Secrets Behind Common Foods: Canola Oil

"From field to factory to pantry"

The Discovery Channel takes a pleasant look at how canola oil is made. The brief video declares canola to be one of the healthiest oils because of its low saturated fat content, but then takes you on a journey through the factory processing that makes it clear this highly processed oil is anything but healthy.

Consider some of the steps it takes:

• high pressure squeezing
• extraction with chemical solvent
  
• washing with sodium hydroxide
• de-waxing and filtering
• bleaching to lighten color
• steam injection de-odorizing

Sounds pretty healthy right? Not exactly.

As for the healthy claim, decades of accumulated research on saturated fat has found no link to heart disease. Natural saturated fats are more stable so they don't need all of the processing and can hold up to high heat cooking without going bad.

And those healthy omega 3 fats in canola? Those go rancid with high heat processing, which is why the oil has to be de-odorized. Canola actually is quite high in omega 6 fats which increase inflammation throughout the body.

In the US and Canada, about 90% of canola is genetically modified to withstand heavy doses of herbicidal chemicals used to kill weeds. As "superweeds" develop resistance to chemicals, these herbicides are being used in higher quantities. Still sound healthy? Consider using olive oil or coconut oil instead.