This is a guest post written by Alison of Health Nut Nation — an awesome blog full of recipes and nutrition & health articles. Thanks, Alison, for the post!
Recently, my husband wanted me to replicate an Italian salad dressing that he’d bought at a restaurant. In order to honor the integrity of his opinionated taste buds, I discerned that I needed a really clean tasting oil, so I brought out some canola oil that was properly stored in a dark cool place. The canola oil looked light and pure, but it smelled “off” to me. I tasted it, and it had a strong lip recoiling flavor. I suspected it was rancid. So, like any good researcher would do, I enlisted my husband and son as my personal kitchen lab rats. Both tasted it and thought it was fine.
Certain that justice had yet to be served, I decided to buy a brand new bottle of canola oil as a barometer to determine if I was losing my gift for discerning tasteful things. Sure enough, the new bottle tasted and smelled clean. It had no odor and no particular taste. When I had both my son and husband taste and smell the new canola oil and compare it to the rancid oil, they both declared the rancid oil “disgusting!”
The surprising truth is, they were both rancid!
Developed through the hybridization of rape seed, canola oil is actually a delicate oil that turns rancid very quickly. (It’s named canola as in “oil from Canada.” Marketing figured it was much more appealing that the word “rape” — go figure!) And we all know that not many people are going to put up with knowingly ingesting rank, stale, decomposing oil.
That’s why the vegetable oil industry has a little-known trick that they don’t make public. Deodorizers are typically used in the making of canola oil.
Like all modern vegetable oils, canola oil goes through the process of caustic refining, bleaching and degumming — all of which involve high temperatures or chemicals of questionable safety. And because canola oil is high in omega-3 fatty acids, which easily become rancid and foul-smelling when subjected to oxygen and high temperatures, it must be deodorized. The standard deodorization process removes a large portion of the omega-3 fatty acids by turning them into trans fatty acids.
(source)
I can only surmise that the reason I could smell and taste that the canola oil I had was rancid, was likely because I’d bought it from a source where deodorizers had not been used. Either that, or it was so far beyond rancid that even the deodorizers had given up the fight!
Rancidity is not the only issue we are dealing with. The way in which the canola is processed is where the oil is turned from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. Read it again: “…canola oil goes through the process of caustic refining, bleaching and degumming–all of which involve high temperatures or chemicals of questionable safety.” It’s like taking a lovely rib eye steak, marinating it in lighter fluid, torching it to a crisp, sprinkling it with rose petals, and serving it up on a platter!
How rancid oil affects your body.
Rancid doesn’t just mean that a food is stale, or rotten. In this case rancid means oxidized.
In your body oxidized means damage to your cells and tissues, especially to the areas rich in fat like your brain. You know what happens when an apple is exposed to air? Oxidation is the process that turns it brown and makes it go bad. If you eat vegetable oils that are already oxidized from heat and light in processing, you are exposing your own healthy tissues to a volatile substance which will damage them…. Oxidation, or rancidity, is not only a major contributor to most degenerative diseases, it also causes inflammation. Excess inflammation in the body can cause anything from arthritis to more serious diseases such as Parkinson’s, bipolar moods, schizophrenia, and obsessive compulsive disorders.
(source)
What can you use instead?
I’ve been evangelizing the health benefits of fats in your diet, saturated fats in particular, for quite some time now. So the question remains, which fats are a healthy choice?
My rule of thumb is to only use oils where I will be able to tell if it’s gone bad either via taste/odor/visible mold. For almost any application you can find an oil from a healthy source that tastes great and is a healthy choice.
There are many choices available, however my go-to oils are:
Coconut Oil
I primarily cook with coconut oil. Eggs, cookies, pie crusts, sautéing veggies, etc.
(how to choose a good coconut oil)
Butter/Ghee
Butter from pastured cows is nutritious, stable, and makes anything taste better.
(where to buy pastured butter or ghee)
Lard
A very stable oil, traditionally used for frying. I use lard for pie crusts, pastries, pan frying, stir frying and in combination with coconut oil to cook my breakfast eggs in. Learn how to render your own lard from humanely-raised, pastured and/or foraged hogs here.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
A delicate oil that should, ideally, not be heated. I use olive oil in all of my salad dressings. Make sure you know where your olive oil is coming from, as most olive oil is diluted with cheaper oils or entirely fake!
(where to find quality olive oil)
Canola oil is not a health food.
Despite the lusty red lipstick, she’s still a pig. Canola oil is not a healthy fat. It has been processed, heated to a point which has destroyed most of its beneficial properties, and then deodorized in order to make it taste and smell fresh and clean.
Coconut oil, butter, lard, olive oil, and many more oils are a safe and healthy alternative.
To your health!
~Alison
What about cold pressed organic canola oil? Hasn’t this product not gone through all of the refining?
cold pressed canola oil = Healthy ?
http://wellbeingjournal.com/vol-21-no-6-november-december-2012-2/
and scroll to the bottom to read about canola oil in this article-http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/hwnl_9-2.htm
We occassionly use the Spectrum Organic Canola Oil for baking. Does the organic version eliminate the problems you describe here?
I would be interested to learn your opinion of Rice Bran Oil ? I have read that it can be used at higher temperatures, it is very popular in NZ where I was able to buy it at the supermarket, in Ontario it is rear as hens teeth.
Thanks for another great article,
Rachel.
Hi David,
I looked on the Spectrum website and the Organic canola oil says “100% mechanically (expeller) pressed naturally refined organic canola oil.”
Why does it need to be refined if it’s expeller pressed? According to the Spectrum website they don’t use chemicals to refine their product, so they must be subjecting it to very high heat.
Here’s an excerpt about refining canola oil:
And yet, a trip to your local health food store, or even Whole Foods, may find Organic Canola Oils sitting on the store shelves, but interestingly enough these “Organic” Canola Oils upon closer inspection may also say that they are REFINED. Companies selling Canola claims the seeds are expeller pressed, but then they throw in that sometime after that the oil is also REFINED NATURALLY. Perusing their website will not disclose what they are refining their oil with however. Is it HEAT? Some sources say that a refined canola oil is exposed to hydrogenation type heat, as well as precipitation and deodorizing w/minerals and potentially more? Less information is rarely assuring, especially with products claiming to be organic. At a minimum, if heat is indeed used, the concept that any cold-pressed organic oil is subsequently refined may sound contradictory. Isn’t the purpose of expeller processing to avoid high heat and chemical treatments? Isn’t the assumption the consumer is acting on when they are buying oils that say expeller pressed is that heat and treatments have been cut out of the equation? So the question remains if you are applying high heat during refining of a Monounsaturated oil, like Canola, won’t you be oxidizing it more from the get-go, and thus creating more free radicals in it, so its quite like your OIL has been PRECOOKED before you even get to use it?
Canola oil does go through a high heat deodoizing treatment but is don under absoute vacuum so no chane of oxidization can possible occur. This is the same as many different kinds of oils and is compleatly harmless
Another reason to avoid canola oil is that most canola oil in the US is genetically modified. So unless you are buying organic canola oil, it is not advisable to consume it.
Ok, its not healthy to eat fried foods but what is a great oil to use for frying. As a southern gal I love fried chicken from time to time…is peanut oil my only option for frying that will not change the flavor? And then is peanut oil just as awful as canola?
Coconut oil is fantastic for frying! It doesn’t break down, tastes great! I get to love my french fries again!
ok, I see you use lard for frying but is there another alternative when you have no lard. I have never used it so I am completely ignorant on the subject… suppose it is time to learn something new.
Don’t be afraid to pan fry chicken in its own fat!
OK, but how do you get your chicken fat or where? when I buy chicken I just get the breasts nothing else comes with it… I have not heard of that before.
Chicken thighs are full of fat. Buy a couple and cook with the breasts. If you buy chicken breasts which include skin, they will also contain fat.
Make your own chicken stock from the bones of a whole chicken (preferably pasture-raised on a local farm). The fat will rise to the top of the stock as it cools and you can scrape it off to use for frying/cooking. The blog “100 Days of Real Food” has a great post on how to cook the chicken and stock.
I’d also like to know what you recommend for high heat like for popcorn…. which is my occasional vice.
I pop in coconut oil with a little African Red Palm Oil mixed in. The African varieties of palm oil don’t destroy orangutan habitat, and you’ve got the added bonus of them being super-high in antioxidants like vitamin A. That little extra bit of antioxidant protection helps the coconut oil handle higher temperatures (like those used for popping pop corn) before the oil oxidizes/reaches its smoke point.
It’s funny that you say don’t use olive oil for cooking, and so many cooking shows do just that.
I have always wondered about that because I always thought it was not to be heated, too.
Thank you.
When I need a high-heat neutral oil, I turn to Almond or Avocado Oil. Both seem pretty straightforward to extract. The main drawback is their cost. Still, I’d rather pay a bit more and skip the crazy industrial stuff.
While I wouldn’t use it, I wonder if peanut oil might be a lesser evil.
Here’s how it is made. Do watch till the end, to be repulsed by what all is done to get it to your salad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omjWmLG0EAs
Interesting how they just said then they use a steam injection process to “remove the canola odor” and then quickly end the video!
LOVED the video! I actually shared it on Food Renegade’s facebook page, here.
Thanks for the info. I try to explain that Canola oil is not good to friends and family all the time and they never seem to believe me. Most of their doctors are still telling to cook with Canola and the doctor trumps me every time.
Wow, I cannot believe anyone would doubt the terrible side effects of Canola Oil in the body- it is in all of our foods & is wreaking havoc on people’s nervous systems daily- Why so many more cases of MS, and highest rate of MS is in the Saskatchewan Provence of Canada where canola was first created & used. After 30 yrs of damaging people it is high time we stand up to this, speak out and demand it be removed permanently. NO such thing as “organic” Canola Oil- it is 99% a GMO and so deodorized. You’re getting ripped off & killing yourself if you continue to use it.
Surprised that the author didn’t mention the MAIN reason I avoid canola – in the US it’s grown from genetically modified seed, a practice that has been banned in numerous countries because of suspected health risks. That’s enough for me, no matter HOW good it might or might not taste!
Great post! I was fooled into using canola oil for several years, thinking it was better for my heart, cholesterol level, health in general, etc. I am sure the bottle I still have in the back of my pantry, purchased from a big box store years go, is GMO and probably rancid as well. We’ve since switched to reputably-sourced olive oil, coconut oil, or grass-fed butter for our cooking and baking needs.
Do you ever use bacon grease as a cooking oil? Last night I made “brinner” for my family (breakfast for dinner, in this case some locally- and humanely-raised bacon free of nitrates with some sourdough pancakes and locally- and humanely-raised fried chicken eggs) and decided to experiment with using bacon grease on the pancake griddle. OH MY were those pancakes amazing. They didn’t taste like bacon but had a nice crispy texture and a slight hint of smokiness. It prompted me to save the bacon grease in my fridge, something I’ve never done before, in hopes that maybe it’s useful at a later date. Before I jump into it “whole hog” (yuk, yuk!), can you tell me if this is a good idea or a bad one, health-wise?
I *love* cooking with bacon grease. Do it ALL THE TIME. Sometimes I find myself frying bacon just so I can have grease to use in my cooking.
(I’m a Southern gal, so cooking winter greens in bacon grease is an age old and YUMMY practice.)
Bacon grease also makes the BEST refried beans. I just heat some in a skillet, then add some cooked pinto or black beans, and mash somewhat. Add some garlic, salt to taste, and maybe add a little water to make the beans not too thick. Cook briefly, and then YUM!
I save all my bacon grease. Even if we’re not having bacon for breakfast, if I have the grease, I cook our eggs in it. YUM!!!
Thanks for the valuable insight. After realizing that canola wasn’t really a healthy option, I recently switched from canola to grapeseed oil for regular cooking. Can you confirm if grapeseed is a healthier option?
You might want to look into the idea of using polyunsaturated fats for high-temperature cooking. They are not stable like saturated fats (coconut oil, lard, butter, ect.) and tend to oxidize when used in cooking. They are also significantly higher in the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio; Americans already get too many Omega-6 in their diet.
Interesting article! I typically stick to EVOOs and Butter for most cooking, except for the occasional deep fryer dinners… What are your thoughts on other vegetable oils such as corn or blends, or peanut oils etc as a best option for both deep frying as well as baking?
Thank you!
What about sunflower oil? I use that all the time instead of canola oil. Is that healthy?
I appreciate this post, but it leaves me in a tough place. We have MANY food intolerances, allergies in my home (gluten & dairy are the big ones). My daughter cannot have foods high in salicylates. Coconut oil is on that list. We cannot have butter or ghee either…. and guess what olive oil is out too. Canola oil does not appear to cause my daughter any reactions. So what other options do I have…
Could you use meat fat? Tallow from beef. Lard from pork. Schmaltz from chicken skin. (although that may be pretty high in omega 6 depending on what the chicken ate)
Lovelyn, I realize doctors carry a responsibility to inform their pts and that their opinion is expected to be an educated one with factual basis. Unfortunately most Dr’s buy the party line told them by professional organizations, eg. AHA, ADA, AMA, as well as the food industrial complex and it’s proponents. I feel it is unprofessional not to question the motives of these so called pt and consumer groups.
This is why I advise my pts to read labels, educate themselves, and do the same myself. This is a well written and informative article that is backed up by research and common sense. Canola oil is a dangerous farce foisted on the North American public that is wreaking havoc with our health. It is just one of many such misinformatioal ploys to increase profits while supposedly feeding the masses.
Fats, in general are not the problem with our health, but bad fats, like canola and the gas station plastic fats are.
CANOLA is a GMO hybrid… PERIOD! ORGANIC GHEE, coconut oil are for high heat and olive oil is for warm or cold, as in salad dressing. There was a scandal on the adulterated olive oils, so do research to ensure you are not getting a mix. Most name brands are adulterated The net has the list.
CORN?SOYBEAN is GMO at about 86% in the USA. Avoid ANYhing with CORN or SOY.
ALMONF oil may be an alternative for some people or flaxseed oil.Most of the time if you put in GOOGLE DANGERS OF_______ it will give you the info you need. KNOWLEDGE is power!
Sorry to beat a dead horse, but what about canola that is mechanically cold pressed at temps no higher than 40 celcius, without inclusion of O2 or light, that is organic and made without chemicals. Then is it okay? Is it ever okay?
Thanks.
ALL fats & oils are bad for us. Dr. Oz did a show about food fraud yesterday, including olive oils & fish, & showing how the public is being ripped off & paying high prices for low quality “foods”. Any fats & oils we eat are deposited in our arteries, blood vessels, & capillaries, which, when plugged by the fats & oils we have eaten, cause diabetes, including blindness, kidney failure, amputations, heart attacks, & death. These are all the result of fats clogging our blood vessels, arteries & capillaries. The only way to reverse these problems, is to STOP eating fats & oils, found in meat & dairy & eat a plant-based diet. It’s common sense. Go have the fat levels in your blood checked at your doctor, otherwise known as your cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL & LDL blood lipids. Your doctor will tell you if you are in good health, need Lipitor, or maybe a change of diet. Maybe your doctor will see you as a future case of obesity, diabetes, heart disease & high BP. You should know what the fats & oils you eat, are really doing, inside your body. It’s not rocket science. It’s NOT sugar that clogs the circulatory system with fat. It’s the meat, dairy, eggs, & fried foods. Macular degeneration, neuropathy (bad circulation) in the feet & legs, kidney disease, blindness, amputations, obesity, death. I knew 2 young men that weren’t overweight, & both developed diabetes, because of what they ate. They both died because they didn’t believe that the meat, dairy, eggs, & fried foods were killing them. One went blind, & was sent to a nursing home. He had a foot removed because the blood vessels got clogged & there was no blood flow to his feet. About the time he was healing from the first amputation, he was told the other foot had to be removed. He gave up & died. The other had a wife that cared for him at home. He went blind because of fats that clogged the tiny capillaries in his eyes. He died of heart attacks. My mom & grandma died of heart attacks from diabetes. They ate meat, dairy, eggs, & fried foods. Mom was 61, my grandma was 52. They didn’t have to die. They were too young, but what they ate killed them over time. At least you are saying canola oil is bad for us. Research food fraud. There are you tube videos on food fraud. Wake up & realize what you are doing to your bodies when you eat fatty foods.
K. Lisle,
All that you are saying has been proven to be incorrect. Even Dr. Oz now knows that all of that info about fats is bunk.
http://www.dietdoctor.com/dr-oz-changes-his-mind-on-cholesterol
Kathleen- Please read Sugar Nation by Jeff O’Connell. It will educate you greatly on the real cause of diabetes.
So you’re saying that fat clogged his arteries and he had to have his foot cut off?
That’s questionable science at best.
If you are really concerned about heart attacks and diabetes, an anti-inflammatory diet would benefit more than a low fat diet. There are fats that are “soothing” and fats that contribute to inflammation what swells tissues and cuts off circulation. Avocado, coconut, olive do not compare with awful fats like canola and margarine! Sugar and alcohol won’t help either.
Wrong K Lisle. Carbs are the main enemy and the culprit in why the US is obese, unhealthy and has a skyrocketing cancer rate. In 1895 the per capita intake of sugar was 10#’s and by 1990 it had grown to 160#’s. Can you calculate that kind of increases effect on a population. I have many pts in their 80′s and 90′s that ate mainly meat, dairy and eggs. But it was pastured,grass fed meat back then, and whole unhomogenized and even unpasteurized dairy without hormones and eggs by free range chickens. Not the pseudo food we get at the market today. That is why we grow and raise our own.
You have bought the lie, see this video re: the history of how you were indoctrinated into the “fats and oils are Bad” farce.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRe9z32NZHY
Hi, I tried to use the suggested email address provided by Kristin to discuss sweetners. after drafting a nice message refering to a product I felt she was not aware of, The message was blocked,being highlited in red, and saying it was an improper address. I have been floundring around since then trying to find another avenue to get through to you. I had absolutly NO luck foinding a phone # for your org. I am using this method to get through. Please provid me with a valid email. Or respond to this missive. Thank you, Thomas Eugene
I’m a big fan of cooking only with coconut oil due to its high cooking point. As for salad dressings I’m a culprit of using canola oil. (I’m now going to call it rape-oil for the hell of it) It’s interesting to hear they deodorize oils when the n-3 get oxidized. I’m kinda’ scared to smell my salad dressing now. I’m definitely going to start using more cold pressed olive oil for salads thought for sure.
I don’t know if these questions have already been asked, if anyone has an answer let me know thanks!
Is olive oil(real) the best oil to use for making all kinds of dressings? Especially sweet dressings.
Same with baking, what’s a good oil for all them good sweet goods?
I’m just nervous about trying olive oil with sweets!
No offense, but “coconut oil” isn’t a health food either. You do know that most coconut oils you buy it goes through a similar refining process to canola oil, IE using hexane to refine it.
I find it super hard to believe that our ancestors would have gone through such lengths to make an oil UNLESS they were faced with no other choice – IE they were on an island and their main source of protein/fat was coconuts and seafood.
And what about when you’re making a salad and you dont want as strong a taste as olive oil? What then? I’ve been using sunflower oil- what is a better alternative?
Any comments about grape seed oil?
YOUR information is COMPLETELY WRONG. Stick to SCIENTISTS such as Dr. Steven Nissen who DISCREDITS you.
There is A LOT of WRONG infromation on the INternet about health.
READ THE SCIENCVE JOURNALS. CANOLA OIL DOES NOT AT ALL IMPEDE BLOOD FLOW- OLIVE OIL DID.
ROBERT VOGEL ET AL