Stop using canola oil.: Hi folks, The image... - Healthy Eating

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Stop using canola oil.

Matt2584 profile image
25 Replies

Hi folks,

The image says that canola oil is LOW in saturated fats but that’s not exactly a good thing.

The more saturated fats, the better.

Saturated fats is good brain food.

For those who swing the other way and say low sat fats are better. Coconut oil is good for you and coconut oil is loaded with sat fats, around 90%.

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Matt2584 profile image
Matt2584
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25 Replies

Hi cold pressed rapseed oil is a good oil it's low in saturated fat but high in omega 3 it's the only oil that doesn't saturate at high temp 😊

Matt2584 profile image
Matt2584 in reply to

Canola is derived from Rapeseed... or is it the other way around?

In other words, they are both bad in my eyes, cold pressed or not.

I think it is great that the vegan community is growing but I don’t like the fact that in most vegan-friendly foods and drinks they use rapeseed oil or vegetable oils.

When I first started latching on to veganism I thought, this is a great way to boost health :).

Sadly, the very corrupt, power-hungry people of this cruel world have got on board of the veganism boat too :(.

Cooper27 profile image
Cooper27Administrator in reply to Matt2584

I think cold pressed rapeseed oil is generally OK Matt, it's the hydrolisation process that makes most oils so bad for us. It creates a less stable molecule, and that's what facilitates the creation of free radicals.

Cold pressed rapeseed oil is closer to a cold pressed olive oil than it is to canola.

Matt2584 profile image
Matt2584 in reply to Cooper27

Hmm, I don’t know. I personally, still wouldn’t go using rapeseed oil even if it is cold pressed.

I understand that ‘cold pressed’ itself is much better than being machine pressed but I’m still wary of what else might go into these oils.... not just rapeseed or canola but other vegetable oils like sunflower.

I don’t trust a lot in this world.

Whydothis profile image
Whydothis in reply to Matt2584

I have visited a farm-based set-up where they produce cold pressed rapeseed oil. It is pure oil, with nothing added. Cheap "vegetable oil" is also rapeseed oil, but is extracted in a chemical process which I wouldn't want to go near!

Zest profile image
Zest

Hi Matt2584

I like this article about Fats:

nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/d...

It's from the NHS.

Zest :-)

Matt2584 profile image
Matt2584 in reply to Zest

Thanks for that Zest but I don’t trust the NHS.

I don’t trust the government at all and I think the NHS are not far behind.

Because of the NHS, I could have died due to neglect.

Eryl profile image
Eryl in reply to Zest

That information is out of date. These days it is recognised that fat from food isn't the cause of high colesterol. Colesterol in the blood comes from the liver, and bad cholesterol is due not to fat consumption but to high carb consumption, especially added fructose (sucrose is one fructose molecule weakly bonded to one glucose molecule).

springcross profile image
springcross

Hi Matt. I don't usually post on here although I did join a long while ago but this link may be of interest to you. I don't ever use Canola oil but this article puts a bit of a perspective on it I think. I hope you find it interesting.

hsph.harvard.edu/nutritions...

Whydothis profile image
Whydothis

Canola is American language for rapeseed in English - no difference between them EXCEPT of course that GM rape is not (yet?) allowed to be grown in the UK - so ours is not GM.

Cold pressed rapeseed oil is much less processed than the cheaper stuff which is heated to get the highest possible yield as cheaply as possible.

Given that the standard advice these days is to use oils and not solid fats, then rapeseed is the best oil for hot frying when olive oil is less stable - BUT if not vegetarian it is worth looking again at the natural animal fats - butter and lard - which are excellent for using at high temperatures and not harmful like we have always been told.

Matt2584 profile image
Matt2584 in reply to Whydothis

I think there are many many things in life on different subjects that we have been told about but turns out to be wrong. In other words we have been blatantly lied to by lots of things and still are, hence why I don’t trust a lot of what I hear... especially when it comes from governments.

When you say Canola is American lingo for rapeseed. I have heard that one before but don’t agree.

I was speaking to somebody, on this forum, who was saying they used to grow both rapeseed and canola. Canola is derived from rapeseed.

And my mum, she used to work in a supermarket and stock shelves, many times she had to stock both rapeseed and canola oil.

Apparently there is SOME difference between the 2, canola is SUPPOSED to be a healthier than rapeseed.

Rapeseed was (dunno if it still is) used for industrial purposes.

But there is a lot of misinformation out there and this causes a huge problem.

slipstick profile image
slipstick in reply to Matt2584

So if you have trouble trusting anything how come you believe wherever you got all that stuff about canola oil being bad for you? What is the source of this information anyway and why is it more trustworthy than the NHS and other similar sources?

BTW I'm not sure it's a problem for most of us because none of the main UK supermarkets sell canola oil.

Pebbles77 profile image
Pebbles77 in reply to slipstick

I was wondering that, too

Matt2584 profile image
Matt2584 in reply to slipstick

I wouldn’t say I believe in the info I posted about canola oil, it could vert well be false info and canola really could be safe as sound but I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if the info is true because a lot of things in this world today are untrustworthy... I can’t say too much as it gets in to politics.

Here is an easier way to say it without getting in to politics.

A politician ALWAYS lies... that is why I have a hard time trusting things.

What if everything (or most things) were not as they seem because you’ve been lied to?

slipstick profile image
slipstick in reply to Matt2584

Even if that were true, most nutritionists, doctors and other scientists are not politicians. I agree it's not easy knowing who to believe but that's exactly why it's a bad idea to accept every conspiracy theory going.

Matt2584 profile image
Matt2584 in reply to slipstick

I don’t accept every conspiracy theory going.

Whydothis profile image
Whydothis in reply to Matt2584

I assure you they are one and the same - selling the stuff under two names is clever marketing to people who have been frightened off one of them!

I too am very cautious about who I trust - it is those who have a financial interest in getting me to buy something that I don't trust. Looking again at the image you posted - I get the impression it is advertising material for a store. Information in advertising is not information, it is advertising!

As #slipstick says - think carefully about the source of information. If it is on "someone's" blog, or if it is published by someone with something to sell - take it with a large pinch of salt. If it tells you where the information comes from, check it is a reliable and trustworthy source. If it doesn't say - ignore it.

Yes - rapeseed can be used for industrial purposes - it is grown from different varieties of the crop (I think) and is processed differently. That in itself doesn't make it bad as a food. Linseed oil has always been used for other purposes too - but I still eat linseeds (flaxseeds) quite happily.

Cooper27 profile image
Cooper27Administrator in reply to Whydothis

I believe I read the reason why a few years ago, and they aren't quite the same. Canola is a type of rapeseed oil, but it isn't an interchangeable term for rapeseed oil, as it's a trademark. I think it's a bit like how all Champagne must be grown in the champagne region, otherwise it's just sparkling wine.

Basically, Canola is a rapeseed specifically grown in Canada. It is genetically modified for some purpose (higher yield? Lower sat fat? I don't recall), but it's properties are different to typical rapeseed oil.

Matt2584 profile image
Matt2584 in reply to Cooper27

There you go, “it’s genetically modified”.

One other reason why I wouldn’t touch it.

I don’t really want to eat food that has been scientifically meddled with.

Cooper27 profile image
Cooper27Administrator in reply to Matt2584

Most of the food we eat has been meddled with in some way, for example brocolli, bananas, grapes, lemons have all been modified to produce higher yields with more desirable properties (e.g. seedless) :)

Whydothis profile image
Whydothis in reply to Cooper27

I have done a bit more research and remembering. There was a huge increase in the acreage of oilseed rape grown for oil for food in England in the early 70s (and yes - I do remember!). This coincided with the heavy emphasis on using oil rather than solid fats in cooking, when animal fats were first demonised. Over the next few years new varieties were bred which had low erucic acid content, and this improved the quality and flavour of the oil. In this country from then on farmers talked about growing "low erucic acid rape" for human consumption, while the older varieties were seen as for industrial use.

The new varieties were bred in Canada, and there, as in the US, they were called canola. As a farmer, and as a shopper, I never heard the word canola until I came into contact with North American farmers. The same stuff (as a field crop and the oil in the supermarket) has different names in different languages - for example in French it is "colza". I think we are the only country that use the term "rape"

But these varieties, and the term canola, have been around longer than GM.

When we had all the debate about experimental GM crops here it was oilseed rape that was experimented with (and mostly destroyed by protesters) so no doubt the American crop is GM - but ours is not.

Of course since the dreaded Brexit this may well change - I note the thin end of the wedge being slid into place on the news this morning, with talk of GE (gene edited) crops, which we are assured are not the same as GM!

Although I don't share much of Matt2584's mistrust in general, I certainly don't trust government to be even handed about this - too much money involved for big business!

Sorry this has turned into a long post!

PeterBrash profile image
PeterBrash

Does the original advert expand on its ‘major health problems’ claim?

As whydothis has pointed out, there’s a huge amount of disinformation out there at the moment.

As for cold-pressed rapeseed oil, this is only conjecture on my part but I wouldn’t buy it. British farmers have been very clever in making a ‘premium product’ out of something that was previously junk.

When neonicotinoids were allowed a lot of them were used on rapeseed, to combat flea beetles. Another slightly less appetising part of rapeseed production is the drying process. As the British weather at harvest time is unpredictable, the rape crop is ‘desiccated’ by spraying with glyphosate.

Whydothis profile image
Whydothis in reply to PeterBrash

Unfortunately the neonicotinoid problem is not yet in the past. There has been an "emergency" change for this year to allow its use on sugar beet (I think) and the NFU are pressing to have it back for rape. This is more serious than for beet, because of all the insects attracted to the flowers, but even on sugar beet it is not good news.

And you are right about the crop being routinely dessicated before harvest to kill the weeds and make sure the whole crop is ripe at once.

I avoid sugar like the plague, and use animal fats and olive oil!

Whydothis profile image
Whydothis in reply to Whydothis

Correcting myself - it was in 2020 that neonics were allowed on sugar beet

and Update - I have just read that this permission has not been renewed for this year - hooray!

Subtle_badger profile image
Subtle_badger

Rapeseed oil is naturally toxic, containing large amounts of euric acid. Canola, a lapsed trademark, is a cultivar bred (not engineered) to contain much less euric acid. I have no idea of the varieties of rapeseed in the UK product, but I would guess it's a mixture of Canola and other cutlivars as Canola is 2% euric acid, and the EU limit is 5%.

But this and all the seed oils marketed as vegetable oil (safflower, sunflower etc), were only introduced into our diets in the 20th century. Meanwhile we have been consuming saturated fats for 100s of millions of years; since before we were humans, or primates, or mammals, or even animals.

The extraordinary claim that these oils that we have only have been consuming for 100 years is better for us than the oils we have been consuming since the beginning of life requires extraordinary proof. None was proffered when we were first told to change our diet in the 70s. None has been produced in the meantime.

I am not eating them. I have butter, ghee, coconut oil, olive oil in my cupboards. I have a bottle of rapeseed oil under my sink that I use to re-season cast iron pans.

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