Canola Oil: the Hidden History
The public is being deluged with misinformation by the processed food oil
industry. In response to a number of requests for additional information
about canola oil, the following historical and scientific facts are
presented. The data was collected from a variety of sources. Also included
is information on other types of processed oils—as well as some good oils.
Olive oil comes from olives, peanut oil from peanuts,
sunflower oil from sunflowers; but what is a canola? It is a product not
found in nature. Yet, canola oil is "widely recognized as the
healthiest salad and cooking oil available to consumers." It was
developed through hybridization of rape seed.
Rape seed oil is toxic because it contains
significant amounts of a poisonous substance, called erucic acid.
But canola oil not only contains some erucic acid but a variety of other
harmful substances.
This is what the food industry says about canola oil:
Canola oil contains only trace amounts of erucic acid and its unique fatty
acid profile which is rich in oleic acid and low in saturated fats; this
makes it particularly beneficial for the prevention of heart disease. It
also contains significant amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, also shown to
have health benefits.
This is what independent scientists and health
researchers say about canola oil: Canola oil is a poisonous substance,
an industrial oil that does not belong in the body. It contains "the
infamous chemical warfare agent mustard gas," hemagglutinins, and toxic
cyanide-containing glycosides. It causes mad cow disease, blindness,
nervous disorders, clumping of blood cells, and depression of the immune
system.
How is the consumer to sort out the conflicting claims
about canola oil? Is canola oil a dream come true or a deadly poison?
And why has canola captured so large a share of the oils used in processed
foods?
Let’s start with some history that you have not been
told:
The story begins in the mid-1980s. The food
industry had a problem. In collusion with the American Heart Association,
numerous government agencies, and departments of nutrition at major
universities, the industry had been promoting polyunsaturated oils as a
heart-healthy alternative to "artery-clogging" saturated fats.
Unfortunately, it had become increasingly clear that
polyunsaturated oils, particularly corn oil and soybean oil, cause
numerous health problems, especially cancer (M.G. Enig and S.W.
Fallon. The Oiling of America. www.westonaprice.org/oiling.htm).
If the news became widely known, it would affect
industry sales of large amounts of liquid polyunsaturated oils; and it
would make it difficult to make health claims about them in the face of
mounting evidence of their dangers. Nor could manufacturers return to
using traditional healthy saturates (palm oil and coconut oil) because
those fats cost too much for the cutthroat profit margins in the industry.
The solution was to embrace the use of monounsaturated
oils, such as olive oil. Studies had shown that olive oil has a
"better" effect than polyunsaturated oils on cholesterol levels and other
blood parameters. Besides, Ancel Keys and other health promoters had
popularized the notion that a diet rich in olive oil protected against
heart disease and ensured a long and healthy life.
Two industry seminars were held to discuss the problem.
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) sponsored the
First Colloquium on Monounsaturates in Philadelphia. The meeting
was chaired by Scott Grundy, a prolific writer and apologist for the
notion that cholesterol and animal fats cause heart disease.
Representatives from the edible oil industry, including Unilever, were in
attendance.
The Second Colloquium on Monounsaturates took
place in Bethesda, Maryland, early in 1987. Dr. Grundy was joined by
Claude Lenfant, head of the NHLBI. And speakers included Fred Mattson, who
had spent many years at Proctor and Gamble, and the Dutch scientist
Martign Katan, who would later publish research on the problems with trans
fatty acids. It was at this time that articles extolling the virtues of
olive oil began to appear in the popular press.
Promotion of olive oil, which had a long history of
use, seemed more scientifically sound to the health-conscious consumer
than the promotion of corn oil and soybean oil, which could only be
extracted with modern stainless steel presses. The problem for the
industry was that there was not enough olive oil in the world to meet
its needs. And, like butter and other traditional fats, olive oil was too
expensive to use in most processed foods. The industry needed a less
expensive monounsaturated oil.
Rapeseed oil was a monounsaturated oil that had
been used extensively in many parts of the world, notably in China, Japan,
and India. It contains almost 60 percent monounsaturated fatty acids
(compared to about 70 percent in olive oil). Unfortunately, about
two-thirds of the monounsaturated fatty acids in rapeseed oil are erucic
acid, a 22-carbon monounsaturated fatty acid that had been associated
with Keshan’s disease, characterized by fibrotic lesions of the heart.
In the late 1970s, using a technique of genetic
manipulation involving seed splitting (R.K. Downey, Genetic Control of
Fatty Acid Biosnythesis in Rapeseed. Journal of the American Oil Chemists’
Society, 1964;41:475-478.), Canadian plant breeders came up with a
variety of rapeseed that produced a monounsaturated oil low in 22-carbon
erucic acid and high in 18-carbon oleic acid.
The new oil, referred to as LEAR oil for
Low-Erucic-Acid Rapeseed, was slow to catch on in the U.S. In 1986,
Cargill announced the sale of LEAR oil seed to U.S. farmers and provided
LEAR oil processing at its Riverside, North Dakota plant; but prices
dropped and farmers took a hit (Journal of the American Oil Chemists’
Society, December 1986;63(12):1510).
Before LEAR oil could be promoted as a healthy
alternative to polyunsaturated oils, it needed a new name. Neither
"rape" nor "lear" could be expected to invoke a healthy image for the new
"Cinderella" crop. In 1978, the industry settled on "canola," for
"Canadian oil," since most of the new rapeseed at that time was grown in
Canada.
"Canola" also sounded like "can do" and "payola," both
positive phrases in marketing lingo. However, the new name did not come
into widespread use until the early 1990s.
An initial challenge for the Canola Council of Canada
was the fact that rapeseed had never been given GRAS (Generally
Recognized as Safe) status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A
change in regulation would be necessary before canola could be marketed in
the U.S. (Canola - a new oilseed from Canada. Journal of the American
Oil Chemists’ Society, September 1981:723A-9A). Just how this was done
has not been revealed, but GRAS status was granted in 1985. Why? Because
the Canadian government paid the FDA the sum of $50 million to have rape
registered and recognized as "safe" (Source: John Thomas, Young Again,
and others).
Canola was primarily aimed at the growing numbers of
health-conscious consumers rather than the junk food market. Therefore
more subtle marketing techniques than merely television advertising were
needed. The industry had managed to manipulate the science, to make a
perfect match with canola oil: It claimed it to be very low in saturated
fat, very rich in monounsaturates, and very safe healthwise (Canola - a
new oilseed from Canada. Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society,
September 1981:723A-9A).
In addition, canola oil contains about 10 percent
omega-3 fatty acids—the most recent discovery by establishment
nutritionists. Most Americans are deficient in omega-3 fatty acids, which
had been shown to be beneficial to the heart and immune system. The
challenge was to market this dream-come-true fatty acid profile in a way
that would appeal to educated consumers.
Canola oil began to appear in the recipes of cutting
edge health books, such as those by Andrew Weil and Barry Sears. The
technique was to extol the virtues of the Mediterranean diet and olive oil
in the text and then call for "olive oil or canola oil" in the recipes.
Very clever. One informant in the publishing industry divulged that,
since the mid 1990s, major publishers would not accept cookbooks unless
they included canola in the recipes. Did those publishers issue this
demand because they were receiving money under the table from the Canadian
rapeseed industry?
In 1997, Harper Collins engaged Dr. Artemis Simopoulos
to write a cookbook, featuring the health benefits of omega-3 fatty
acids. According to Jo Robinson, co-author of The Omega Diet, the
amount of the advance was $350,000. Dr. Simopoulos was a pediatrician who
had served for nine years as chair of the Nutritional Coordinating
Committee of the National Institutes of Health before becoming
president of the Center for Genetics, Nutrition, and Health.
She had published several papers on omega-3 fatty
acids, calling attention to their disappearance from the food supply, due
to the industrialization of agriculture. Her most famous paper, published
in 1992 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, compared
omega-3 levels in supermarket eggs from hens raised on corn with eggs from
hens allowed to roam and eat a more varied diet (A.P. Simopoulos and N.
Salem, Jr., Egg Yolk as a Source of Long-Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids
in Infant Feeding. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1992;55).
The more natural eggs contained twenty times more omega-3 than supermarket
eggs.
Simopoulos’s The Omega Plan came out in 1998 and
was reissued as The Omega Diet in 1999. The book discusses the
virtues of monounsaturated and omega-3 fatty acids in the Mediterranean
diet (A.P. Simopoulos and J. Robinson, The Omega Plan. Harper Collins
Publishers, New York, NY, 1998). Since unprocessed canola oil contains
not only lots of monounsaturated fatty acids but also a significant amount
of omega-3, it shows up in most of the book’s recipes. Simopoulos claims
that the Mediterranean diet is low in saturated fat and recommends lean
meat and lowfat yogurt and milk as part of her regime.
The canola industry’s approach was immensely
successful: scientific conferences, promotion to upscale consumers
through books (like The Omega Diet), and articles in the health
section of newspapers and magazines. By the late 1990s, canola use had
soared, not just in the U.S.
Today China, Japan, Europe, Mexico, Bangladesh, and
Pakistan all buy significant amounts. Canola does well in arid
environments such as Australia and the Canadian plains, where it has
become a major cash crop. It is the oil of choice in gourmet and
health-food markets, like Fresh Fields (Whole Foods) markets; and it shows
up in many supermarket items as well.
It is a commonly used oil in sterol-containing
margarines and spreads recommended for cholesterol lowering. Use of
hydrogenated canola oil for frying is increasing, especially in
restaurants.
Let us compare ancient and modern processing methods:
Rapeseed has been used as a source of oil since ancient times because it
is easily extracted from the seed. In China and India, rapeseed oil was
provided by thousands of peddlers operating small stone presses that press
out the oil at low temperatures. What the merchant then sells to
the housewife is absolutely fresh.
Modern oil processing is a different thing entirely.
The oil is removed by a combination of high temperature mechanical
pressing and solvent extraction. Traces of the solvent (usually hexane)
remain in the oil, even after considerable refining.
Like all modern vegetable oils, canola oil goes through
the process of caustic refining, bleaching, and degumming—all of which
involve high temperatures or chemicals of questionable safety. And because
canola oil is high in omega-3 fatty acids (which easily become rancid and
foul-smelling when subjected to oxygen and high temperatures), it must be
deodorized. The standard deodorization process removes a large portion of
the omega-3 fatty acids by turning them into trans fatty acids. Remember
that fact.
The trans fatty acid content of canola oil:
Although the Canadian government lists the trans fat (trans fatty acid)
content of canola at a minimal 0.2 per cent, research at the University of
Florida, in Gainesville, found trans fat levels as high as 4.6 per cent in
commercial liquid oil (S. O’Keefe and others, "Levels of Trans
Geometrical Isomers of Essential Fatty Acids in Some Unhydrogenated U.S.
Vegetable Oils," Journal of Food Lipids, 1994;1:165-176). The consumer
does not know that trans fatty acids are in canola oil because they are
not listed on the label.
A large portion of canola oil used in processed food
has been hardened through the hydrogenation process, which also
introduces levels of trans fatty acids into the final product—as high as
40 per cent (J.L. Sebedio and W.W. Christie, eds, Trans Fatty Acids in
Human Nutrition, The Oily Press, Dundee, Scotland, 1998, pp. 49-50).
In fact, canola oil hydrogenates beautifully, better than corn oil or
soybean oil, because modern hydrogenation methods hydrogenate omega-3
fatty acids preferentially; and canola oil is very high in omega-3s.
Higher levels of trans fat mean longer shelf life for processed foods, a
crisper texture in cookies and crackers—and more dangers of chronic
disease for the consumer (M.G. Enig, Trans Fatty Acids in the Food
Supply: A Comprehensive Report Covering 60 Years of Research, 2nd Edition,
Enig Associates, Inc., Silver Spring, MD, 1995).
Look closely at the ingredients list on peanut butter
labels. The peanut oil has been removed and replaced with canola oil.
Notice that you can turn the jar nearly upside down. It has been hardened
into a grease.
As explained earlier, canola is a genetically
engineered plant developed in Canada from the rapeseed plant.
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."
Canola oil is genetically engineered rapeseed. Do you
want to eat genetically engineered rapeseed?
Here is more about rapeseed: Derived from the
mustard family, it is a toxic and poisonous weed which, when
processed, becomes rancid very quickly.
Rapeseed oil is poisonous to living things and is an
excellent insect repellent. You can use it (in very diluted form,
following instructions) to kill the aphids on your roses and other plants.
Available at your nursery, it works very well; it suffocates the aphids.
The industrial uses of rapeseed oil are well-known. It
is used as an lubricant, fuel, soap, synthetic rubber base, and as an
illuminate for color pages in magazines. It is an industrial oil, used to
make varnish, and as an insecticide. It is not a food.
Rape oil is also the source of the infamous
chemical-warfare agent, mustard gas, which was banned after blistering the
lungs and skin of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians during
WW1. Recent French reports indicate that it was again used during the Gulf
War.
Between 1950 and 1953, white mustard (rape) seed was
irradiated in Sweden, to increase seed production and oil content.
Irradiation is the process the experts want use to make our food "safe" to
eat.
Here are health problems induced by rapeseed: Rape
oil is strongly related to symptoms of 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 discontinued. It has been shown to cause lung
cancer (Wall Street Journal, June 7, 1995).
Reports on the dangers of rapeseed oil are rampant on
the internet. One is an article, "Blindness, Mad Cow Disease and Canola
Oil," by John Thomas, which first appeared in Perceptions
magazine, March/April 1996.
Hemagglutinins, substances that promote blood
clotting and depress growth, are found in the protein portion of the seed;
and traces are in rapeseed and canola oil.
The feeding of canola oil may make cattle more
susceptible to several diseases (M. Purdey. Educating Rita. Wise
Traditions, Spring 2002;3(1):11-18).
There are reports of allergies to canola. And internet
articles describe a variety of symptoms—including tremors, shaking, palsy,
lack of coordination, slurred speech, memory problems, blurred vision,
problems with urination, numbness and tingling in the extremities, and
heart arrhythmias which cleared up on discontinuance of canola.
The canola industry is deeply disturbed about such
reports; and so it arranges for the publication of articles to
counteract them. In an article in the Washington Post, Robert L.
Wolke declared that the publishers of these reports are spreading
"hysterical urban legends about bizarre diseases."
When you purchase food products, check them for
ingredients. If the label says, "may contain the following" and lists
canola oil as a possible ingredient, you know canola oil is in it—because
it is the cheapest oil and the Canadian government subsidizes it to
industries involved in food processing.
Nearly all processed foods now contain canola oil.
Fortunately, fresh fruits and vegetables contain none.
More problems with canola oil: Bird breeders check
labels to ensure that there is no rape seed in their food. They will tell
you, "The birds will eat it, but they do not live very long." One
individual, who worked for only nine months as a quality control taster at
an apple-chip factory where Canola oil was used exclusively for frying,
developed numerous health problems.
Rape seed oil, used for stir-frying in China, was found
to emit cancer-causing chemicals. "Rapeseed oil smoke causes lung
cancer."—Wall Street Journal, June 7, 1995.
Chemically, canola breaks down at 5% saturated fat, 57%
oleic acid, 23% omega–6, and 10%–15% omega–3. The reason canola is
particularly unsuited for consumption is because it contains a
very–long–chain fatty acid, called erucic acid, which under some
circumstances is associated with fibrotic heart lesions.
A key problem is that the omega–3 fatty acids of
processed canola oil (the only good part before processing) are
transformed during the deodorizing process into trans fatty acids—something
very bad. As reported in Acres USA, March 2001 (one of the most
respected agriculture journals in America), one study indicated that
canola oil (which the industry calls "heart-healthy") actually creates a
deficiency of vitamin E, which, as many of us know, is essential to our
cardiovascular health.
Because of its high sulphur content, canola oil goes
rancid easily and baked goods used with the oil develop molds rather
quickly.
It has been very much in vogue in health-food circles
to praise canola oil as very healthy oil, "high in polyunsaturates," while
condemning tropical oils such as coconut or palm oil as being saturated
and unhealthy.
"The high praise for canola is propaganda put forth by
the Canadian government because ‘canola,’ a hybridized rape plant, is one
of that nation’s chief export products."—Acres USA, March 2001.
What high temperatures produce: All food-grade
canola, including the varieties sold in health-food stores, are deodorized
from its natural, terrible odor—by the use of 300 degree F.
high–temperature refining. You cannot cook a vegetable oil at that
temperature and leave behind anything that is very edible. Most of the
omega-3s in canola oil are transformed into trans fats during that
deodorization process.
Oils high in omega-3 are not capable of taking high
temperatures. Heating canola distorts the fatty acid, turning it into an
unnatural form of trans fatty acid that has been shown to be harmful to
health.
Udo Erasmus, Ph.D., a highly regarded international
expert on fats and oils, says the only safe oil to use to fry or bake with
is water. All oils are damaged by very high temperatures. He says no fat
can stand the temperatures used in food processing without being adversely
affected.
A form of plastic: Research at the University of
Florida, in Gainesville, determined that as much as 4.6% of all the fatty
acids in canola are trans isomers (a type of plastic), due to the
refining process. Contrary to popular opinion, saturated fats, especially
those found in coconut oil are not harmful to health, but are important
nutrition. There are no trans isomers in unrefined coconut butter, for
example. Mary Enig, Ph.D., has published a number of research papers on
this; she refutes all the establishment propaganda defending canola oil.
Still more canola horror stories: In 1996, the
Japanese announced a study wherein a special canola oil diet had actually
killed laboratory animals. Reacting to this unpublished, but verified and
startling information, a duplicate study was conducted by Canadian
scientists, using piglets and a canola oil-based milk-replacer diet.
In this second study, published in Nutrition
Research, 1997, the researchers verified that canola oil somehow
depleted the piglets of vitamin E to a dangerously low level.
Any "food" substance that depletes vitamin E rapidly is
extremely dangerous. Vitamin E is absolutely essential to human health. It
is critically necessary in the body when processed fats are eaten; because
tocopherols control the lipid peroxidation that results in dangerous
free-radical activity, which in turn causes lesions in arteries and other
problems.
Canola oil now has been shown to be a very heavy abuser
of tocopherols or vitamin E, with the potential for rapidly depleting a
body of the important vitamin. The researchers did not know what factors
in the canola oil were responsible. They reported that other vegetable
seed oils did not appear to cause the same problem in piglets.
Monsanto announced, in April 1997, that it was
recalling an immense batch of genetically engineered canola seed because
an unapproved gene slipped in by mistake. The canola seed had been
genetically manipulated to resist the herbicide toxicity of Roundup,
which is Monsanto’s top money making product. The recall involved 60,000
bags containing two types of canola seed, which is enough to plant more
than 700,000 acres. Both types of seed have the wrong gene in them. The
genes in the recalled seed have not been approved for human consumption.
A spokesman for Limagrain Canada Seeds, which
was selling the seeds under a Monsanto license, said that experts are
trying to determine how the mistake occurred. "We may never know how this
happened," he lamented.
The implications of this error are serious. No one in
his right mind is unconcerned about genetic manipulations getting lost—and
going wild in the fields.
On January 26, 1998, Omega Nutrition, one of the
major producers of organic, cold-pressed oils for the health-food store
market, published a press release. The release states that if you are
cooking with canola oil of any quality, you might as well be using
margarine. In the case of refined canola oil, the important health
benefits have been processed away—leaving the consumer with the nutrition
of, say, white flour, along with dangerous trans fatty acids which have
replaced a lot of the beneficial omega-3 essential fatty acids.
(By the way, what is margarine? It is not a food. It is
a manufactured grease concocted in a machine from various oils and
chemicals. Then it is colored and molded to pose as butter. Its stiffness
comes from being loaded with trans fatty acids. This butter substitute
does not exist in nature. It cannot be grown or converted from a natural
food as butter and cheese is. Most restaurants substitute it for butter
without notice to you.)
More health problems: Loss of vision is a known
characteristic side effect of rape oil which antagonizes the central and
peripheral nervous systems, as processed soybean oil does, but worse. The
deterioration takes years, however. Rape (canola) oil 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. You may remember
reading about the cows, pigs and sheep that went blind, lost their minds,
attacked people, and had to be shot.
Millions of people have suffered the loss of their
vision from glaucoma, a disease involving atrophy (deterioration) of the
optic nerve. For years, "experts" have been telling us that glaucoma
results from fluid-pressure buildup in the eye that causes the optic nerve
to deteriorate. This theory was based on an incorrect medical model: They
were wrong!
More recently, the experts have admitted that this is
not true and have given birth to a new theory. According to it, glaucoma
is instead caused by a deficiency of oxygen and blood flow. These
blood-corpuscle clusters cannot squeeze through the extremely tiny
capillaries in the posterior of the eye, so cannot deliver oxygen to the
mitochondria. This is what the problem has been all along. Chemically
doctored, cooked fat increases this problem. It can lead to retinitis and
macular degeneration.
Death of the mitochondria in the cells in the posterior
of the eye is due to oxygen starvation, sodium toxicity, and waste
accumulation. When the mitochondria die, the cells die and the posterior
eye tissues atrophy. In this respect, glaucoma has much in common with
hair loss, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and
hearing problems.
A woman in Chicago reported that she had been in
England when the "Mad Cow Disease" had been at its peak. She said that she
had seen a television news report that told people not to panic if they
had been using rape oil in their diet and were over 65 years of age. The
"experts" added that the effects of rape oil ingestion takes at least 10
years to manifest; and, in all likelihood, most of these people would be
dead by then anyway.
But, in the official reports, the experts blamed the
behavior on a viral disease called scrapie. However, when rape oil was
removed from animal feed, the incidents of scrapie (the form of mad cow
disease in sheep) was reduced.
Dangerous chemicals inside: Canola oil contains
large amounts of isothiocyanates. These are cyanide-containing
compounds. Cyanide inhibits mitochondrial production of adenosine
triphosphate (ATP), which is the energy molecule that fuels the
mitochondria. ATP energy powers the body and keeps us healthy and
young!
Many substances can bind metabolic enzymes and block
their activity in the body. In biochemistry, these substances are called
inhibitors.
Toxic substances in canola and soybean oil encourage
the formation of molecules with covalent bonds which are normally
irreversible: They cannot be broken by the body once they have formed.
For example, consider the pesticide, malathion.
It binds to the active site of the enzyme, acetylcholinesterase,
and stops this enzyme from doing its job, which is to divide acetylcholine
into choline and acetate.
Acetylcholine is critical to nerve-impulse
transmission. When acetylcholinesterase is inhibited, as by pesticide
residues, nerve fibers do not function normally and muscles do not
respond. Partial paralysis gradually occurs. There has been a tremendous
increase in disorders like systemic lupus, multiple sclerosis, cerebral
palsy, pulmonary hypertension, and neuropathy.
Another group of chemicals in our modern, chemically
modified food oils are the organophosphates. These are also used in
insecticides, such as malathion.
Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors cause paralysis of
the striated (skeletal) muscles and spasms of the respiratory system. That
is why malathion is the pesticide of choice by the experts; it
kills insects by paralysis—just as rotenone from soybeans does! It
inhibits the insects’ enzymes and those of humans, too!
Agents Orange and Blue, that were used in Vietnam to
defoliate jungle cover, are also organophosphorus compounds. The
Vietnam veterans and the Vietnamese people know about them firsthand.
Government experts who okayed their use and chemical companies that
manufactured them have finally admitted their toxic effects on people and
the environment. Nonetheless, present-day experts in academia and
government continue to claim that cheap junk food is relatively harmless.
Canola oil is also high in glycosides that cause
serious problems by blocking enzyme function and depriving us of our life
force. Glycosides interfere with the biochemistry of humans and animals.
Their presence in rattlesnake venom inhibits muscle enzymes and cause
immobilization of the victim.
These modern, chemically altered food oils—which
include soybean oil, canola, and corn oil—also contain glycosides which
depress the immune system, by causing the T cells to go into something
akin to a stupor. These oils alter the bioelectric "terrain" and promote
disease.
Then there is the connection between cancer and trans
fatty acids. It has been known since 1949.
Nobel Prize winner, V. Euler of Stockholm, a cancer
researcher, and his associates, wrote and published a book in 1949 in
which they concluded that if the numerous and diverse symptoms associated
with various types of cancer were reduced to one common denominator, it
would be that "the fat lacks the ability to integrate in the living
tissue." "Trans fatty acid is the name of the fat that lacks this ability.
It is bad fat.
The alcohols and glycosides in canola and
soybean oil shut down our protective grid—the immune system. Fluoride,
immunizations, antibiotics, and bio-junk food play a similar role in
immune system collapse. An alcohol is a chemistry term for the
"reactive" chemical group on an organic molecule. Those "R" groups are
what make organic compounds work—for good and bad! Canola alcohols and
glycosides are very reactive. They are as toxic as fermented alcohols, but
their effects manifest differently. The damage takes years to show up.
Oil that cannot rot: "Nonspoiling," "spreadable"
oils are ruining the health of our people. Since 1902, Western countries
have resorted to chemical process to destroy the "unsaturatedness" of
vegetable oils. It is done to make them easier to handle, easier to
market, and to preserve them, so they will not spoil so quickly. In the
early 1900s, clever advertisements hailed its "spreadability," exclaiming
that this is what everyone had been waiting for: "a spreadable fat"! The
plan was to destroy the essential elements of the fat, in order to prevent
it from spoiling. But the result is the health of those eating those oils
is being damaged as well. Avoid any vegetable oil that is labeled
"hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated," because it contains
100% trans fatty acid!
Food manufacturing is a big, profitable business and
employs many highly skilled lobbyists. The new U.S. labeling laws do not
list "trans fatty acid" as an ingredient in processed foods—because
the large food manufacturers spent billions of dollars to pay for
lobbyists to keep "trans fatty acid" off the labels.
Unfortunately, even the term, "cold pressed," no
longer means anything in the U.S. All commercial oils and nut butters sold
in U.S. supermarkets contain trans fatty acid. This is because the U.S.
government allows heat-treated, high-pressured, squeezed vegetable oil to
be used—and even labeled as "cold processed."
The Italian government has passed a law that olive oil
must be protected from heat and high pressure. The U.S. government could
save many lives if it passed a similar law about all vegetable oil—and
banned cotton seed oil entirely. (Cotton is not a food plant; and its oil
should never enter the human body.)
Using the new U.S. FDA food labels, here is how to
figure the amount of trans fatty acid in packaged food:
First, find the amount of "Total Fat" on the
label. Listed under it, slightly indented, are the amounts of
"Saturated Fat," "Polyunsaturated Fat," and/or "Monosaturated Fat."
Add those figures together. (If only two are listed, add them together or
use one amount if only one is listed.)
Then subtract that total amount from the amount listed
as "Total Fat." The answer is the amount of trans fatty acid in that
product.
Fats that can be safely heated: Butter and tropical
fats (coconut, palm, palm kernel, cocoa, and shea nut) are the safest to
put in heated food, because they contain only small quantities of
essential fatty acids (EFAs). The saturated fatty acids contained in these
fats/oils are inert and therefore heat stable. Heat does not destroy them
in the same way it destroys EFAs. Butter and tropical fats are best used
unhydrogenated. Only small amounts should be eaten, as they are sticky,
hard, saturated fatty acid-containing fats.
Tropical oils got a bad reputation for increasing
cholesterol and triglyceride levels that supposedly cause cardiovascular
disease. An unconfirmed rumor suggests that the soybean industry financed
the successful campaign against tropical fats, to kill imports and
increase soybean sales. Tropical oils used in their country of origin have
been shown in several studies to decrease cholesterol levels. The
difference in results may be due to several causes: deterioration in
tropical oils during storage (oxidation, processing (hydrogenation),
differing experimental design, or a combination of the above. Raw tropical
oils are rich sources of vitamin E and tocotrienols, which help protect
arteries from damage leading to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Olive oil
imported from Italy is safe for baking, but not for frying or deep frying.
But only use imported Italian olive oil, because it is cold processed by
Italian law.
The metabolism of fat affects each and every organ.
Anyone with liver and gallbladder problems is quite aware of how fats
affect them. In medicine they say "Eat less fat," because it was observed
that fats do not agree with the sick person. However, if this person with
liver and gallbladder problems is given "good fat" (i.e. live,
highly unsaturated fat), it will agree with him very well.
Butter and tropical fats—coconut, palm, palm kernel,
cocoa, and shea nut oil—are good. Better still is wheat germ oil. The best
oil is flaxseed oil. Here is the ideal way to take flaxseed oil:
Order a bottle of Barlean’s Flaxseed Oil. When
it arrives, place it in the freezer. When you want some oil, defrost the
bottle and pour some in a pint-sized canning, glass jar. Put the Barlean’s
back in the freezer and put the glass jar in the refrigerator. At
mealtime, take out the jar and, during the meal, pour a little into a
spoon and put it into your mouth along with some food. Soon after, put the
jar back in the refrigerator.
In this way, you will be taking the very richest source
of Omega-3; this is an outstanding source of fresh, polyunsaturated oil.
Evening primrose oil capsules are also good, but much
more expensive and unnecessary if you have flaxseed oil.
An alternative method is to daily grind fresh, raw
flaxseed and sprinkle that on your meal. But, of course, your intake of
flaxseed oil will be greatly reduced. Combining the taking of ground
flaxseed with flaxseed oil is a good choice.
What are saturated fatty acids? They are chains of
carbon atoms that have hydrogen filling every bond. In foods, they
normally range in length from four to 22 carbons. Because of their
straight configuration, saturated fatty acids pack together easily and
tend to be solid at room temperature. Butter, tallow, suet, palm oil, and
coconut oil are classified as saturated fats because they contain a
preponderance of saturated fatty acids. Saturated fats are stable and do
not become rancid when subjected to heat, as in cooking.
Monounsaturated fatty acids are chains of carbon
atoms that have one double bond between two carbons and therefore lack
two hydrogens. Normally they range from 16 to 22 carbons. They have a
kink or bend at the position of the double bond; so the molecules do not
pack together as easily as in saturated fatty acids. Monounsaturated oils
tend to be liquid at room temperature but become solid when refrigerated.
Olive oil, peanut oil, lard, rapeseed, and canola oils are classified as
monounsaturated oils. The most common monounsaturated fatty acids are
palmitoleic (16 carbons), oleic (18 carbons) and erucic (22 carbons).
Monounsaturated oils are relatively stable and can be used for cooking.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids have two or more double
bonds. As there is a bend or kink at each double bond, these fatty acids
do not pack together easily and tend to be liquid, even when cold.
Polyunsaturated oils are very fragile. They tend to develop harmful free
radicals when subjected to heat and oxygen, as in cooking or processing.
Soybean oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil and flax oil are polyunsaturated
oils. Omega-6 fatty acids have the first double bond at the sixth carbon
from the end of the fatty acid chain. The most common omega-6 fatty acid
is linoleic acid, which is called an essential fatty acid (EFA) because
your body cannot make it.
Omega-3 fatty acids have the first double bond at the
third carbon. The most common omega-3 fatty acid is the EFA
alpha-linolenic acid. The consensus among lipid experts is that the
American diet is too high in omega-6 fatty acids (present in high amounts
in commercial vegetable oils) and lacking in omega-3 fatty acids (which
are present in organ meats, wild fish, pasteurized egg yolks, organic
vegetables, and flaxseed oil). A surfeit of omega-6 fatty acids and
deficiency in omega-3 fatty acids has been shown to depress immune system
function, contribute to weight gain, and cause inflammation.
SOYBEAN OIL VERSUS RAPESEED OIL IN INDIA:
While canola oil is displacing soybean oil in many American processed
foods, soybean oil is displacing traditional rapeseed oil in India. In her
book, Stolen Harvest, Indian author Dr. Vandana Shiva describes how
American industrially processed soybean oil replaced traditional seed oils
in a large part of India. Each region in India has its specific edible oil
used for cooking. In the North and East, it is rapeseed oil. In the West,
it is peanut oil. In the Deccan, it is sesame seed oil. And, in Kerala, it
is coconut. In India, rapeseed or mustard oil was traditionally sold in
small quantities, extracted as needed with a small oil press or ghanis.
Oil processing provided employment for thousands of artisans and ensured
that the housewife had a fresh product. Mustard oil also served as
mosquito repellent and as a nonpolluting oil in lamps.
Within a few months after the advent of "free trade"
for soybean oil into India, thousands of Indians fell ill with "dropsy,"
due to a mysterious adulteration of rapeseed oil. The government banned
the sale of all unpackaged edible oils, thus ensuring an end to all
household and community-level oil processing. Edible oil production became
fully industrialized and local processing became a criminal act. Thousands
of workers were dispossessed of their livelihood and millions of Indians
were dispossessed of a healthy oil. Cheap, highly processed soybean oil
immediately replaced rapeseed oil in the markets.
During the crisis, the U.S. Soybean Association pushed
for soybean imports as the "solution." One business publication reported:
"U.S. farmers need big new export markets. India is a perfect match."
Growth was achieved by theft of an important part of the small-scale local
economy.
CANOLA OIL STUDIES
Robert L. Wolke, in that Washington Post
article, said, "I found no research studies indicating that today’s
low-erucic-acid canola oil, as distinguished from ordinary rapeseed oil,
is harmful to humans." That is because, even though canola oil now has
GRAS status, no long-term studies on humans have been done with
low-erucic-acid canola oil.
Animal studies on low-erucic-acid rapeseed oil were
performed when the oil was first developed and have continued to the
present. The results challenge not only the health claims made for canola
oil, but also the theoretical underpinnings of the diet-heart hypothesis.
The first published studies on the new oil were
performed in 1978 at the Unilever research facility in the Netherlands
(R.O. Vles and others, "Nutritional Evaluation of Low-Erucic-Acid Rapeseed
Oils," Toxicological Aspects of Food Safety, Archives of Toxicology,
Supplement 1, 1978:23-32). The industry was naturally interested to
know whether the new LEAR (low-erucic) oil caused heart lesions in test
animals. In earlier studies, animals fed high-erucic-acid rapeseed oil
showed growth retardation and undesirable changes in various organs,
especially the heart—a discovery that touched off the so-called "erucic
acid crisis" and spurred plant geneticists to develop new versions of the
seed.
But the results of the LEAR study were mixed. Rats
genetically selected to be prone to heart lesions developed more lesions
on the LEAR oil than those on olive oil or sunflower oil.
In 1997, researchers at the Canadian Institute for Food
Science and Technology examined LEAR oils. They found that piglets fed
milk replacement containing canola oil showed signs of vitamin E
deficiency, even though the milk replacement contained adequate
amounts of vitamin E (F.D. Sauer and others, "Additional Vitamin E
Required in Milk-Replacer Diets that Contain Canola Oil," Nutrition
Research, 1997;17(2):259-269). Piglets fed soybean oil based milk
replacement, fortified with the same amount of vitamin E, did not show an
increased requirement for vitamin E.
Vitamin E protects cell membranes against free-radical
damage and is vital to a healthy cardiovascular system. In a 1998 paper,
the same research group reported that piglets fed canola oil suffered
from a decrease in platelet count and an increase in platelet size
(J.K. Kramer and others, "Hematological and Lipid Changes in Newborn
Piglets Fed Milk-Replacer Diets Containing Erucic Acid," Lipids, January
1998;33(1):1-10). Bleeding time was longer in piglets fed either
canola oil or rapeseed oil. These changes were mitigated by the
addition of saturated fatty acids from either cocoa butter or coconut oil
to the piglets’ diet. These results were confirmed in another study a year
later. Canola oil was found to suppress the normal developmental
increase in platelet count (S.M. Iunis and R.A. Dyer, "Dietary
Canola Oil Alters Hematological Indices and Blood Lipids in Neonatal
Piglets Fed Formula," Journal of Nutrition, July 1999; 129 (7):1261-8).
Finally, studies carried out at the Health Research and
Toxicology Research Divisions in Ottawa, Canada, discovered that rats
bred to have high blood pressure and proneness to stroke had shortened
life spans when fed canola oil as the sole source of fat (W.M.N.
Ratnayake and others, "Influence of Sources of Dietary Oils on the Life
Span of Stroke-Prone Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats," Lipids, 2000;35(4):
409-420). The results of a later study suggested that the culprit was
the sterol compounds in the oil, which "make the cell membrane more rigid"
and contribute to the shortened life span of the animals (M.N.
Wallsundera and others, "Vegetable Oils High in Phytosterols Make
Erythrocytes Less Deformable and Shorten the Life Span of Stroke-Prone
Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats," Journal of the American Society for
Nutritional Sciences, May 2000;130(5):1166-78).
These studies all point in the same direction: that canola oil is
definitely not healthy for the cardiovascular system. Like rapeseed oil,
its predecessor, canola oil is associated with fibrotic lesions of the
heart. It also causes vitamin E deficiency, undesirable changes in the
blood platelets, and shortened life span in stroke-prone rats when it was
the only oil in the animals’ diet. Furthermore, it seems to retard growth,
which is why the FDA does not allow the use of canola oil in infant
formula (Federal Register, 1985). —vf