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By Fiona Haynes, About.com Guide to Low Fat Cooking since 2004

Should You Switch to Canola Oil?

Tuesday October 9, 2007
One of my 20 ways to cut fat in cooking is to use liquid oils such as canola oil instead of solid fats like butter. While this in itself doesn’t reduce total fat consumption, it does alter your balance of good and bad fats.

In 2006 canola oil became eligible to carry the qualified health claim that consuming about 1 1/2 tablespoons of canola oil a day may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Canola oil has only 1 gram of saturated fat per tablespoon--about half that of some other vegetable oils (including olive oil), and considerably less than back-in-vogue oils such as palm oil and coconut oil.

Canola oil is high in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, and a good source of omega-3 fatty acids. According to the October 2007 Journal of the American Dietetic Association, wholly substituting various vegetable oils and spreads with canola oil and canola-based spreads would reduce our intake of saturated fats by up to 9.4 percent, and would increase heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and alpha-linolenic acid (an essential fatty acid that the body cannot make for itself) by up to 27.6 percent and 73 percent respectively. If your goal is to use your fat calories wisely, then switching to an oil with a healthier profile than other oils and fats would make sense. Canola oil should be one of them.

Not surprisingly, the study was supported by the U.S. Canola Association.

More on Oils and Fats

Comments

November 2, 2007 at 5:29 pm
(1) WS in Plano, TX says:

Can some tell me what a Canola is? This is oil from the highly toxic rapeseed plant that has been used in pesticides, mustard gas and a host of other toxic chemicals. Its oil has been commonly used in heavy industry. Canola or “Canada” “Oil” is a genetically manufactured version of rapeseed. It is highly subsidised by the Canadian government and later on the Canadian government paid $50 million dollars to the FDA to place Canola on the “Generally Safe Foods” list. What exactly does generally safe mean? Anyway, you are better off consuming a natural oil from a natural source like Coconut or Olive. Remember, it is not the fats from natural diets that kill us, its the excess we put in via chips, cakes, unnatural milk, etc… eat natural and work out daily and you will be fine.

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