Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Famous Canola Oil is supposed to be made from genetically modified Rapeseed Plant which is not good to eat?

If you know more about this, could you please explain if Canola Oil could be potentially bad for your health as claimed in some writings ? 'Canola' is supposed to come from 'Canada oil' and apparently there is no plant called the Canola plant ? Please enlighten. ThanksFamous Canola Oil is supposed to be made from genetically modified Rapeseed Plant which is not good to eat?
As you mentioned, Canola Oil is really Rapeseed Oil that has been genetically modified. And likewise as you mentioned, Canola's name comes from Canada - the location where it was first developed.


Now is it healthy for you? First off, Canola Oil has a VERY good PR department, and I've found out that Canada a number of decades ago, paid our FDA some $50,000,000 to market their GM oil in the US!!! Oh that wonderful money hungry FDA of ours! Few poeple, especially Americans who use it for just about ALL their cooking needs, know that it is genetically modified. This was done to make it more palitable in the human body(digestable).





You see, the reason geneticists changed Rapeseed Oil was that Rapeseed Oil is about 50% erucic acid. Erucic acid as been shown to cause dwarfism or stunted growth in humans! When geneticists bred the Canola Oil variant, they removed its erucic acid component, to remove that risk. In fact the official definition of Canola Oil at the Canola Council Website is ';an oil that must contain less than 2% erucic acid';.





Those who manufacture Canola Oil are the first ob course to praise its health benefits. But in reality, it only has 10% Omega-3. In comparison, Flax Seed Oil has 58% Omega-3 plus Omega-6 as well. Omega-3 oils MUST be served cold in order to preserve their health benefits. But most people use Canola Oil to cook with, immediately destroying its health benefits.





But is Canola oil safe to consume? Since Canola Oil has a smoke point of 475F cooks in restaurants love to use it for deep frying. In that regard,it is very safe. And granted, compared to other partially hydrogenated oils like soybean oil that turn into toxic Trans Fatty Acids when they are heated, Canola Oil is better on the ';scale of dangers';!


But it DOES create some Trans Fatty Acids, just like rapeseed oil does. It produces slightly FEWER Trans Fatty Acids than rapeseed oil does, but not by much.





In a study by the Cooperative Extension of the University of California, which compared canola and rapeseed oil vs soybean oil and peanut oil, the peanut oil did the best at high temperatures at remaining healthy.





So if you use Canola Oil cold - you get 10% Omega-3 oils. Not as good as the Flaxseed Oil benefits, but maybe you can't find flaxseed oil at your local store. If you want to start cooking with oil, it's better to turn to peanut oil instead.





Note that even if YOU do not heat your Canola Oil, the manufacturer might have. Be sure to buy Canola Oils that are listed as being ';cold pressed';. Otherwise, if the manufacturer heated up the oil over 110F in their processing, they have already damaged any omega oils that were in the original oil.





Canola Oil has a shelf life of 1 year. According to the Canola website, ';Keep your canola oil in the fridge or in a cool, dark place when you are not using it. Light and heat speed up the degeneration process in oils.';


Personally, I never use it or consume foods that were made in it, for Rape Seed is a very poisonous plant to begin with, and any genetically modified product can't be trusted as being 100% safe!!!Famous Canola Oil is supposed to be made from genetically modified Rapeseed Plant which is not good to eat?
What you have said is the truth. Canola is a form of rapeseed, but who would buy something with that name on it, especially when the real plant is toxic?


It is supposed to be ok for you, but personally I stick with olive oil, which IS good for you, and for recipes where you don't want the olive oil taste use sesame oil or peanut oil or walnut oil.





I don't use canola because my fiance is very allergic to it and will throw up if he gets say popcorn at a theatre made with canola, so we go to the theatre chain that uses palm oil and coconut oil.


My kids are allergic to soy so that is out too for us, plus most soy is also genetically modified and susicipious.
You're correct, ';canola'; is actually ';canada oil'; and is in fact made from seed of a genetically modified weed. I *think* it's rapeseed, but I'm not positive on that.





Among other things, the plant was modified so that it could not reproduce on its own. I can't remember what the exact mechanism was, but the plant found a way around it and started breeding on farms, and invading the surrounding areas producing hybrids and outcompeting the wild strains. The company that produced the seed originally tried to program the plants to stop their breeding mechanism mainly to make more money. If the farmers couldn't pollinate the plants themselves, they can't get seeds, and they'd have to continuously buy seeds from the company.





The reason for the controversy is that the plants found a way to ';de-program'; (yes, I know, not a word) what the researchers did to them, and if the researchers overlooked this, then what else did they overlook in regards to their research.





As far as whether it's good to eat or not...depends on what your view on GE foods are.
1. Majority of canola crop not all crop, is genetically modified in Canada.


2. These are genetically modified to resist particular herbicide, like glyphosate (Roundup).


3. Except this character the variety is same as the original non-transgenic canola.


4. Hence, it does not pose any harm to consumers' health.


5. However, it may pose problem to environment by growing volunteerly in unwanted places, because herbicide cannot kill it. And it may pass on its herbicide resistant genes to its wild relatives which will make them also resistant to herbicides.





Otherwise, it is safe to eat genetically modified rapeseed oil.

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