Please keep reading. This is not the usual (often deserved) slam at Canola... first, I'm assuming all the Rapeseed Oil below is LEAR, (Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed)... second,  I could care less if Rapeseed Oil was or is used as an Industrial Lubricant! Every Fat known to Humanity has been used as a lubricant at one time or another. 

No, I'm talking about VERY legitimate & logical sounding "Claims" I think are complete "Bat-squeeze"...coupled with the added irritation that everybody seems to "Love" Canola Oil. Some even get a little "misty" when describing its *Healthfulness*... 

This ubiquitous, short-sighted, and completely inaccurate attitude is the result of a full court press campaign to provide a "Mono-unSat" alternative to the TRUE Mono-unSat Oil... 'Extra-Virgin Olive Oil'. This is so the revenue would stay in this Hemisphere, eh? ...Said hemisphere dominated by the US & our closest trading partner, Canada, instead of an Olive Oil coming from Italy, Spain, Israel, etc.

There are; however, Rapeseed Food-Oil Makers, or more commonly & less offensively known as Canola Oil, (Oil of Canada) making claims regarding both refined & unrefined, that Rapeseed Oil (RO) is superior to Olive Oil. Tilt!  Tilt!  Tilt! 

This claim is singularly silly by itself, but some make the further outrageous (and dangerous!) claim that you can safely do Hi-heat Stir-Frying, the implication being that the heat sensitive Omega 6 & 3, which make-up about 30 to 35% of RO, somehow survives the ordeal... How can I say this delicately?

...NO Freaking Way, Pilgrim!

Very Brief Fat lesson -- In simple terms, fatty acids are chains of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms filling the available single bonds, creating a solid, "straight" Chain.  A Double-Bond (DB) is where 2 Hydrogen atoms are missing in the long Fatty-Acid (FA) Chain causing said chain to bend slightly - resulting in a liquid Oil at room temp... also, you might say these DB's are where the sun's energy is stored. 

The more Double-Bonds (DB's) these Fatty Acid chains have also means there are more locations available to be broken by heat, air & light... turning the healthful oil into rancid lipid-peroxide, faster.

Saturated Fat (SatFat) - has no missing Hydrogen atoms, thus no Double-Bonds, so it is very stable (resists rancidity) and is a solid at room temp because the chain is "straight" and tightly packs together easily, like "real" Butter & every FOOD-Oil in the world - Yes, the SatFat is in there, you can't see it, is all. This resistance to rancidity is only one of many reasons why SatFat is your body's "Fat of Choice" for many of its more important jobs...as long as it is undamaged SatFat... this is how we evolved.

Mono-unsaturated Oil - (Mono means 'One') So it has 'One' DB with 2 missing Hydrogen atoms... which is also very stable (does not need refining or refrigeration after opening) and is a liquid at room temp because the chain is slightly "bent," so it does not "pack together" easily... healthful oils like Olive & Macadamia Nut.

Poly-unsaturated Oil - (Poly means 'More than One') So it has 2 or more DB's that make it UN-stable, increasing its sensitivity to rancidity, so it must be refrigerated after being opened or (like MOST poly-oils) it must be refined, to be able to store it at room temp.  Refined means the oil is RBDed (Refined, Bleached, Deodorized) using very High-Heat. In other words, the Oil is "Dead."  

The delicate Double-Bonds are broken & even though it is now rancid... it smells "fresh" to you after Hi-Heat Deodorizing.  This Toxic, RBDed Oil is the ONLY kind you get at the typical grocery... SO that bottle of beautiful, golden Mazolla Corn Oil you brought home from the store looking & smelling so fresh... is teeming with cell destroying Lipid-Peroxide molecules & has already turned rancid once. Mmmmm-mmm! ...oh yeah, and don't worry - it won't turn rancid again for a very, very long time, even after it's opened & stored at room temp... Why? ...Because it's more analogous to "Liquid-Plastic" than to "Food," friend.

"Poly-Oils" include Poly-Food Oils like Corn & Soy which can be RBDed or unrefined (both generally UN-healthful), BUT also includes Poly-Medicinal Oils, like Flax, Hemp, Black Currant, Fish, Krill, (all VERY healthful, but spoil very easily).

So please remember (when we discuss stir-frying & storing RO at room temp below) that light, heat & oxygen break the Double-Bonds (DB's) of these Poly-Omega 6 & 3 Fatty-Acids. The more DB's, the more sensitive the oil is to rancidity...

Additionally, when you go from a 2 DB, (Omega 6, Corn/Soy) to a 3 DB, (Omega 3, Flax/Hemp) you might think the reactive-ness will increase by a nice, arithmetic factor of 1 (you know, 2 up to 3, etc.) but no, the reactive-ness goes up exponentially, reader, making the Omega 3 with 3DB's, about 5 or 6 times more sensitive to turning toxic than the 2DB, Omega 6... which is still pretty sensitive in its own right. So, can you imagine the sensitivity of  "SIX" Double-Bonds, (6DBs) in the Fish-Omega 3, called DHA? This is "Brain-Food for Babies" ...the most valuable and trickiest to acquire substance on the planet for Mother & Child... well, actually... EVERYONE!

Let's look at the Canola Oil hype in the article snippet above: (...and isn't it breath-taking how much obfuscation can be packed into 2 little sentences?)

1.  "Olive & Rapeseed (canola) oils are better than Sunflower/Corn as they are very low in SatFat" - NO! 

...Rapeseed oil (RO) IS very low in SatFat at 7%, but Olive oil has over twice as much at 16%! Actually, Olive Oil has more SatFat than corn (13%) or sunflower (12%) - so they start right out with incorrect info...

But wait Alan... you Dummy... doesn't your previous strange (albeit accurate) statement only strengthen the argument that Canola is better than Olive because it is so much lower in SatFat? Yeah, loaded with zero facts and trusting someone else's convenient conventional wisdom... you might logically think that... if your fear of the periphery means you super-glue "horse-blinders" to your face every morning so you can see only what's put right in front of your nose.  Let me explain:

All oils HAVE to contain the 3 different kinds of FA's (Fatty-Acids). It's the law (of Nature)!  SatFat (stable), MonoFat (stable, Omega 9), PolyFat (highly UN-stable, Omega 6 & 3). These FA's have wildly different ratios. For example Olive Oil is 76% Mono, (stable) - as opposed to Safflower Oil at only 13% Mono, (stable) but has a huge 78% Poly, (UNstable).  See how that works? The Safflower Oil has to be killed or neutered or you couldn't even have it in the house...OK, just a little hyperbole.

Consider SatFat... In the case of RO vs. Olive... Undamaged SatFat in food oils which have NOT been RBDed (Refined, Bleached, Deodorized [bad as it sounds], using High-Heat) ...are, in fact, good for you! Look at how much undamaged blubber (SatFat) Eskimos eat - with the lowest Heart Disease on the planet! 

Your body needs (undamaged) SatFat for dozens of different, critical purposes & manufactures some of it, on it's own, ... so the 16% SatFat (UNDAMAGED by RDBing) in Olive Oil is very likely 'a positive' or at worst... 'a neutral'. 

"Yeah," you might wonder, "but then why is having LESS SatFat in Canola, Bad, if SatFat could be considered neutral"? Wouldn't having LESS of a "neutral" mean Nothing...you know, No harm - No Foul.....hummm, No, it means a lot in the case of some food oils.

Here's the reason why: The FATS in the sample have to total to 100%!

In some Food-Oils, like Canola, low SatFat is bad, you see, because a small percentage of SatFat (good or neutral) at 7% - coupled with a small percentage of Mono (good-stuff, but only 56%) - comes to a total of only about 63% - which means you have a lot of room left over that has to be filled with *Something* & the only *Something* that is left, is BAD, see?   Unstable, highly reactive Poly UnSat Omega 6 (from 20% to 29%) & Omega 3 (about 8% or 9%) have to make up the fat difference! So you have a Whopping, Poly Total of 30 to 36%! 

Compare the preceding to Olive Oil with its large percentage of non RDBed therefore undamaged Satfat (16% good or neutral) PLUS a large percentage of Mono (76% good)... ...this only leaves room for a very small, negligible percentage of the BAD Poly Unsat, at only 8%. See how THAT works?

So, think about it... would you really want to make Olive Oil MORE like Canola Oil by lowering the 16% (SatFat) of something that won't hurt you (but will likely help you)... while raising the 8% (PolyFat) of something that has the potential to kill you? Take a moment to think it over. But consider!

In 1994, the Lancet Medical Journal confirmed what I have been saying for years - that 75% of the "stuff" that sticks to your arteries is Oxidized Poly-UnSat Vegetable Oil... not the unjustly maligned Cholesterol. How come you don't hear that on the news!?

Onward.

2.  "...both RO & Olive are high in Mono-unsat which lowers..." -  NO...

Olive Oil is high in Mono-unsat at 76% compared to Rapeseed Oil at 56%... even though 56% may seem like a pretty good percentage... it's not really, because again, it leaves too much room left over for powerfully BAD stuff - 30 to 35% Poly-unSat!

3.  "...Mono oil which appears to lower LDL (bad) & raise HDL (good) cholesterol." -  NO, not the way THEY mean it!

Mono-unsat Oil will do this IF it is UN-refined, like Olive Oil & "some" Canola Oil... but if it is refined and RBDed, like MOST Canola, then it will likely do the opposite with your LDL & HDL Lipid profile numbers. How's that for truth in advertising!

4.  "Nutritionally, RO has the edge over Olive, as it has more Vit.E & Omega 3 & 6" -- This is just plain Stupid! Moreover, this is patent disrespect in the form of taking advantage of the reader's understandable ignorance of the issues regarding dietary fat... given of course the CRAVEN lies from officialdom inculcated from the duplicitous mainstream exampled in the "snippit" above.

Reader! You don't choose a Bad Oil over a Good Oil just because it has a little more Vitamin E! That's ludicrous! Moreover, if it is the refined, RBD'ed Oil... ...the volatile Vitamin E has already been destroyed, anyway! You are taken for a credulous fool! 

...AND, because Omega 3 in RO is so highly reactive, it is the first thing to turn rancid & toxic due to heat & air! So, normally, when extracted from, lets say, Flax or Hemp it is done under expensive refrigeration (if the RO is just cold-pressed, remember, this only means no heat was added but it still gets hot due to pressure if not kept cold) - also, after extraction, these sensitive Omega 3 oils are either sealed in a soft-gel to keep them away from Air (oxidation) or they must be refrigerated after opening because any exposure to room-temp air will immediately start oxidation. 

The Omega 3 from Rapeseed "might" survive the first extraction if done in the "old-method" of expeller-pressing in small batches that don't get real hot like "cold-pressing" in aGiant Press creating tremendous heat... but it remains that these UN-refined Oils must be refrigerated after opening...and, for sure , NO STIR-FRYING...

Olive Oil with almost NO poly oil is much safer for frying...but even it has limitations...a so-so Smoke-Pt. at about 320 F.

With regard to higher Omega 6 being, remotely, better? Crapola!  Betraying, disrespecting, misinforming... crapola!

In the difficult attempt to get our Critical EFA Ratio (Omega 6 to Omega 3) down to below a healthful 4 to 1 (instead of the usual heart stopping 20 or 30 to 1), we need to cut Omega 6 out of our lives as much as possible... every form of food to include fruit has Omega 6, so the best way to get it out of our lives is to avoid ALL Hi-Poly Food Oils... onlyuse Lo-Poly Oils like Olive (8% poly) or Macadamia Nut (3% poly).

This brings me to what I think is the biggest lie of all -  many of these RO's (claiming to be UN-refined?) are supposed to be good for Stir-frying & they supposedly have a higher smoke point. But because RO has highly reactive Poly-Om.3 & 6, these oils will turn toxic with just a little heat, UNLESS PROCESSED or KILLED... in fact the Omega 3 will start turning rancid at room temp within hours, if not minutes, so how are you supposed to cook with it?! 

Additionally, if these oils are UNREFINED, as they claim, the smoke point would be about 100 degrees lower (225 F) than UNREFINED Olive Oil (320 F) -- so how does it have ahigher smoke point? 

...AND why don't you have to refrigerate after opening as many claim... only ONE ANSWER works: These oils have likely been refined so it will reach the high temp of REfined canola oil, which is 400 degrees & if it is refined it doesn't have to be refrigerated because it is already "DEAD"!

By the way, alluded above, Extra-Virgin Olive Oil is much better for frying than Canola because the 76% Mono is much more stable than the Canola's 56%. (that's why Olive oil does not need refrigeration after opening) Plus Olive Oil does NOT have any Omega 3 & very little Omega 6 - both of which will turn toxic in seconds when you start to heat it for cooking, even if you don't get anywhere near the Smoke Point.

A better choice for frying is the other "True" Mono-unsat. Oil... Macadamia Nut Oil, at 80% Mono (even higher than Olive Oil's 76%, but more expensive) has an extraordinarily high smoke pt. at 398 F.

However, the safest oil to fry with is coconut oil because High SatFat, Tropical Oils are more stable & the very high concentration of antioxidants helps protect the coconut oil from oxidation as the temp goes up...just don't let it smoke. Some things don't  work with coconut oil because of the slight coconut taste.

FYI: What caused Coconut Oil to be better for cooking than Olive Oil ?...and caused Olive Oil to be better for cooking than Rapeseed Oil ?... the answer : "The World Climate" for the last ump-teen million years...

VERY stable Coconut Oil from the Equatorial, tropical-band around the earth is solid in your A/C'ed, 75 degree house, so you call it "Saturated-Fat" as if it were a disgusting, dirty word... but turn the A/C up to just 78 F or move to the tropics, it flows nicely, and is protected against the high ambient temp with a massive array of arcane, magical Anti-oxidants! Consequently, it will stay fresh at room temp for 4 or 5 years. That's magic, folks. Tinkerbell flits around scattering her pixie dust!

Magical it may seem! The anti-oxidants are so powerful that for this 5 years the little (2%) Poly-Omega 6 in CCnut Oil is also protected...where normally UN-refined Poly-Food Oil would go rancid in days if exposed to the air & left sitting around at room temp. Just imagine what that anti-oxidant power-protection could do in your body. Delicate Poly Fatty-Acids need protection in your body after you swallow them, much the same way they do out-side your body.

NEXT : We go a little further north into the temperate band of Hawaii, Southern California & the Mediterranean (Italy, Spain) where we find (1 DB) Mono-unsat. Oils (Olive, Macadamia Nut) that are a little less stable than the Tropical Oils, but if Expeller-pressed, bottled in dark glass & protected from the air? These oils will last for months (maybe years) at the ambient temp of  Italy... and they have some Vit.E and some anti-oxidant capability. Olive Oil is a liquid at room temp because the carbon chain has a "bend" - but 'One' DB will cause only a small bend so it will solidify if refrigerated...(an interesting key point).

NEXT : We move up into the colder band of Canada & Russia where we find the Poly-unsat. FOOD Oils, like Rapeseed Oil & Soybean Oil. These are moderately UN-stable because of the (2 DB) Poly, Om.6 and the even more UN-stable (3 DB) Poly, Om.3. These unstable poly-oil chains are even more bent so they will remain a flowing liquid in much colder climates & remain a liquid in the fridge. These cold-climate poly-oils pay a price to flow in cold Weather... they easily turn rancid when exposed to light, heat & air. These Oils will start oxidizing at room temp in weeks unless well protected from air and light & will turn toxic if heated for cooking.

LASTLY: We move up into the frigid Arctic Waters where we find Fatty, Cold-water Fish & Krill that have "VERY" Poly-unsat. Oil that is extremely reactive & twisted because of the 5 & 6 DBed Omega 3's ...these VERY, VERY sensitive Oils can keep flowing at very low temps but cannot withstand air & room temps AT ALL. You CAN NOT cook with Poly "Medicinal" Oils from (animal) Fish, Krill, Cod-liver...or from (plant) Flax & Hemp. 

The other slightly less reactive Poly "Food" Oils like Canola, Soy & Peanut are used by many, many people to cook with...the only problem is that they will eventually kill you.

Consequently, I hope you can appreciate the advantage of cooking with a Warm-climate Oil as opposed to a Cold-climate oil... and how a Temperate-climate Oil like Olive Oil is rather the best of both worlds. This also demonstrates just how little we can screw with Mother-Nature's grand scheme...you know, like planting an Olive tree in Canada or a fair-skinned Norwegian living down here in Lower Alabama... for instance.

No... ... mere economic proclivities are not sufficient to make healthful a vascularly unhealthful substance like canola or rapeseed oil. There will be no silk purse made from thissow's ear. 

In closing, please don't write and point out that I keep incorrectly calling the Mono-unsat. Canola, a Poly-unsat. Oil...Yes, it does have about twice as much Mono (56%) as Poly (30%) -- so go ahead and call it "Mono" if you want... BUT it's the 30% Poly that will Kill You ... so it's all "POLY" to ME!  

Well be.

Alan Graham

Phone (334) 774-0395

E-mail -- <>alan068@centurytel.net