There is evidence to support health food fraud with canola oil. Not buying it by the bottle is easy enough, but it appears in many prepared or processed foods, even those in health food stores. Because of Canola's marketing itself as a healthy option, it is recommended by many health food experts. Meanwhile, the health food industry sells and uses it as a healthy alternative despite growing evidence of toxic dangers.

What Canola Oil Is

Canola is a hybrid name that stands for Canadian oil, since it is grown, processed, and exported mainly from Canada. And the Canadian government, it is reported, put up the cash to have the FDA classify Canola oil as GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe). This classification allowed the Canola industry to avoid long term safety testing.

The Canadian government subsidizes most of rapeseed planting and harvesting. Those plants are cheap, easy to grow and a natural insect resistant, and Canola oil is cheaper and easier to use for processed foods than more expensive, healthier cold pressed oils such as olive oil.

Originally it was called lear oil (low erucic acid rapeseed) a natural modified hybrid of rape seed to remove most of its erucic acid, which is totally toxic. Rapeseed oil is so toxic that bugs and animals won't eat it. It was used in the first half of the 20th century as an industrial oil. So that name had to go completely. Hence, the final Canadian product became Canola oil in 1988.

The rapeseed plant was genetically modified further to withstand heavy doses of the Monsanto's weed killing herbicide Roundup. Roundup itself is not exactly safe for humans and animals, so the use of a toxin to support a genetically modified plant makes for a dangerous combination.

In addition to the plant having an unpredictable GMO element, the oil is heated to over 300 degrees as part of a process to remove its extremely unpleasant odor. Processing vegetable oils may include degumming, batch acidulation, bleaching, deodorization, chemical extraction methods using solvents, and high temperature expeller pressing.

Canola oil is monounsaturated, which makes it easy to promote it as similar to olive oil but cheaper. But real olive oil is not processed and doesn't contain toxic trans-fatty acids or GMOs. Canola is among the lowest of all oils with essential fatty acids, which happens to be the main health aspect of oils.

Then Came Some Independent Testing

Various tests came up with previously unforeseen and unannounced health hazards. One example is when piglets were fed a formula using Canola oil, their vitamin E was reduced to dangerous levels, and their blood platelets became sticky, impeding blood flow. And this is what is promoted as a heart healthy oil?

Other tests have determined various imbalances with micronutrients that nature synergistically provides. These imbalances are part of what technology does to ruin food and undermine long term human health.

The best that can be said about Canola oil is that it is not a healthy option. It doesn't even rank among other oils that do promote health, such as cold pressed hemp, flax, or even olive oil. Even worse, tests show that Canola may promote bad health. Read your labels carefully.

[Editor`s Note: NaturalNews is strongly against the use of all forms of animal testing. We fully support implementation of humane medical experimentation that promotes the health and wellbeing of all living creatures.]

Sources for more information include:

Canola: Canada's Oil Spill into the American Market http://www.quantumbalancing.com/new...

Canola: Another Victory of Food Technology Over Common Sense http://www.naturalnews.com/026365_c...

Truther Girls Site on Canola http://thetruthergirls.wordpress.co...

About the author

Paul Fassa has managed to survive the Standard American Diet (SAD) and his youthful folly by deprogramming gradually from mainstream health ideology and studying holistic health matters informally with his wife while incorporating them into his lifestyle as a vegetarian.

He also practices Chi-Lel Chi Gong, and he is trained as a polarity therapy practitioner. He is dedicated to warning others of the corruption of food and medicine in our time, and guiding others toward a better direction for health. You can visit his blog at http://healthmaven.blogspot.com

August 19, 2010

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