Canada’s canola industry is outraged over claims the Cinderella crop is not so good and pure as its devotees claim.
The canola industry was busy debunking statements made in a Globe and Mail newspaper article last week that canola oil and margarine are made from plants loaded with herbicides and the result is a product packed with heart-damaging, transfatty acids.
“I was shocked and appalled to read the misinformation contained in the Middle Kingdom column, ‘Is the hype about canola just snake oil’, ” said Keith Downey, the man who was key in the transformation of rapeseed to canola.
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The crisis in the canola field began when a reader asked the newspaper if canola oil is better than other oils, and said another friend won’t use it because it’s genetically altered.
It’s the answer that has the industry ticked off.
Even calling canola genetically engineered is a label the industry wants to avoid, said Dale Ado-lphe, president of the Canola Council of Canada.
A few years ago, the canola industry bragged canola was genetically altered from its neanderthal cousin rapeseed to a modern, useful food. It took Downey and others almost 20 years of breeding to eliminate the undesirable erucic fatty acid and the sulphur compounds that give the desired flavor and odor to cabbage, radishes and turnips, but are unacceptable in an oilseed.
The recent introduction of herbicide-resistant canola has made the words genetically engineered akin to transgenic canola. Transgenic refers to plants created by gene manipulation rather than traditional plant-breeding methods.
Careful wording
“We used to say canola was genetically derived from rapeseed or rapeseed was genetically modified. We can’t say that any more. Now what we say is canola is genetically selected from back crossing,” said Adolphe, of Winnipeg.
Two years ago less than one percent of the oil processed in Canada was made from herbicide-resistant canola. This year about 25 percent of the 12 million acres of canola seeded is herbicide resistant.
Developing a product like canola oil or margarine is a compromise among price, safety and flavor, said Thava Vasanthan, assistant professor at the University of Alberta. He does food science research in cereals, fats and oils with the agriculture department.
“I won’t say canola oil is the best oil on the market. Among the oils it’s one of the better ones. There is no best here.”
The newspaper article said transforming the seed to oil “radically changes the chemical composition of mass-produced vegetable oil, producing harmful (to the heart) transfatty acids and other deleterious oil chemicals.”
Transfatty acid increases levels of low density lipoprotein, or bad cholesterol, in the body.
Few eat that much
Vasanthan said while transfatty acid can cause heart disease, few people eat margarine in large enough quantities to seriously affect their health. Downey said new oil extraction methods have eliminated the creation of transfatty acids.
While olive oil is deemed a superior oil, Vasanthan said it is not economical to produce margarine from olive oil because of the price.
“Among the oils present, olive oil is very expensive. We can’t afford it every day and equally good oils are available like canola oil or sunflower.”
In the article, Vancouver nutritionist Udo Erasmus said the best oils for health are flax, pumpkin and soybean, followed by safflower, sunflower and sesame seed oils.
The problem with flax oil is that goes rancid quickly, said Vasanthan. The properties which give it flavor react quickly to oxygen in the environment and an open container will go rancid within a month.
“On the first day it is the best oil that you have on the market shelf. After one month canola will stay as it is. It will always be fresh. Flax will spoil because of its high unsaturated components.”
Downey said there are too few pumpkins grown to make the oil viable and can’t believe the claim soybeans make a superior oil.
“Of all things. This is ridiculous. Soybeans are processed in exactly the same way as canola, but they have a higher level of saturates and there is very good evidence to show that they are poor in keeping quantities and taste. So why would you go for that?
“Then you get into safflower and sunflower. They are very high in polyunsaturated acids which nutritionists now link to colon cancer,” he said.
