On Tue, 30 Nov 1999 09:54:32 -0600, Troy Gilchrist <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>I just heard a report on National Public Radio about genetic engineering of
>foods. In the course of the report, they interviewed a scientist who
>mentioned that during World War II, what we call canola oil was used as an
>industrial lubricant. It was inedible because it contained significant
>quantities of two substances (unnamed) that made the oil inedible. However,
>after the plants from which the oil was derived were bombarded by chemicals
>and radiation, these two offending substances were removed from the plants.
>Oil from the plants could then be "safely" consumed.

This is one of those urban legends that travels around and around.

NPR's reports, in general, are either high quality or horrendous bs.

Anyone who is interested in a formal rebuttal to all the various urban legends
about canola oil, should e-mail me and I'll send them an article I have by a
product engineer at a natural oils company (it is 40kbytes).

I won't post it here, since I detest when people post long articles to
discussion lists...


--
Cheers,

Ken
[log in to unmask]