So I recently had a discussion with my father who is an avid cyclist and heart attack victim on the benefits of Canola Oil.

My father believes that Canola Oil is pretty much one of the most poisonous things you could put in your body. Causing cardiac liasons, Mad cow disease, blindness, kidney problems, and also is a main ingredient in Mustard gas.

Everything I have read has said that it is pretty much the exact opposite of all of these. That is extremely good for your heart and has all of the good fats. Also that it is NOT Rapseed Oil, which is a common misconception.

So I have come to you guys for advice. We are all pretty concerned about what we put into our bodies. Do you guys have any advice or further information? Is Canola Oil good or bad?

Thanks! ;)

I hear it's way better than crisco, but I do most of the cooking at our house, & have gone away from fried, & use olive oil for everything.

I too use Olive Oil, soooo much better for ya and it taste better. The only time I use Crisco is if I'm baking. Its the best thing to use if you live in higher elevations.
As for you discussion with your father, just tell him your not using it anymore. It put his mind at ease. :)
I too haven't heard a whole lot of bad about Canola Oil.

Haven't heard anything bad, but Olive Oil is sooooooooo much better. Anyway, how many other times do you get to utter the phrase "etxtra virgin?"

BR

Hi,
Canola oil is good. There are better. You should have a variety of fats. Some fish, flaxseed and hemp oil have a very good kind of fat.
Olive oil has another kind, there are other oils that have it's type of fat. There is no one fat that is perfect, and of course you don't want to much. And as much as possible avoid the hyrogenated oils which you find in baked goods like Ring Dings or Ritz. They are the worst.

I was under the impression that Canola Oil was just as good for you as Olive Oil, only the former was basically tasteless. Someone look it up on the internet somewhere. (I'm too lazy right now. :))

Canola is a very good oil. We use it for cooking where the taste of Olive oil is not desired. We also use it in a spray-can to coat the fry pan before frying eggs, pancakes and stuff.

Al

I hear ya with them Ring Dings, I used to chow down on the little debbie snacks, until I seen all that bad stuff in there.

Olive oil, I pretty much only cook with the best Extra virgin olive oil that i can get, canola is just bad oil and olive oil is good for you fat, and as said before it just tastes better.

Canola oil is a really good oil- unsaturated fats... the other oils before it were lard and vegetable oil, which had a lot of saturated fats. Canola oil was like the turning point for cooking oils. It has omega-3 fatty acids, which are the good fats we need to digest our fat soluble vitamins. The fatty acids are also heart healthy, so they won't clog our arteries.

What, are they trying to argue the benefits of crisco or what? ;)

Koffee

I actually had to do a short paper on this last semester for my economic botany class. While canola oil came from the same plant as rapeseed, it has been highly modified and it is not dangerous. It is also supposed to be good for the heart. I can't find my paper right now to show the specifics, but no it is not dangerous and yes it is better for you than a lot of other types of oil.

What, are they trying to argue the benefits of crisco or what? ;)

Koffee

Nah, we're just (dis)cussing. :)

The reason I brought up crisco is cause I finally got my wife to switch to canola a few years ago. My next project is getting her to throw away the "fry daddy"; I'm almost there. I also brought up olive oil, cause that's my choice, partly because everyone's told me to get more mono fats to help raise my good cholesterol.

I saw an interview recently on CNN with a nutritionist/dietitian. She said you should rotate your cooking with olive oil, canola and walnut oil. This would then give the good components of each of these oils...a rotating variety of these mono-unsaturated oils. I hope I got that word right. So that's what we're doing now. It also depends too on what you're cooking and what type of flavor you want to impart in the food. Obviously if you're cooking greek or italian go with the olive oil...canola is good replacement for standard vegetable oils and walnut oil is GREAT on salads and even a small piece of toasted bread. Walnut oil has omegas in it I think.
I understand there's a new oil out now called Enova but I haven't tried it and don't know if it's as good for you as canola, walnut and olive. Does anyone else know about this one?
I wonder where Tilly's dad got the idea canola oil could cause mad cow disease? Mad Cow disease comes from infected meats from cows and now goats. How could that get into canola oil?
Allie

2 words; moderation and variety.

Don't go overboard with your oils and use a variety. I have canola, olive and sesame oils in my cupboard. If oil is overheated, the molecules are damaged and become transfats, I don't know what temperature the transformation starts to occur with different oils, so i just try to be cognisant of the fact.

And Mad Cow doesn't come from canola, it comes from Alberta!

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ADDITION: I just found this (http://www.oliveoilsource.com/cooking_olive_oil.htm).

Olive Oil Myth: Heating a cooking oil will make it saturated or a trans-fatty oil.

The Facts: As far as making a saturated fat, according to Dr. A. Kiritsakis, a world renowned oil chemist in Athens, (Book - OLIVE OIL FROM THE TREE TO THE TABLE -Second edition 1998), all oils will oxidize and hydrogenate to a tiny degree if repeatedly heated to very high temperatures such as is done in commercial frying operations. Olive pomace oil and virgin olive oil are both highly monounsaturated oils and therefore resistant to oxidation and hydrogenation. Studies have shown oxidation and hydrogenation occurs to a lesser degree in olive oil than in other oils. But in any case, the amount of hydrogenation is miniscule and no home cook would ever experience this problem.

The large refinery-like factories which take unsaturated vegetable oil and turn it into margarine or vegetable lard do so by bubbling hydrogen gas through 250 to 400 degree hot vegetable oil in the presence of a metal catalyst, usually nickel or platinum. The process can take several hours. You cannot make a saturated product like margarine at home by heating olive oil or any other vegetable oil in a pan. We don't know where this weird notion has come from. For more see our olive oil chemistry page

Changing a cis-fat to a trans-fat does not occur on a home stove.

Canola oil tastes terrible, IMHO.

I'll be frying some beignets in peanut oil next week (Fat Tuesday). Mmmm, beignets. :D

I'll be frying some beignets in peanut oil next week (Fat Tuesday). Mmmm, beignets. :D

Peanut oil, now you're talkin.

This is a bit off topic, maybe, but

If I'm counting calories and I put two table spoons of olive oil into a stir fry, should I count all 240 calories? What about the stuff left in the pan?

HA! This is great! I think that I almost have my dad convinced to try something other than Olive Oil. Which after a while you can start wishing for a little more variety of flavor.
I looked on some websites and what I have learned is that Canola Oil is in fact pretty good for your heart because of the Omega 3's. Still have to go to the store though to try the walnut oil.

Thanks ;)

Olive oil, I pretty much only cook with the best Extra virgin olive oil that i can get, canola is just bad oil and olive oil is good for you fat, and as said before it just tastes better.

It depends on what you mean by "bad". Canola oil is pretty good and pretty healthful as long as you don't consume enough to get obese.

Now, olive oil has that delightful fruity flavor that can not be matched and is peerless in that regard. But canola oil with its far higher smoke point is far superior to olive oil for deep frying and certain kinds of pan frying where high temperatures are necessary.

Each has its uses.

It's no good for cooking, but if your father might consider supplementing w/flax seed oil. Lots of omega 3s and omega 6s. And I don't think it shares any ingredients with mustard gas.

Olive oil rules

And Beignets? like dying an going to Cajun Heaven with good Luisianne coffee with a bit of chicory

we have gotten brainwashed into thinking light oils are best. but nutrition wise they are not coconut oil is very good for you. most nateural vegtable oils are. but not after they ahve been highly processed.