Canola oil has long been touted as a great, cheap alternative to olive oil. It’s a healthy vegetable oil, or so they say. However, what most people don’t know is that canola oil is actually derived from rapeseed — hybrid rapeseed bred by scientists in the 1970s, to be exact.
So, how does this hybrid rapeseed become canola oil? Well, initially, the seeds are heated up and then pressed to expel oil. This sounds normal so far, but unfortunately, the processing doesn’t stop there.
Almost all canola oils found in stores are refined using hexane, a chemical component in gasoline.
If that isn’t frightening enough, the oil must then be bleached and deodorized to make it more palatable to humans. During all that refinement, omega-3 fatty acids and other fats in the oil break down and become rancid. In order to get rid of the terrible smell, the oil is then deodorized. The deodorizing process renders the omega-3 fatty acids into none other than trans fats. So, while canola oil did, at one point, contain lots of beneficial fats, the heat and chemicals during processing destroy them long before they ever reach your kitchen.
Indeed, manufacturers want you to believe that canola is a healthy cooking oil, but, really, that’s quite far from the truth.
Source:
