovation, and Technology Magazine for Farmers, "By nature, these rapeseed oils, which have long been used to produce oils for industrial purposes, are... toxic to humans and other animals". (This, by the way, is one of the websites singing the praises of the new canola industry.)

Rapeseed oil is poisonous to living things and is an excellent insect repellent. I have been using it (in very diluted form, as per instructions) to kill the aphids on my roses for the last two years. It works very well; it suffocates them. Ask for it at your nursery. Rape is an oil that is used as a lubricant, fuel, soap and synthetic rubber base and as a illuminate for color pages in magazines. It is an industrial oil. It is not a food. Rape oil, it seems, causes emphysema, respiratory distress, anemia, constipation, irritability, and blindness in animals and humans. Rape oil was widely used in animal feeds in England and Europe between 1986 and 1991, when it was thrown out. Remember the "Mad Cow disease" scare, when millions of cattle in the UK were slaughtered in case of infecting humans? Cattle were being fed on a mixture containing material from dead sheep, and sheep suffer from a disease called "scrapie". It was thought this was how "Mad Cow" began and started to infiltrate the human chain. What is interesting is that when rape oil was removed from animal feed, 'scrapie' disappeared. We also haven't seen any further reports of "Mad Cow" since rape oil was removed from the feed. Perhaps not scientifically proven, but interesting all the same. US and Canadian farmers grow genetically engineered rapeseed and manufacturers use its oil (canola) in thousands of processed foods, with the blessings of Canadian and US government watchdog agencies. The canola supporting websites say that canola is safe to use. They admit it was developed from the rapeseed, but insist that through genetic engineering it is no longer rapeseed, but "canola" instead.

Except canola means "Canadian oil"; and the plant is still a rape plant, albeit genetically modified. The new name provides perfect cover for commercial interests wanting to make millions. Look at the ingredients list on labels. Apparently peanut oil is being replaced with rape oil. You'll find it in an alarming number of processed foods. There's more, but to conclude: rape oil was the source of the chemical warfare agent mustard gas, which was banned after blistering the lungs and skins of hundred of thousands of soldiers and civilians during W.W.I. Recent French reports indicate that it was again in use during the Gulf War.

Check products for ingredients. If the label says, "may contain the following" and lists canola oil, you know it contains canola oil because it is the cheapest oil and the Canadian government subsidizes it to industries involved in food processing.

I don't know what you'll be cooking with tonight, but I'll be using olive oil and old-fashioned butter, from a genetically unmodified cow.

Here is more information.......... Canola oil from the rape seed, referred to as the Canadian oil because Canada is mainly responsible for it being marketed in the USA. The Canadian government and industry paid our Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) $50 million dollars to have canola oil placed on the (GRAS) List, "Generally Recognized As Safe". Thus a new industry was created. Laws were enacted affecting international trade, commerce, and traditional diets. Studies with lab. animals were disastrous. Rats developed fatty degeneration of heart, kidney, adrenals, and thyroid gland. When canola oil was withdrawn from their diets, the deposits dissolved but scar tissue remained on all vital organs. No studies on humans were made before money was spent to promote Canola oil in the USA. Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a rare fatal degenerative disease caused by a build up long-chain fatty acids (c22 to c28) which destroys the myelin (protective sheath) of the nerves. Canola oil is a very long chain fatty acid oil (c22). Those who will defend canola oil say that the Chinese and Indians have used it for centuries with no effect, however it was in an unrefined form ( taken from FATS THAT HEAL AND FATS THAT KILL by Udo Erasmus). My cholesterol level was 150. After a year using Canola oil I tested 260. I switched back to pure olive oil and it has taken 5 years to get it down to 160. Thus began this project to find answers since most Doctors will say that Canola oil is O.K.

My sister spilled Canola oil on a piece of fabric, after 5 pre-treatings and harsh washings, the oil spot still showed. She stopped using Canola oil, wondering what it did to our insides if it could not be removed from cloth easily. Our Father bred birds, always checking labels to insure there was no rape seed in their food. He said, "The birds will eat it, but they do not live very long.". A friend, who worked for only 9 mo. as a quality control taster at an apple-chip factory where Canola oil was used exclusively for frying, developed numerous health problems. These included loose teeth & gum disease; numb hands and feet; swollen arms and legs upon rising in the morning; extreme joint pain especially in hands, cloudy vision, constipation with stools like black marbles, hearing loss; skin tears from being bumped; lack of energy; hair loss and heart pains. It has been five years since she has worked there and still has some joint pain, gum disease, and numbness. A fellow worker, about 30 years old, who ate very little product, had a routine check up and found that his blood vessels were like those of an 80 year old man. Two employees fed the waste product to baby calves and their hair fell out. After removing the fried apple chips from the diet their hair grew back in.

My daughter and her girls were telling jokes. Stephanie hit her mom's arm with the back of a butter knife in a gesture, "Oh mom" not hard enough to hurt. My daughters arm split open like it was rotten. She called me to ask what could have caused it. I said, "I'll bet anything that you are using Canola oil". Sure enough, there was a big gallon jug in the pantry.

Rape seed oil is a penetrating oil, to be used in light industry, not for human consumption. It contains a toxic substance. Even after the processing to reduce the erucic acid content, it is still a penetrating oil. We have found that it turns rancid very fast. Also it leaves a residual rancid odor on clothing.

Rape seed oil used for stir-frying in China found to emit cancer causing chemicals. (Rapeseed oil smoke causes lung cancer) Amal Kumar Maj. The Wall Street JournaL June 7, 1995 pB6(W) pB6 (E) col 1(11 col in). Compiled by Darleen Bradley.

Canola oil is a health hazard to use as a cooking oil or salad oil. It is not the healthy oil we thought it was. It is not fit for human consumption, do not eat canola oil, it can hurt you. Polyunsaturated or not, this is a bad oil.

Be Sure to also read this informative report written by leading health expert Tom Valentine, Canola Oil Report.

-- Janie (godsfarmgirl@yahoo.com), January 05, 2001

Answers

Thanks for finding this article. It's the one I was looking for that I mentioned on the earlier thread. No one in our family will use it.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 06, 2001.

With the chemicals used to process ALL vegetable and grain oils, I doubt any of them are that safe.

-- JLS in NW AZ (stalkingbull007@AOL.com), January 06, 2001.

If my girls want chips, I usually get the Sun Chips thinking they're whole grain and better for them. Looked at the bag last night and sure enough canola oil was listed at the top of the ingrediants, I almost puked. Thankfully I have used olive oil in all my cooking for several years now. Thanks for posting all this info.

-- Epona (crystalepona2000@yahoo.com), January 06, 2001.

Wow, live and learn!!! I thought my neighbor's field was so pretty with all that florescent yellow. Thanks, I learned a lot with this thread.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 06, 2001.

Like Hemp, Rape seed oil is used to make fuel for diesel engines, (bio-fuel). Rape seed is used for commercial "wild bird seed".

I plant rape for a forage crop for hogs & sheep, it is considered an Emergency forage crop. Lets not give Rape Seed a bad wrap.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), January 06, 2001.



Geez, I thought since they sell it at my health food store, it was good. I'm cleaning out the pantry tonight.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), January 06, 2001.

Sorry, people, but this ISN'T information - it's unsubstantiated rumour and half truths. PLEASE do some searches on Canola yoursleves, and get other sources of information apart from hearsay. If you can find it IN PRINT ON PAPER it's likely to be true - if you find it on the internet you've only got about half a chance, and you'd better know in advance where you're going, or you won't know which half is which.

Yes, Canola was derived from rapeseed, by ordinary breeding - NOT genetic engineering, to eliminate the bad oils. It was bred in Canada - I think from memory before World War II - the year 1938 comes to mind - but you'd need to check the date if it's important to you - certainly well before so-called genetic engineering was developed - say half a century before. I read up on this relatively recently (on paper - our state Agriculture Department), for personal interest, because I was interested in the fact that Australia hadn't paid to be part of the development of Canola, but instead paid royalties afterwards.

Whatever you may read about rapeseed, it doesn't apply to Canola, because Canola was bred specifically not to have the bad features of rapeseed. Canola, like mustard seed oil, has plant-based analogues of those oils found in fish recently, which reduce heart disease.

Recently, some seed companies have developed strains of Canola which are resistant to glyphosate (Roundup, Zero, whatever brand-name) herbicide. I disagree with that, because it will be all too easy for resistance to herbicides to pass into the wild weeds related to Canola. Some of that was done by genetic engineering, but that wasn't strictly necessary - another strain was developed by ordinary breeding, and was available first. It appears not to have been used, however - I THINK (but don't know for sure) that was so because it was easier to patent the artificially developed one.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), January 08, 2001.


Don, thanks for injecting a little sanity into this thread. Am I one of the few who have consumed canola oil and survived? I do use the unrefined, organic stuff, and not as much as olive oil. If you want something to worry about, look into hydrogenated oils - there's a real problem that people are not ready to deal with.

-- Sam in W.Va. (turnip55a@yahoo.com), January 09, 2001.

Sorry Don, this IS information. Didn't you READ the book? It's also a bit ironic that you point out that anything on the internet is unsubstantiated rumor and half truth...what does that say about the post you just made? Which half of that do we believe?

People SHOULD look into this for themselves. They should also look out for anything hydrogenated, as Sam pointed out, and believe me, that stuff is pervasive!!! But Sam, maybe you've only survived up to this point...do ya feel lucky?

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 09, 2001.


Like I said, Julie: check it out, rather than just believing what people say. The Internet is a great source of information, but a LOT of that information is false, and a lot is biased - generated by people to fit an agenda that they don't reveal. My word is (I think, at least, my personal opinion) as good as anyone else's here, and I named my source (well - New South Wales Department of Agriculture, to be precise); but as I said, check everything. Even I could be wrong some day ;-} In fact, I almost think I can remember that happening before - something about marriage, perhaps? They say your memory is the first thing to go as you get senile - or was it .... umm ....

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), January 09, 2001.


Okay, then how about Dr. Weil's word on it?

The truth is that canola oil is monounsaturated and thus healthier than saturated or polyunsaturated oils, but I still consider it a distant runner-up to olive oil. We know from research studies that populations that consume olive oil as a primary dietary fat have significantly lower rates of both heart disease and cancer than those that don't. We have no comparable epidemiological data for canola. Also unlike olive oil, canola oil doesn't contain oleic acid, the fatty acid our bodies process best.

I've always cautioned against buying canola oil found in supermarkets. These products have been extracted with chemical solvents or high-speed presses that generate heat. Both methods alter the oil's fatty acid chemistry in undesirable ways. Furthermore, canola oil producers use a lot of pesticides on their crops, and I suspect that residues find their way into the finished product. If you do use canola oil, I suggest buying only the organic, expeller- pressed varieties sold in natural-food stores. (Ask Dr. Weil)

For those of you who'd like a little more information to investigate, try this link -- http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/2950/can- oil.htm I'd like to know if anyone on this site is feeding their sheep canola oil after reading this.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 10, 2001.


Julie, I believe that in your article it was said that there are no further incidences of "mad Cow" disease since rapeseed was taken from the feed...seems to me that all of Europe is in an up-roar over "mad cow". I know that statements like "arm split open like it was rotten" from just a light tap tend to put me off, sounds like the National Enquirer. Besides I spilled Olive Oil on a skirt one time and ended up throwing it away because I never could get the stain out. I think it has more to do with our fabrics today than anything. I really would like to get to the bottom of this because I want to feed my family well.

-- Artie Ann Karns (rokarns@arkansas.net), January 10, 2001.

Hi Anne -- I didn't write that article, merely point it out for general interest. I also believe that it said something about the effects taking up to ten years to surface in cattle, so, as most hte news services have been opining, this may be the tip of the iceberg IF there is indeed a link. IF there is, it would be interesting to observe and pursue, altho canola has nothing to do with a very similar disease, Kuru, which is to humans what scapie is to sheep, and Mad Cow to bovines. The full results aren't in yet, but I also think that people should be aware of what is going on outside their own little patch, especially if they're concerned about health issues. Your local paper is unlikely to cover it. I don't care for the National Enquirer myself (other than to read on long cross country drives for general hilarity), but even THEY have released a few stories that were genuine, no matter HOW Urban Legend they sounded.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 11, 2001.

Sorry Julie I didn't mean to infer that you had written the article only that you had posted it.

-- Artie Ann Karns (rokarns@arkansas.net), January 12, 2001.

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