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Does Canola Oil Come From Canolas??
compiled and edited by Megan Jones
Olive oil comes from olives, peanut oil from peanuts, sunflower
oil from sunflowers, but what is a canola? There was nothing on
the label to enlighten me, which I thought odd, so I did some
investigating on the internet. There are plenty of official
Canola sites lauding this new “wonder” oil with all its low-fat
health benefits and providing basic background information.
Canola, I learn, is not the name of a natural plant; it’s a
combination of “Canada” and “oil”. and is the name given to a
genetically engineered plant developed in Canada from the
rapeseed plant, a member of the mustard family. Hmmm. I happen to
know that rapeseed oil is poisonous to living things and is an
excellent insect repellent. I have been using it (in very diluted
form, as per instructions) to kill the aphids on my roses for the
last two years. It works very well; it suffocates them. Ask for
it at your nursery.
Even AgriAlternatives, the online Innovation and Technology
Magazine for Farmers, and one of the web sites singing the
praises of the new canola industry, acknowledges the poisonous
facts. “By nature, these rapeseed oils, which have long been used
to produce oils for industrial purposes, are...toxic to humans
and other animals,” On other sites, I read that rapeseed oil is
used as a lubricant, fuel, soap and synthetic rubber base, and as
an illuminate for color pages in magazines. It is an industrial
oil. It is not a food. It was the source of the chemical warfare
agent mustard gas, which was used in WWI and perhaps again in the
Gulf War. It has been linked as a causative agent to emphysema,
respiratory distress, anemia, constipation, irritability, and
blindness in animals and humans. There are some very suggestive
coincidences in the removal of rapeseed oil from animal feed and
the disappearance of Mad Cow disease.
I’m wondering if I really want to eat any of its relatives.
Web sites that support canola as safe to use acknowledge that it
was developed from the rapeseed plant, but insist that genetic
engineering has eliminated the toxic nature of rapeseed and left
us with a plant whose oil is both cheap to produce and safe to
use. Studies of lab animals with canola oil in their diets,
however, suggest otherwise. Rats developed fatty degeneration of
heart, kidney, adrenals and thyroid gland. When canola oil was
withdrawn from their diets, the deposits dissolved but scar
tissue remained on all vital organs. Despite such results, no
studies on humans were made before getting FDA approval to market
Canola oil in the USA.
Does that explain why the Canadian government and industry paid
our Federal Food and Drug Administration 50 million dollars to
have canola oil placed on the GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe)
list? Administrative filing fees are one thing, but
$50,000,000.00?? What does that buy?
Well...how about a new industry? US and Canadian farmers grow
genetically engineered rapeseed, it is processed, and
manufacturers use its oil (canola) in thousands of processed
foods. That equals a lot of jobs which keeps somebody--probably
several somebodies on both sides of the border--in political
office. And somewhere, someone is making a lot of money.
No formal studies have been done that I’m aware of, but there is
anecdotal evidence of links between ingestion of canola oil and a
range of health problems. Quality control tasters, for example,
at an apple-chip factory where Canola oil was used exclusively
for frying developed numerous health problems in the course of 9
months. Complaints included loose teeth and gum disease; numb
hands and feet; extreme joint pain; swollen arms and legs upon
rising in the morning. Others were cloudy vision and hearing
loss; fragile skin and hair loss; lack of energy and heart pains.
Typically hair grew back and other symptoms reversed after
leaving the job. Five years after leaving, however, one young
woman still suffers some joint pain, gum disease, and numbness in
her extremities.
An idle question has led me to a lot of not so comfortable
answers. I add up commercial and political interests, 50 million
bucks, documented results of adding and then withdrawing Canola
from diets both animal and human, stir in a couple of suggestive
coincidences and some stories, and I decide that I don’t trust
the FDA or genetic engineering. That means I check the labels of
any processed food before I buy it, and avoid anything with
Canola oil on the list of ingredients. It also means that
anything I cook is either steamed or lightly sauteed in olive oil
or old fashioned butter from a genetically unmodified cow.
For further, detailed information, go to
www.karinya.com/canola.htm. That site provides much of the
information found in this article as well as links to other sites
which provide personal accounts and research reports.
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