False Facts About Canola Oil You Thought Were True

Canola oil is one of the most common types of cooking oil in the United States. Not only will you find bottles on grocery store shelves for cooking at home, but it's also in a lot of processed and packed products. Some people have negative opinions about canola, but the truth is there's a lot of misinformation flying around about it.

Like any other oil, you should consume it in moderation, but canola has been unfairly vilified. It's commonly believed that it's devoid of nutritional benefits, and many people also think that it has unsafe levels of trans fats and can cause chronic inflammation in the body. However, these notions are unfounded. That's why we wanted to get to the bottom of the canola oil debate.

Rather than being some evil oil that can kill you in 50 different ways just by looking at it, perhaps canola is just misunderstood. We're going to delve into the false facts about canola oil you thought were true, and sort fact from fiction. By the time you've finished reading, you might have very different opinions. 

It's a common misconception that canola oil has no health benefits. It's often thought of as a cheap oil that's useful but doesn't provide anything in the way of nutritional value. We hear that olive oil might help you live longer and is good for your health, but maybe it just has better PR than canola.

Canola oil is one of the few vegetable oils that contains a significant amount of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which is a type of omega-3 fatty acid. Omega-3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties and may boost heart health, brain function, and overall well-being. It's low in saturated fat and high in unsaturated fats. These healthy fats (including omega-3) can help reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels (the "bad" cholesterol) and lower the risk of heart disease when substituted for saturated fats in the diet. Some research suggests that the monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids in canola oil may also help lower blood pressure, which is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke.

What's more, canola oil is a good source of vitamin E, an antioxidant that helps protect cells from damage caused by free radicals. Vitamin E also plays a role in immune function, skin health, and blood vessel health. In short, there's way more to the health benefits of canola oil than you might have imagined.

Hexane is a solvent commonly used in the extraction process of many vegetable oils, including canola oil. It's a colorless, volatile liquid hydrocarbon derived from crude oil refining. Hexane is favored for its ability to efficiently extract oil from seeds. There's a common belief that canola oil is toxic because of the hexane it contains — but this is untrue.

During the production of canola oil, hexane is used to help separate the oil from the canola seeds. After the oil is extracted, it goes through a refining process to remove impurities and any residual hexane. Minute traces of hexane remain in the finished canola oil, yet this isn't something that consumers should be troubled by.

The levels found in finished canola oil are extremely low and well within the safety limits established by regulatory authorities. Yes, hexane is a toxic substance, but it has very low toxicity and would have to be consumed in large quantities to be a problem. The minute amounts of hexane remaining in oils after extraction and refining processes are not considered harmful to human health. We can understand people's apprehension about eating foods that have had toxic solvents involved in their production, but this is fairly common — and difficult to avoid — with processed foods.

You might have heard that canola oil is bad for you because it's genetically modified. But, while most canola crops are genetically modified (around 90% are in the U.S.), this doesn't mean that they're bad for your health. Scientific consensus and extensive research indicate that there's nothing inherently less healthy or harmful to human health about GM foods compared to conventionally produced foods.

GM foods are assessed for safety before they're allowed to be sold. In the case of the U.S., the FDA evaluates the safety of GM crops before they go to market. A principle commonly used in the evaluation of GM foods is substantial equivalence, which compares the GM crop to its non-GM counterpart to ensure that they are essentially the same in terms of composition, nutritional value, and safety. If a GM crop is found to be substantially equivalent to its non-GM counterpart, it is considered safe for consumption. This means GM canola oil is not less safe than canola oil that comes from crops that haven't been genetically modified.

While the safety of GM foods for human consumption is well-supported by scientific research, concerns about their environmental impact are more valid. These concerns often revolve around issues such as biodiversity loss, the emergence of herbicide-resistant weeds, and the potential for gene flow to wild relatives of GM crops. So, there's no need to avoid canola oil for cooking.

It's a common misconception that all canola oil is highly refined. While much of the canola oil available on the market undergoes refining processes to remove impurities and improve shelf life, there are also options for minimally processed canola oil, such as unrefined, expeller-pressed, or cold-pressed varieties. These varieties are basically the extra virgin olive oil of the canola world.

The more gentle extraction processes help preserve the natural flavor and aroma. Cold-pressed canola oil tends to have a somewhat nutty or grassy taste with subtle earthy notes, while processed canola oil has a milder flavor and aroma due to the refining process. Cold-pressed canola oil retains more of the natural color of the canola seeds, making the oil a vibrantly golden yellow. So, if you're looking at cold-pressed canola oil, you'll know it. It's also worth noting that unrefined canola oil may contain more nutrients. Some nutrients are lost in the refining process, so cold-press varieties are generally higher in vitamin E, as well as containing tocopherols and phytosterols — bioactive compounds with antioxidant properties.

While both cold-pressed and processed canola oil can be used for cooking, salad dressings, and more, there may be times when one is better suited to the recipe than others. Some people love the rich taste of unrefined canola, but sometimes you need the neutral flavor of refined canola oil.

In some circles, there's a belief that canola oil can cause type 2 diabetes. You may even have seen a graph that did the rounds on social media. This graph compares two sets of data. One is the amount of seed oil (including canola oil) consumed over the years. The other is the incidence of type 2 diabetes and obesity. It shows the levels of seed oil consumption increasing over the years, and also the levels of type 2 diabetes and obesity increasing roughly in line with it. Some people might assume this is stark proof of a link between the two, but that's a misunderstanding of data and how it's analyzed.

You see, if you plot any two things on a graph, you might see an increase in both of them over time. For instance, you might see a steady rise in the number of LGBTQ+ characters depicted in the media over the years, but this doesn't mean that LGBTQ+ representation causes type 2 diabetes. There's no proof that canola oil and other seed oils play any part in the incidence of type 2 diabetes. It's more likely that there's a link between eating ultra-processed foods and diabetes — not that there's a danger of developing diabetes from cooking a stir-fry with canola oil or making a canola oil salad dressing.