Canola or Rapeseed Oil

Canola or Rapeseed Oil: A wolf in sheep’s clothing

If canola oil is so safe, why do food scientists spend so much time trying to make it more stable?

Much of the world’s perception around fats and oils is based upon how the particular oil influences a population’s cholesterol level. While that model in itself is highly flawed, there are, of course, even more important parameters when it comes to choosing daily cooking oils or ingredients in recipes.  Canola, formerly rapeseed, oil is cheap, industrially-produced oil that is very high in its polyunsaturated fat content.  This characteristic makes it less stable –  not solely in cooking or food processing applications, but more importantly, in the human body, where it is incorporated into our mitochondrial and cell membranes. Continue reading