On Fri, 4 Feb 2000, Peter Smith wrote:

> There is an interesting article about canola oil at the following
> URL. I have no idea whether the claims made there are true, so it
> would be interesting to hear from anyone who has more knowledge of
> the subject than I.
>
> http://www.sightings.com/politics6/canola.htm

I don't know if they are true either, and for the record I do not
"advocate" the use of canola oil.  I do advocate knowledge, and I
wish we knew more about canola.  Disappointingly, the article
makes many startling claims but gives no references that one
could check.  She also quotes freely from a book by John Thomas
which, she concedes, also contains no references that one could
check.

There are a couple of points to comment on, however.  First, the
author (Janet Allen) points out that the oil of the wild plants
contained high levels of erucic acid and glucosinolates, which
are considered toxic.  The oil of the hybrid/engineered plants
contains low but non-zero amounts of these chemicals.  This is
true, but it is also true that a number of paleo plants also
contain these substances.  Notably, most members of the Brassica
family, including broccoli, kale, kohlrabi, and cabbage, contain
glucosinolates.  Some, such as mustard greens, also contain
erucic acid.

I am particularly interested, however, in Sally Fallon's claim
(quoted in the article) that canola oil contains trans fats.  For
example, it is claimed that the trans fats are produced by
heating (during processing).  But some sources (including an
organic chemist whom I asked about this) say that this is
nonsense.  Barry Sears, for example, states that you can't get
trans fats just by heating an oil (though you can certain oxidize
it).  The article says that canola oil is "a long-chain fatty
acid," and states that these cause the disease
Adrenoleukodystrophy.  Of course, it makes no sense to say that
canola "is" a long-chain fatty acid, and it is also incorrect to
say that it is particularly high in the c22 to c28 fatty acids.
It isn't.

The article claims that hemp oil has a superior w6:w3 ratio of
2:1.  This is correct, but it is not much better, since the ratio
for canola oil is only 2.2.

None of this means that all of the alarming things that she says
about canola are false, but it does show that she is not
altogether careful of her facts.

Todd Moody