Is Canola Oil Bad For You?

In those endless expanses of yellow flowers, grown from China to Canada, there is a dilemma that divides everyone, starting with the scientific community: is rapeseed oil bad for the human body? Its  consumption  has  always  been  at  the  center  of  debate:  there  are those who argue that it is harmful to health, while those who consider it a cure-all.

A question that is always open, and always hanging in the balance even after the opinion of EFSA, the one that has found potentially dangerous substances in the main vegetable oils, and in particular in palm oil: a spokesman for the European food safety authority on question on rapeseed stated that the concentrations of contaminants in this case are 10 times lower than those present in the palm.

Canola oil is used mainly as an industrial lubricant, but recently are replacing the palm oil in the food industry. This oil is extracted from the seeds of the fruit from the rape plant , a shrub common in China, Japan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia, Canada and some countries of Central Europe (especially France and Germany). In Italy it is not very widespread and its presence is limited to the northern regions.

it was introduced in the kitchen in the mid-1800s. However, for a long time it was considered a product of lower quality than other vegetable oils or even potentially dangerous to health.

Canola Oil: Where It Is Found?

We will hardly find the words "rapeseed oil" among the ingredients of an industrial preparation. You will more likely find the indication "canola oil" but, more generally, canola oil will be found under the generic term "vegetable oils" . If we want, therefore, to avoid consumption, we read the label carefully, especially if the product reports the absence of palm oil (which is often replaced with rapeseed oil).

Canola Oil: What Are Nutritional Purposes

100 g of rapeseed oil provides about 900 Calories in the form of lipids.

 In particular, 100 g of rapeseed oil provide:

• 6.31 g of saturated fat
• 61.52 g of monounsaturated fats, including 55.84 g of oleic acid
• 29.62 g of polyunsaturated fats, including 20.54 g of linoleic acid and 9.08 g of alpha-linolenic acid

Among the vitamins and minerals , 100 g of rapeseed oil provide:

• 22.2 mg of vitamin E
• 0.1 mg of iron
• Trace sodium
• Trace potassium

Canola Oil: Is It Bad?

Since the first uses for food, rapeseed oil raised several questions regarding its danger to health: this is due to its high content of erucic acid , a monounsaturated fatty acid considered cardiotoxic , or harmful to heart tissue. The studies carried out date back to the 70s and showed that this vegetable oil contained 50% of this lipid, accused of accumulating in the body and causing various types of damage to the liver and heart. Apparently, even today there are no studies that confirm the danger to health definitively , nor that classify it as a "good" oil. What is certain is that it is a very cheap oil, not cold pressed (as a quality oil should be) and obtained by chemical refining processes, bleached through the use of solvents and heat.

Canola Oil Vs Palm Oil

Is rapeseed oil or palm oil better? A difficult question to answer, especially if we think that palm oil has recently been at the center of a heated debate , which has led most of the food companies in our country to eliminate it from their products. It is a vegetable oil whose use has always been controversial, both for health and environmental reasons. As Dr. Stefania Ruggeri , researcher and nutritionist at  CREA explained to our microphones  , “palm oil does not hurt in itself, it always depends on the dose”.

The point is that before the campaign against this oil , we were taking a lot of it unconsciously (and this is a serious fact), and this is because the nutritional labels were not clear. For us consumers it was a "hidden" saturated fat: we bought the products thinking we would only take vegetable fats and therefore the polyunsaturated ones, the "good" ones and instead we assumed saturated fats ". To all this are added, certainly not least, the problems linked to the massive deforestation caused by the production of this oil, which has destroyed the biodiversity of these environments. It should be emphasized that it is not uncommon for palm oil to be replaced by rapeseed oil in industrial production.

In conclusion: the panorama of vegetable oils is vast, not free from lights and shadows. When we have to choose a vegetable oil, let's remember to buy only cold-pressed oils , the only ones that guarantee us a quality product. Rapeseed oil, unfortunately, is not an oil that can be cold pressed, but that undergoes aggressive and harmful processing.

Disclaimer

The information provided represents general information and does not in any way replace medical advice. To ensure a healthy and balanced diet, it is always good to rely on the advice of your doctor or a nutrition expert.