The Great Conola
By Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD
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.
Canola oil contains only trace amounts of erucic acid and its unique fatty acid
profile, rich in oleic acid and low in saturated fats, 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
the food industry says 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 glycocides; it causes mad cow
disease, blindness, nervous disorders, clumping of blood cells and depression of
the immune system. This is what detractors say about canola oil.
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?
Hidden History
Let's start with some history. The time period is the mid-1980s and the food
industry has 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, including
and especially cancer.1
The industry was in a bind. It could not continue using large amounts of liquid
polyunsaturated oils and make health claims about them in the face of mounting
evidence of their dangers. Nor could manufacturers return to using traditional
healthy saturates -- butter, lard, tallow, palm oil and coconut oil -- without
causing an uproar. Besides, these fats cost too much for the cut-throat 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
promoters of the diet-heart idea had popularized the notion that the
Mediterranean diet -- rich in olive oil and conjuring up images of a carefree
existence on sun-drenched islands -- protected against heart disease and ensured
a long and healthy life.
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
and soy 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 mono-unsaturated 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,2 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 US. In 1986, Cargill announced the sale of LEAR oil seed to US
farmers and provided LEAR oil processing at its Riverside, North Dakota plant
but prices dropped and farmers took a hit.3
Marketing LEAR
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
was never given GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status by the US Food and
Drug Administration. A change in regulation would be necessary before canola
could be marketed in the US.4 Just how this was done has not been revealed, but
GRAS status was granted in 1985, for which, it is rumored; the Canadian
government spent $50 million to obtain.
Since canola was aimed at the growing numbers of health-conscious consumers,
rather than the junk food market, it required more subtle marketing techniques
than television advertising. The industry had managed to manipulate the science
to make a perfect match with canola oil -- very low in saturated fat and rich in
monounsaturates.
In addition, canola oil contains about 10 percent omega-3 fatty acids, the most
recent discovery of 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. One informant in the publishing industry told us
that since the mid 1990s, major publishers would not accept cookbooks unless
they included canola in the recipes.
In 1997, Harper Collins engaged Dr. Artemis Simopoulos to write a cookbook
featuring the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids.5 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.6 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.7 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 low fat
yogurt and milk as part of her regime.
The canola industry's approach -- scientific conferences, promotion to upscale
consumers through books like The Omega Diet and articles in the health section
of newspapers and magazines -- was successful. By the late 1990s, canola use had
soared, and not just in the US.
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
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.
Dangers Overstated
Reports on the dangers of rapeseed oil are rampant on the internet, mostly
stemming from an article, "Blindness, Mad Cow Disease and Canola Oil," by John
Thomas, which appeared in Perceptions magazine, March/April 1996. Some of the
claims are ludicrous. Although rape is a member of the brassica or mustard
family, it is not the source of mustard gas used in chemical warfare.
Glycosides or glycosinolates (compounds that produce sugars on hydrolysis) are
found in most members of the brassica family, including broccoli, kale, cabbage
and mustard greens. They contain sulfur (not arsenic), which is what gives
mustard and cruciferous vegetables their pungent flavor.
These compounds are goitrogenic and must be neutralized by cooking or
fermentation. As rapeseed meal was high in glycosides, it could not be used in
large amounts for animal feeding. However, plant breeders have been able to
breed out the glycosides as well as the erucic acid from canola oil.8 The result
is a low-glycoside meal that can be used as an animal feed. In fact, canola meal
for animal feed is an important Canadian export.
Hemagglutinins, substances that promote blood clotting and depress growth, are
found in the protein portion of the seed, although traces may show up in the
oil. And canola oil was not the cause of the mad cow epidemic in Britain9,
although feeding of canola oil may make cattle more susceptible to certain
diseases.
Like all fats and oils, rapeseed oil has industrial uses. It can be used as an
insecticide, a lubricant, a fuel and in soap, synthetic rubber and ink. Like
flax oil and walnut oil, it can be used to make varnish. Traditional fats like
coconut oil, olive oil and tallow also have industrial uses, but that does not
make them dangerous for human consumption.
We have had reports of allergies to canola, and internet articles describe a
variety of symptoms -- tremors, shaking, palsy, lack of coordination, slurred
speech, memory problems, blurred vision, problems with urination, numbness and
tingling in the extremities, and heart arrhythmias -- that cleared up on
discontinuance of canola. None of this has been reported in the medical
journals, however.
Writing for the Washington Post, Professor Robert L Wolke (
The Great Con-ola was published in Nexus Magazine, Aug/September 2002 as well as in Wise Traditions, the quarterly publication for the Weston A. Price Foundation
Sally Fallon is President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and author of
Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, NewTrends Publishing, 2000 (877-707-1776, newtrendspublishing.com)Mary G. Enig, PhD, FACN, is Vice President of the Weston A. Price Foundation, President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association and author of
Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol, Bethesda Press, 2000 (301-680-8600, bethesdapress.com)
References:
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5. The amount of the advance was $350,000. Personal email communication, Jo Robinson, co-author of The Omega Diet.
6. AP 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
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10. When we contacted Dr. Wolke to provide him with evidence of
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