Talk:Canola oil

Early comments on the article

In agriculture, Canola is also the name given to the cooking oil pressed from the seeds of the rape plant (Brassica napus), a member of the mustard family. Rape-seed oil is sometimes called "Canadian oil," whence the name "Canola" derives. Known in Britain as oilseed rape.

The article claims that the name "canola" originated in 1978. This is false. I was working in a restaurant using canola oil (clearly so labeled) before 1976. Altgeld (talk) 20:10, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

The world wide traditional name is rape plant. Canola is a canadian name only. It was created in 1974 (or similar time), to differenciate it from oil of seedrape, some of which were proper for human use and some were not (low content in erucic acid). that is a new term. Besides, canola does not only correspond to Brassica napus, but also to Brassica campestris (which is slightly different from rape plant though of the same family).

Before being an oil, it is first a plant. And the use of canola is certainly not only as oil, but also as animal feed, or biofuel

Canola is not the Canadian name only. It is also the name in the U.S.A. Rmhermen 17:26 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

If you say so. However, rape and canola are quite different things.

I removed unedible, because I think it is too strong a term. Rape oil was used by poor people who were not rich enough to afford olive oil or butter in european countries. It was also used quite a bit during WWII. Nobody died from eating it. However, there is quite strong conviction it is dangerous, in particular for the heart muscle over time. Still, it is edible. Some even question nowadays the fact it is hurting the heart.

The correct term is "inedible" anyway. There is no such word as "unedible." Altgeld (talk) 20:10, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

The strongest point imho, is that thanks to some (or one ?) canadian wild variety (with low erucic content), it was made possible to create a very good product (in particular after glucosinolates content was also lowered). If the diversity of rape varieties had been lost, this may not have happened.

Actually the Canola Council site sas that it was bred thru chemical and radiation induced mutagenic cross-breeding. Nothing about natural diversity. Rmhermen 18:27 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

that's very interesting as it is not at all what I learned about it.

I looked around a bit, and found a couple of links, among which this. Does not mention chemical and radiation use for mutagenic induction. I am interested by any link.

(this said, the techniques you mention are only accelerators of natural selection, there is nothing artificial here)

The website is [1] which is listed in the article. I do not agree that the above techniques are merely accelrators of natural selection. They are not trans-species GM but they only accelerate some of the change processes of natural selection and not others. Rmhermen 19:27 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

hum, I would not specifically cite this web site as a scientific reference of the means used to breed the erucic free canola...but well...They probably used some colchicin as a mutagen. Notice that they said This is the same breeding process as the selection of naturally occurring mutations which is a comment I very much agree with. But...right...that is perhaps a POV to refer to these processes as "non artificial" :-). These are naturally occuring mutations, not foreign genes inserted to create the metabolic change. So, I will stand on my initial opinion. I think it is important the notions of traditionnal biotech be not confused with modern biotech. Anyway, aside from the canola topic, if you know agri and gmo topic, I would be happy if you could edit and add to my pov on genetically modified food.

Canola is the least fatty oil?? I'm not sure what that is supposed to mean but 100g of canola contains 100g of fat - check this out. I know it isn't the best link but I have confirmed it on the USDA Nutrient Database here. It may have a low level of saturated fatty acids but apart from traces of tocopherol, it's essentially 100% pure fatty goodness.

I don't think that canola oil is the "least fatty", to the contrary, it is clearly quite "fatty". I do think that canola is claimed to be a healthy oil because of the fatty acid profile it has, (high in omega 3 fatty acid, when compared to other common oils) in combination with a low level of saturated fat and no trans fat, as shown by your link.

-- I always assumed that the name "canola" was meant to distance the product in North America from its unfortunate international name. "Rape Oil" sounds to many Americans like something sold in small bottles at tasteless adult novelty stores... -- Bouncey 19:05, 2005 Jun 2 (UTC)

"In some areas, notably the United States, the cultivar name 'Canola' is (incorrectly) applied to all rapeseed plants, including the many other cultivars."

As far as I understand, Canola in the U.S. refers exclusively to the low erucic cultivars. Do you have a source for this? Dforest 16:42, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

I agree. That statement should be deleted, unless it can be backed by a showing of significant use, and that is unlikely. I know people who grew rapeseed when Canola was not the overwhelmingly predominant rapeseed grown in the United States. Gene Nygaard 17:13, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

USDA:[2]

" Brassica napus Linnaeus; known as rapeseed, rape, oilseed rape, and in some cultivars, Canola; is a mustard crop grown primarily for its seed which yields about forty percent oil and a high-protein animal feed."

Gene Nygaard 17:19, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

See also the USDA loan rates ([www.fsa.usda.gov/dafp/psd/2005CanCrambeFlaxRapeLR.pdf pdf file]), which provide a higher loan rate for Canola than for other rapeseed. Clearly they are distinguished in the United States. I'm removing that statement. Gene Nygaard 17:24, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

Canola genetically modified?

It seems that the issue of whether canola is a sort of genetically modified plant is a controversial one. According to the Canola Council "Canola was developed using traditional plant breeding techniques, some of which involve irradiating seeds. In canola and other oilseeds such as soybeans and flax, plant scientists sometimes use low levels of irradiation to cause mutagenesis."

Landroo 10:21, 9 June 2006 (UTC) When Rapeseed became Canola, it was accomplished using traditional plant breeding techniques. The distinguishing features between Rapeseed and Canola were the removal of erucic acid and glucosinolates from the oil, which made it more palatible and eleviated health concerns about those two compounds. Since that time of course, there has been genetic modification of some varieties, chiefly for pest control, but certainly not all. It should be noted that the canola oil itself contains no DNA, therefore genetically-modified canola oil is chemically indistinguishable from non-GMO canola oil.

So, basically, exposure to radiation was used to accelerate the process of mutation selection that traditional plant breeding has always relied on. Note the following: 1.) This process is not the same as 'genetic engineering' as the term is popularly understood today 2.) The Wikipedia definition for 'genetically modified organism' includes irradiated wheat varieties in its definition, so probably canola fits, too. 3.) The process used to create Canola is not 'natural selection'; in fact, no selective breeding is natural selection.

I think that the best way to present the process that was used to make canola is as a bridge between modern genetic engineering techniques (altering genetic information relatively directly), and traditional plant breeding methods (waiting for natural mutations). I think that this information belongs in the canola article, since it is very significant to the history of the crop. Some information I don't have is the dates during which the experimentation went on, and the novelty of the process at the time. I think that canola was a pioneer in the area of genetic modification through irradiation, but I'll have to keep looking for information about that.

Alkali Jack

The modern canola plant was developed in Winnipeg Manitoba during the 1970s. It started with scientists screening different canola plants for those which showed low erucic acid and low glucosinolates. Thus, another name for Canola is Double-Low Rapeseed. The technique used is known as the half seed technique. Basically it involves cutting a seed in half, taking one half and running it through a GC, and if the acid and glucosinolate content is low, then planting the other half. By irradiating the plants, the researchers were able to speed up the natural cycle of mutation and evolution. Thus, this plant is not a GMO, since no new genes or DNA was added to the genome.

If you are interested in how Canola, rapeseed etc. fit into the Brassica family see the Triangle of U page. --Doucher 00:10, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Why do the people have to eat engine oil...and can't have real food? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.83.223.58 (talk) 14:46, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Acronym

This page says that Canola originally came from "Canadian oil low acid", as does the rapeseed page, but it's reported as a backronym on the canola page. It also mentions that in the UK canola oil is "still sold under the name of 'rapeseed oil'". Anyone know the credibility of that site? FireWorks 00:16, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

The definition is correct. The term Canola is unknown outside North America. The British use the correct botanical term Rapeseed Oil as they aren't dim enough to think the name has something to do with sexual abuse. All European rapeseed production would conform to the Canola standard and the oil is perfectly safe and indeed nutritious. Why would anybody want to grow poisonous rapeseed? --80.176.142.11 (talk) 18:42, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

It's not unknown in Australia - I have a bottle of Australia grown canola oil right here...Xrchz (talk) 00:47, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Canola oil poisonous

Do we need to have a discussion here about the edits claiming canola oil to be poisonous? I invite the anonymous person who has been making these edits to register for an account and discuss the matter openly, rather than just getting his posts reverted all of the time. He or she will probably want to find a more authoritative sources, to help back up such an extraordinary claim. (By, the way, what kind of degree is "N.D."? Some kind of nursing degree?) Joshuardavis 14:00, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Actually, the idea that canola oil is poisonous is debunked at [3]. That treatment, which is arguably better than Wikipedia's, includes several important bits missing from most discussions: that the Wall Street Journal "article" was just a letter to the editor, and that canola oil smoke, not canola oil itself, causes lung cancer. (However, it does seem to smoke at lower temperatures than other oils.)

I've put this information here to assist other editors, in case the poison edits return. Of course, this page is not a venue for debating the issue, but rather for debating whether a NPOV treatment of the issue should appear in the article. We might consider this, since people who hear the poison idea might come to Wikipedia for more info. Joshuardavis 14:38, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Rapeseed oil was widely consumed in Canada and other countries for decades and centuries before low-erussic acid varieties were developed and subsequently renamed "Canola." It was believed by some in the industry that the USDA exaggerated the health risks of rapeseed, blocking it's approval to help protect the powerful soybean oil industry in the US. When canola appeared (which is merely rapeseed with much lower levels of erussic acid and glucosinolate), it was only a matter of time before it was approved for human consumption because the health benefits as compared to other edible oils could no longer be denied.--Landroo 08:33, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Poisonous? Perhaps. However, there are those of us who are allergic to it, and now that it's easily in the majority of processed foods, as well as in the vast majority of commercial kitchens, the simple act of eating has become a very risky adventure. Bandy 01:33, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

I have read most of the relevant papers in this area. There is some work that shows that erucic acid causes heard damage in animals. In India, this was met with some scepticism, as mustard oil has been used for millennia. So, Indian biochemists did some experiments which involved looking at the hearts of people with diets high in mustard oil, but found nothing significant. (A popular rendition of this is in "Lorenzo's Oil" where the father finds out that his son need an oil present in mustard seeds. The doctor refuses to go along, on the basis that mustard is high in erucic acid. The father responds that Indians have been using it for thousands of years, though the doctor has no interest in listening ... ) I know of nothing that indicates that cancer might be a problem. Therefore, I am changing "cancer" to "heart damage". I would add the references, but I am traveling and don't have my library with me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.184.4.152 (talk) 23:45, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Is this the reference you where thinking of, or do you know of others? As Indians get wealthier ( or emigrate to developed countries) they can afford 'healthier' diets like 'vegetable gee' and paradoxical suffer more Coronary Heart Disease. Sounds like experts have got things back to front. It is not any particular 'fat' but a complimentary ratio that is important. --Aspro 14:02, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

would you drink a brand of beverage if it only had a little cyanide? I live in Sweden, and absolutely everything has canola oil in it. it starts to add up. if everything thats available on the shelves contains canola oil, doesnt it seem like there would be a cumulative effect? this is disregarded here and most other places. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.254.54.208 (talk) 20:39, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

A lot of people seriously believe canola oil to be unhealthy. To say they are false claims is absolutely not NPOV. -- Wuffyz (talk) 15:41, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

It seems that the very fact that there is disagreement should be noted. One book, at least by an M.D. (N.D., by the way, in answer to the person above, means "Naturopathic Doctor," doctors who receive, typically, four years of medical education focussing on a particular tradition of natural thereapy. They are generally some of the most academically qualified people in the natural health field.), that questions it's health is "Vegan Nutrition, Pure and Simple," by Michael Klaper, M.D. Given that both people with some qualifications and a fair number of lay people have concerns, it seems to me they should be noted. Trike Runawaytrike (talk) 07:44, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

They should only be noted if they are reported in reliable sources by credible experts. Naturopathy is viewed as crank medicine and crank non-science, with many of their work published in unreliable sources and vanity press. Vegan nutrition is published by Book Publishing Company which according to their about us is primarily a cookbook publisher and not a scientific, peer-reviewed or expert press. The "canola oil is deadly" myth is scientifically nonsense ("when I it her arm with the fork, it split open like the sausage"? Bullshit, she wouldn't be able to move her arm if the skin and muscle were that degraded) and clearly marked as an unscientific urban legend promoted by nonsense health nuts. So there's no reason to mark this as anything but nonsense until there are actual medical sources that state canola oil is harmful. WLU (t) (c) Wikipedia's rules:^simple/_complex 13:18, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't think it would be NPOV to say that it is poisonous, but I still think it should be mentioned that people consider it poisonous. '''wuffyz''' (talk) 03:22, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

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I believe there are enough medical studies (see below for a sample) indicating a potential issue with erucic acid and other chemicals found in canola oil that is indefensible not to mention these facts. No one disputes that erucic acid is toxic or that animal studies show various types of tissue damage from it- including heart, kidney, liver, adrenal glands and the brain. There are no long-term controlled longitudinal studies in humans to prove the safety of consumption of canola oil over a lifetime.

It seems to me some of these references deserve inclusion in the article if it is going to be fair and balanced.

United States Legislation on Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed Oil, Federal Department of Agriculture, 1985, article 184.1555:

section 4, specifies that canola oil cannot be used in infant formula. Section 3 limits the content of erucic acid in canola oil to 2%, to limit toxic exposure.

This study shows that in rats, erucic acid, the potentially toxic fatty acid found in canola oil, inhibited growth and caused myocardial lesions.

http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/103/12/1696

This study also found myocardial lesions in rats correlating to erucic acid intake.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7200131

Vles and Cottenbos, 1989, p71, state that animal studies have shown that erucic acid in "large amounts retards growth and causes changes in various organs", although it has not been proven a hazard to human health. (Vles and Gottenbos, 1989 R.O. Vles and J.J. Gottenbos, Nutritional characteristics and food uses of vegetable oils. In: G. Robblen, R.K. Downey and A. Ashri, Editors, Oil crops of the world, McGraw Hill, New York, USA (1989), pp. 36-86. )

Excerpt from "ERUCIC ACID IN FOOD: A Toxicological Review and Risk Assessment", TECHNICAL REPORT SERIES NO. 21, FOOD STANDARDS AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND, June 2003:

"Conclusion The heart appears to be the principal target organ for toxic effects following short-term exposure to edible oils containing erucic acid. The most common observed effect, among rats, pigs and monkeys, is myocardial lipidosis. Studies in rats and young pigs demonstrate a dose relationship between the level of erucic acid in the diet and severity of myocardial lipidosis."

In addition, other studies find traces of other toxic substances not listed in the ingredients, but which are found in the oil as byproducts of the extensive processing it requires to be palatable. For example, a Florida study found up to 4.6% trans fats in commercial canola oil as a byproduct of the necessary deodorization processing of canola oil. (S O'Keefe and others. Levels of Trans Geometrical Isomers of Essential Fatty Acids in Some Unhydrogenated US Vegetable Oils. Journal of Food Lipids 1994;1:165-176.)

This study shows that, in rats, erucic acid crosses the blood brain barrier and enter the brain: (http://www.jlr.org/cgi/content/abstract/47/6/1289). Erucic acid can negatively affect cell membrane structure and function, which is critical in nerve cells. No one knows, and no one is finding out, the long term effects on the human brain of eating canola oil. The full article, which I have, also states that human autopsy studies show that erucic acid is esterified into the liver, adrenal glands, and fat tissue. (I know several scientists who think that long-term high levels of canola consumption are a potential cause of dementia. This is not suitable as a reference, but shows the importance of referencing these medical facts.)

While these citations do not prove conclusively that long term consumption of canola oil in humans will result in disease, they do prove that this concern is not "nonsense" originating in a "discredited book". Long term studies in humans do not exist to substantiate either the claim that canola oil is safe or dangerous. These studies do, however, prove beyond a doubt there is some degree of toxicity in the erucic acid found in canola oil, and that erucic acid is potentially harmful to humans in many ways. Until the USA FDA gets definitive proof of this, however, it will not take any action- and no one is paying for the long term studies that would provide such proof one way or the other.

-added by Ricemilk on 10/19/2010 —Preceding unsigned comment added by RiceMilk (talk • contribs) 04:36, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

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Further references showing this article is not presently NPOV. Also, shouldn't there be a link to erucic acid, the long chain fatty acid that is one of the toxic components of canola oil that is of concern?

The health section is really far from NPOV. It cites the canola oil council as a main reference (?) and has many references to an internet hoax, but ignores all the legitimate research and reasonable concerns detailed below. It appears to be a whitewash job focusing on a straw man.

I think it is fair to give more citations and points on the point of view there may be a risk in canola oil / erucic acid consumption. There is plenty of evidence and no definitive proof of safety in humans. What is the role of a long-term longitudinal study in humans in providing definitive evidence that canola oil is safe in terms of many potential health issues?

citations given below for all points. Some of these points may be belong here, some in the erucic acid article that should be linked, and others in both:

1) the FDA does require less than 2% erucic oil in food grade rapeseed oil, shouldn't this be mentioned, and why?

2) the defense against negative rat studies is that they have trouble processing vegetable oils. But some studies with negative results control for this, and in others specific changes in cellular chemistry specific to erucic acid are revealed.

3) again in terms of this defense against rat studies, there are studies with health effects in mice and gerbils, and also pigs and squirrel monkeys that don't have trouble processing vegetable oils.

4) there are a number of studies in humans showing large changes in cellular chemistry due to erucic acid.

5) the article does not say why erucic acid should not be taken by infants. It is not broken down in the infant liver, but why is that necessary?

6) what are the specific mechanisms known in which erucic acid changes the cell walls of animals? what are the effects of these changes? Shouldn't an article including health effects of erucic acid get into these specific issues? Isn't the toxicity of erucic acid well studied, and a separate topic from whether small doses are safe?

7) Health effects or chemical changes in animals and human postmortem studies are not just heart lesions, but also red blood cells, brain cells, liver, kidney, adrenal gland, etc. Shouldn't these papers be summarized and referenced?

8) There is a recent result correlating levels of erucic acid and autism in children. Doesn't this deserve mention?

9) There is the issue of unlabeled trans-fat content, up to 4.2%, due to the deordorization process for canola oil. The article is about erucic acid, but the major health concern is now canola oil. This might deserve mention here, and certainly deserves mention in the canola oil health section.

Citations for all of these points are given below. Many of the papers, and all the abstracts, have online links.

This part needs to be rewritten by an expert, but I think some explanation of this is appropriate here. [Erucic acid is toxic at least in part because it alters the chemistry of cell membranes; numerous studies show the changes in cell membranes. It is a very long chain fatty acid that when taken up into the cell membrane interferes in normal function. This in turn alters the normal functioning of the cell, and also the mitochondria (the source of energy for all our cells) which has its own membrane. Brain cells are particularly susceptible to this due to their large surface area and complex cell membrane function. Our livers do not break down all of the toxic erucic acid we eat; some is esterified into human tissues and organs as shown by postmortem studies cited below. How much will accumulate over 70 years of daily consumption? Aren't long-term human longitudinal studies of all the potential health effects listed below the only sure way to determine the safety of erucic acid at present consumer doses?]

Mustard oil, a relative of canola oil, is banned in the EU due to high levels of erucic acid. The FDA limits food grade rapeseed oil (canola oil) to 2% maximum erucic acid content (see below for the quote).

The following five studies document erucic-acid induced changes in humans from postmortem studies. In humans, regular intake of erucic acid cause low platelet counts, and this is one reason to avoid canola oil in infants and nursing mothers: Crowther MA, Barr RD, Kelton J, Whelan D, Greenwald M (February 1995). _Profound thrombocytopenia complicating dietary erucic acid therapy for adrenoleukodystrophy_. American Journal of Hematology 48 (2): 132-3. PMID 7847331. If canola oil did not have toxic effects, it would not matter that infants are less capable of breaking it down in their liver, the organ dedicated to processing toxins and poisons. Four more studies on humans showing erucic acid damage or changes are cited below, this is merely a sample:

These two papers both report erucic-acid building up in various human organs and tissues: _Postmortem analysis of tissue from these X-ALD patients treated with LO show that erucic acid (22:1n-9) was absorbed from the gut and found esterified into liver, adrenal glands, and adipose lipid pools,_ Quite a bit of erucic acid is staying in the tissues of these humans. Poulos,A.,R.Gibson,P.Sharp,K.Beckman,andP.Grattan-Smith.1994. Very long chain fatty acids in X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy brain after treatment with Lorenzo's oil. Ann.Neurol. 36: 741-746. and Boles,D.J.,and W.B.Rizzo.1992.Dietary fatty acids temporarily alter liver very long chain fatty acid composition in mice. J.Nutr.122: 1662-1671.

Here is the conclusion of yet another postmortem study of humans who ate rapeseed oil: _Every heart had many degenerative lesions within nerves, ganglia, and the coronary chemoreceptor. Both the arterial and neural abnormalities prominently involved the conduction system.. Based upon observations by others with experimental feeding of rapeseed oil containing either high or low erucic acid, we suggest that this oil must remain a major suspected cause of the toxic oil syndrome, particularly in conjunction with some as yet unexplained facilitative influence by oleoanilids. If this is so, it is important to reconsider the widely recommended use of any rapeseed oil product as a suitable food for man or other animals._ From _Histologic abnormalities of large and small coronary arteries, neural structures, and the conduction system of the heart found in postmortem studies of individuals dying from the toxic oil syndrome_, Hames, Thomas N. M.D. et. al., American Heart Journal, 121:3:1, March 1991, p.803-815.

Here we have the opinion of medical researchers published in a major journal, who worked at WHO, University of Texas, and Hospital 1 of Madrid. These doctors think erucic acid, in combination with another non-fatal chemical, killed hundreds of people. This is one of two papers cited here where in combination with second, non-fatal chemical, erucic acid becomes deadly.

A fifth, fairly recent, and alarming human study found high levels of erucic acid in autistic children compared to developmentally normal children, from _Fatty acid compositions of red blood cell phospholipids in children with autism._ Bu B, Ashwood P, Harvey D, King IB, Water JV, Jin LW. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 2006 Apr;74(4):215-21. This is not proof erucic acid is a cause or contributing factor, but until this result is definitively explained, and the mysterious causes of the increasing rate of autism are explained, isn't this an important result to cite for NPOV?

There is controversy in the literature that erucic acid rat studies are not valid, because they cannot digest vegetable oil well. However, similar results are found in pigs and squirrel monkeys that don't share that problem; here are four citations:

_piglets fed formulas with 100% canola oil had lower platelet counts than piglets fed with formula soybean oil_, in _Dietary canola oil alters hematological indices and blood lipids in neonatal piglets fed formula._, Innis SM and Dyer RA, J. Nutr 1999; 129: 1261-8.

_Rapeseed oil mixtures with 7 to 42.9% 22:1n-9 showed definite myocardial lipidosis [heart lesions] in newborn piglets_ is one of the conclusions of the study you cite, ( Kramer JK, Farnworth ER, Johnston KM, Wolynetz MS, Modler HW, Sauer FD (November 1990). "Myocardial changes in newborn piglets fed sow milk or milk replacer diets containing different levels of erucic acid". Lipids 25 (11): 729-37.)

_Innis SM and Dyer RA. Dietary canola oil alters hematological indices and blood lipids in neonatal piglets fed formula. J. Nutr 1999; 129: 1261-8._Kramer, J.K.G. and Sauer, F.D. (1983b). Cardiac lipid changes in rats, pigs and monkeys fed high fat diets. In: High and Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed Oils. Production, Usage, Chemistry, and Toxicological Examination. (J. K. G. Kramer, F.D. Sauer and W.J. Pigden, eds). Academic Press, Toronto, Canada, pp 475-513.

The above citations and others are not proof of harm in humans, but do show that erucic acid in animals produces physiological changes that are of concern. These citations deserve mention to those seeking detailed information.

Also, there are rat studies that attempt to clarify this issue by using controls fed other vegetable oils, which still show different effects from erucic acid, and studies that elucidate mechanism of chemical change specific to erucic acid.

For example, _The occurrence of myocardial lipidosis is less consistent when diets containing <10% 22:ln-9 [erucic acid] in the oil portion are fed,_, Effects of dietary saturated fat on erucic acid induced myocardial lipidosis in rats, J. K. G. Kramer et al., Lipids 27:8, p619-623, 1992.

Also this well controlled study in 2009 showed that erucic acid was "profoundly toxic" to rats getting chemotherapy medicine, _Effects of erucic acid supplemented feeding on chronic doxorubucin toxicity in rats_, Bozcali, Evin et. al., Int J Clin Exp Med. 2009, 2(4) 337-347. This was true even with very low levels of erucic acid. _Surprisingly, survivals of the rats were affected negatively by low dose erucic acid._ The fact that low levels of erucic acid produced death in animals receiving a specific medicine does not mean it is just as toxic in animals not taking that medicine. It does mean that there are specific, poorly understood biochemical effects of erucic acid that profoundly alter cell chemistry. See the above citation for fatality in combination with alanine.

Also, _Low-erucic acid rapeseed oil resulted in elevation of cardiac mitochondrial cardiolipin content after dietary treatment for 12 days_ and _ Rats fed high-erucic acid rapeseed oil for 12 or 23 days had significantly higher mitochondrial phosphatidylcholine content than rats fed soya-bean oil._, Innis SM, Clandinin MT. Mitochondrial membrane polar-head-group composition is influenced by diet fat. Biochem J 1981; 198:231-4.

And, _Rapeseed oil feeding led to the changes in mitochondrial membrane phospholipid fatty acid composition. It is speculated that diet-induced changes in membrane lipid affect the activity of mitochondrial membrane associated enzymes, thus having potentially serious consequences to normal functioning of the myocardial cell_ in Innis SM, Clandinin MT. Effect of strain, sex and duration of feeding on plasma fatty acids of rats fed various dietary oils. J Nutr 1980;110: 1006-13.

Heart lesions are not the only damage caused by erucic acid in animal studies, although it has been a focus. Red blood cells, liver, kidney, adrenal and brain cells were also damaged in numerous studies.

In particular, a number of studies show that erucic acid crosses the blood brain barrier and is incorporated into the brain, where it affects the cell membranes. Some of the erucic acid in the brain remains in its original form, 22:ln-9, as well as 20:ln-9 and 18:ln-9, from Uptake and Metabolism of plasma-derived erucic acid by rat brain, Mikhail Y. Golovoko et al., Journal of Lipid Research 47, June 2006, 1289-1297. This is also known to happen in humans, see the Lorenzo's oil paper cited above; in fact erucic acid is an experimental brain medicine for severe illnesses.

There is also the unlabeled trans-fat content problem with canola oil. We are all aware that we should avoid trans fats. Canola oil not only requires bleaching but deodorizing, a chemical process that takes place at high temperatures. This creates trans fats, up to 4.2% according this paper: Levels of Trans Geometrical Isomers of Essential Fatty Acids in Some Unhydrogenated US Vegetable Oils. O'Keefe Sean et. al.,Journal of Food Lipids 1994;1:165-176. This is a reputable, peer-reviewed journal, and an article that is totally relevant and important to this article and section. There is no reason not to cite the article here, along with any later peer reviewed research that conflicts with it if there is any.

The FDA limits erucic acid to 2% in foodgrade rapeseed oil. Doesn't that indicate they believe there is a health risk from erucic acid, and doesn't this deserve discussion or mention here? Here is an excerpt from Title #21, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 184.1555 (C) Low erucic acid rapeseed oil (3) In addition to limiting the content of erucic acid to a level not exceeding 2 per cent of the component fatty acids, F.D.A. is developing other foodgrade specifications for low erucic acid rapeseed oil ...

A link to the wikipedia "funding bias" article may also be appropriate here, since a similar consideration may apply to canola oil research.

RiceMilk (talk) 18:42, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Since there is no mention at all of the extensive literature on animal and human research indicating potential health issues with the erucic acid in canola oil, I am adding a not NPOV template to this section. It may be bulk of these details should be in the erucic acid article, with a summary and a link here.

RiceMilk (talk) 01:37, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

The edible oil industry has been under pressure to improve its processing methods and in some countries it has. The trans fat content 'can' now be kept down to around its 'natural' occurrence in the raw seed. This point has already been raised somewhere on the talk pages. So I agree that it should be mentioned in the article, that although natural cold pressed Canola is very low in trans fats, the oil on the supermarket shelf might well be higher. So caveat emptor. There has indeed been a lot of funding bias against high erucic acid containing mustard oil. However, India has been cooking with mustard oil for millennia, and without problems but ironically heart disease is now taking off as more and more city dwellers can afford to buy 'healthier' oils instead. The article on eruric acid should be clear that the sales and marketing efforts of the oil industry has taken research studies out of context and as such they don't confer any scientific proof nor provide any reasonable concern; providing that is you don't give it to very young animals as a total substitution diet.Maybe that ought to be made clearer. I don't have time at the moment to really get down and make intelligible changes but I'd like to know any of your other views.--Aspro (talk) 20:30, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

I removed the 'health concerns' section, as it was entirely WP:OR and WP:Synth. I suggest we remove the pov tag on the 'health benefits' section. We have one user claiming that canola is dangerous, but the scientific consensus is that it is safe. --sciencewatcher (talk) 20:45, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

The POV tag should go. While the Canola Council of Canada has a vested interest in Canola being recognized as healthy, the American Dietetic Association, American Heart Association, American Association of Family Physicians, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration do not have ties to the industry. Weetoddid (talk) 21:34, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

Canola Enhancements

It is true that Canola was originally created in Winnipeg, MB, using scientific techniques. However, since that time, Canola has progressed quite far and is now being modified using some new methods. In nature, plants will mutate at a very low frequency and this is called natural mutation. New Canola varieties are being created through mutagenesis, or accelerated natural mutation. Currently, techniques are being used to increase the frequency of these mutations such as UV and chemical treatments. I think that these new developments as well as the types of Canola that are resultant of these techniques deserve mention in the article. I am unsure of the scientific details surrounding the techniques, and am unaware of all the techniques that are used but the two mentioned above are currently in practice. Andrewcmore 00:54, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Removed the worldview tag

I couldn't see what the {{worldview}} tag was supposed to indicate, so I removed it. Does anyone know why it was added? -- Jim Douglas ^(talk) _(contribs) 22:55, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Canola is not a cultivar

There is a huge misconception going on here and also on the rapeseed pages. Some of you are under the misaprehension that canola and rapeseed are two totally different things. They are not.

Canola designates rapeseed (or canola) and rapeseed oil (or canola oil) that meets the Canadian Canola Council targets for erucic acid and glucosinolates. The plant and its oil have always generally been known in North America as canola and not by the European name of oilseed rape, and so the two things became mixed up in the same nomenclature.

In Europe where canola is called oilseed rape or rapeseed, the new varieties (or cultivars if you prefer) became known as "double 0" or "00" (said as "double zero" or "double low")

Nearly all canola or rape grown worldwide is now low acid and glucosinolates, so although it is of interest to acknowledge the Canola Council's work and trademark, the world's canola or rapeseed is now generally all double 0.

I think the problem arose by the problem of understanding exactly what is meant by the word "cultivar" or "variety", as the articles on these subjects are not easy to fully understand.

All farm crops are patented "varieties", and farmers will strive every year to buy seed from the latest ones giving higher yields, oil contents etc. These varieties are bred by plant breeders from existing ones. For commercial canola, all available varieties are now double 0, and Europe is the same except that the crop there is known as oilseed rape.

There was never a time when a plant breeder bred two rapeseed varieties together and came up with "canola", a new low acid / glucosinolate variety. Rather the name "canola" was trademarked to give canola an edge on world markets as percieved from a North American viewpoint.

Wikipedia now has two pages, "canola" and "rapeseed", the one inhabited largely by North American writers, the other largely by Europeans, to whom the word "canola" is unfamiliar. The two should for accuracy's sake be combined as one.

http://research.bayer.com/edition_18/18_Canola_oil.pdfx http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/nexus/Brassica_rapeseed_nex.html http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/canola.html

Tomcrisp7 10:06, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

I hope someone else can follow up on this; I don't have a lot of time. For background, see Talk:Rapeseed, particularly this section:

I believe you are saying that something like the following: "Europeans understand rapeseed to mean modern 00 varieties only, and given this understanding, all rapeseed is canola." Can you explain this part of your argument once more? You seem to be redefining the subset (canola) as a synonym for all varieties of the crop (rapeseed). Given that non-canola rapeseed is still grown (google the term "non-canola rapeseed"), this is the part of your argument that I honestly don't understand.

For the original development of canola, see:

http://www.canola-council.org/ind_overview.html

Turning Rapeseed into Canola

The canola we know today was developed in the early 1970s using traditional plant breeding techniques; as a result of Canadian plant breeders’ efforts to remove the anti-nutritional components, erucic acid and glucosinolates from rapeseed so that it would be absolutely safe for human and animal consumption. The plant also produced seeds with a very low level of saturated fat, seven per cent or below.

This new oilseed was christened “Canola” and there is a strict internationally regulated definition of canola that differentiates it from rapeseed, based upon it having less than two per cent erucic acid and less than 30 umoles glucosinolates. Therefore, oilseed products that do not meet this standard cannot use the trademarked term, canola. High erucic acid rapeseed acreage, although still present in Canada, is now confined to production under contract for specific industrial uses.

http://northerncanola.com/canolainfo/history.asp

Canola is a genetic variation of rapeseed developed by Canadian plant breeders specifically for its nutritional qualities, particularly its low level of saturated fat. In 1956 the nutritional aspects of rapeseed oil were questioned, especially concerning the high eicosenoic and erucic fatty acid contents.

In the early 1960's, Canadian plant breeders isolated rapeseed plants with low eicosenoic and erucic acid contents. The Health and Welfare Department recommended conversion to the production of low erucic acid varieties of rapeseed. Industry responded with a voluntary agreement to limit erucic acid content to five percent in food products, effective December 1, 1973.

In 1974, Dr. Baldur Stefansson, a University of Manitoba plant breeder, developed the first 'double low' variety, which reduced both erucic, and glucosinolate levels. This Brassica napus variety, Tower, was the first variety to meet the specific quality requirements used to identify a greatly improved crop known as Canola.

http://www.mts.net/~agrifame/stefanss.html

http://www.canola-council.org/PDF/canola/english/originhistory.pdf

Note that Encarta also has two separate articles, one for the plant in general and another for canola. -- Jim Douglas ^(talk) _(contribs) 15:54, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Put simply, canola is the North American word for rapeseed. It might well be a trademark for low acid / glucosinolate oil but the two ideas are not differentiated among oilseed professionals.

You could take canola varieties to Europe and grow them there, where they would be called rape, albeit "double 0"; you could take "double 0" (99% + of seedstock) European rape to grow in Canada, where it would (and should) be called Canola ; you could take high erucic acid rape from Canada (which the Canadian farmer would regardless call "canola" in violation of the trademark) to Europe where it could only be grown in special contracts for high acid oil, but still be called rape ; you could take high acid rape from Europe to Canada where the oil could not be sold as Canola, but the grower would still refer to it (wrongly?) as Canola.

The problem is that the word Canola should mean rapeseed; the Canola Council trademark is confusing the issue - they should have named it "Supercanola", "lowcanola" or somesuch. I think they probably would if it had crossed their minds that the word canola is not used outside North America. On the other hand, that commercial edge...?

It is possible to find many websites with far more pragmatic definitions of Canola / rape than most of the ones you have bombarded me with, Jim. No one is threatening the Canola Council definition or any other item in your argument:-)Tomcrisp7 16:17, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

"Put simply, canola is the North American word for rapeseed."

I'm sorry, Tom, but put simply, you're wrong. Canola is rapeseed, but rapeseed is not necessarily canola. If "rapeseed" and "canola" were the same thing, then the phrase "non-canola rapeseed" would be nonsense. As just one example, read this entire page:

http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/canola/.

And as I mentioned above, Encarta also maintains two separate articles, "Rape (botany)" and "Canola". -- Jim Douglas ^(talk) _(contribs) 22:47, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Well' I've said all I can. Farmers and oilseed professionals in North America do not talk about "non-canola rapeseed". The idea is laughable. Ask any oilseed farmer, Jim. You're splitting hairs and creating a technical problem that simply doesn't exist in the real world.

I would never say that "double 0" rapeseed" and "rapeseed" were two different things. Milling wheat has different characteristics than feed wheat but the two things are still wheat.

The Canola Council trademarked the Canadian word for rapeseed. This doesn't mean one has to stop calling rapeseed canola, as canola is the word in common usage.

You're probably right about keeping both pages, as North Americans will look for "canola" and English People "rapeseed". Perhaps, according to your logic, we should have a third page, called "non-canola rapeseed" ?

I work as an agronomist in the north central USA, and spend a lot of my time on oilseeds. As more grist for the discussion mill, here is my personal impression of the consensus terminology among my colleagues: (1) "canola" refers to those rapeseed cultivars or lines that the meet relevant oil and meal quality standards; (2) "rapeseed" technically includes canola, but usually only comes up in conversation when rapeseed other than canola is being discussed; and (3) the trademark status of the word canola doesn't affect usage in speech or writing. --Belgrano 21:37, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Varieties (or cultivars) of canola / oilseed rape

It struck me that some extra information should be available on this subject:

Rapeseed or canola is largely self-pollinating and so plant breeding in the classical sense was for many years less successful than selecting for modern varieties for (say) wheat.

Among traits aimed for in plant breeding are yield, content of exploitable substances e.g.oil %, levels of impurities e.g. erucic acid in rape, maturity speed (early harvest), resistance to diseases, even herbicide tolerance in GMO varieties, which is a simply plant breeding using a new tool).

As much as 30% yield benefit for example, is now obtainable from current varieties above the level of those existing in the 1970s.

In the 1990s a chemical sterilization method was developed which, when applied to rape plant breeding, meant that varieties used in breeding could be kept "female", and therefore all fertilizing pollen had to come from other varieties.

This was the start of hybrid canola / rape breeding, which led to the breakthrough variety "Synergy" in Europe in 1999, outyielding all other known varieties at the time.

Surprisingly, double 00, or trademark compatible canola, was bred earlier using prior classical plant breeding techniques.

Today in Europe, around 30% of varieties (of which there are around 45 available on the French accepted list) are hybrids, of which half again are composite hybrid varieties as opposed to restored hybrids. 7 new semi-dwarf restored hybrids are coming available, which have a greater standing power and therefore theoretically produce higher yields than others due to being able to absorb more nitrogen fertiliser. Seed rates are lower too, because of "hybrid vigour".

The most popular varieties are Pollen, Aviso, Grizzly and Expert, all capable of yielding up to 4 or 5 tonnes / hectare in intensive situations. All these varieties, without exception, are "double 0", compatible with the canola trademark. Anyone wishing to grow high erucic acid rape must find a specialist buyer with which to sign a contract for use of a specialist variety (ie not compatible with canola trademark).

I hope this is of some help.Tomcrisp7 14:16, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Merger proposal

• DO NOT MERGE Canola Oil is NOT rapeseed oil. According to the Canola Council on truth and myths about Canola, a link at the bottom of the rapeseed page, canola oil is NOT rapeseed oil. Martha Stewart discussed this confusion on her show. She came to the same conclusion. Rapeseed is similar to canola, but they are NOT the same thing. http://www.canola-council.org/cooking_myths.html (this link 404's)

• Merge This would avoid confusion over name classifications. The Canola standards and European ISO standards could also be listed. E.g.. BS EN ISO 9167-1:1995 Rapeseed. Determination of glucosinolates content. Method using high-performance liquid chromatography and BS EN ISO 5508:1995 Animal and vegetable fats and oils. Analysis by gas chromatography of methyl esters of fatty acids. Taken together they define the European '00' standard. This should make clear that there are common shared characteristics between different strains or subsp. of the same species.--Aspro 14:24, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

• I disagree to a merger, I am all for the "unamercicanisation" of Wikipedia, but Canola is not just used in North America. I am a fourth generation Australian farmer and I've never once heard the it referred as rapeseed, I'm also concerned that merging these two articles would make it too long, and would lead to having a lot of valuable information cut from the article. My resolution would be to make a rapeseed a disambiguation and give the currant rapeseed a different title. Bnsbeaver 02:12, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

• Rapeseed was used in Australia - for a little while in the 1980's. it isn't very PC so it's hard to market.... so the Canola Marketing Board formed and while few people had taken up Rapeseed cropping, Canola is quite a popular crop in Australia. I would support a merger with a redirect from one, to the chosen article.Garrie 05:59, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

• Rapeseed should be mered with conola.

• Merge! As stated above, mention of Canola and Rapeseed could be formed into one cohesive article with explanations of the differnces in names as Aspro suggested and it would not be too long. I've never heard of Rapeseed but that doesn't dismiss it as a viable subject. With such a difference of opinion it makes sense for a merge so that one who searches for Canola will find its association with Rapeseed or vice-versa. Noles1984 20:09, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
• Merge seems justified. MGTom 20:47, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
• Merge. David.Throop 15:41, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
• Disagree, per extensive discussion on this page and on Talk:Rapeseed#Canola. Encarta also has two separate articles, one for the plant in general and another for canola.-- Jim Douglas ^(talk) _(contribs) 16:10, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Comment: Your missing the point. As 'canola' is a north American standard, it will invite a lot of repetitious articles as other countries add their equivalent descriptions of LEAR – not to mention the HEAR types. However, by merging, it then become practical to create a table showing the diff/similarities at a glance. Why not create an article that encarter can only hope to emulate instead of suggesting WP comes down to encarter's level? If encarter was good enough there would be no need for WP huh! --Aspro 18:10, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

• Merge I think these contributions back up the comments I made previously above. The point of view that Jim Douglas exposes seems rather proprietal, in a North American sense. Everyone note that the introductory line to the article says "canola is a trademarked cultivar...". This is nothing short of a lie.Tomcrisp7 00:39, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
• Merge trueblood 21:06, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
• Merge. There are important differences between the terms canola and rapeseed, but the overlap between the two concepts is overwhelming. One page -- with appropriate and succinct explanation of the differences right at the top -- would be much more effective than two. --Belgrano 14:23, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
• Merge 212.120.237.72 18:52, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

10 out of 13 makes a consensus to merge. Tom 12:32, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Canola is poison

I'm distressed by the amount of material in this article from the Mary Enig / Sally Fallon / Joseph Mercola echo chamber. One of her principle claims is that due to the processing involved, canola contains up to 4.5% trans-fat. This is referenced to a single paper, which unfortunately I can't read for less than $40.

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-4522.1994.tb00244.x?journalCode=jfl

Without reading the paper, it is impossible to know how many samples showed trans-fat at this level, how the samples were obtained, what processing steps were used, and whether the processing steps in 1994 have any relationship to the processing steps now in use more than twenty years later.

Unfortunately, neither was I able to find a paper that directly states the levels of trans-fat in processed canola oils, as opposed to the original seed oil composition. The alarming similarity among all these articles is their uniform negativity, they seem to be differentiated primarily on whether they grind hardest on the axe of "poison" or "industrial" or "cancer" or "heart disease".

• http://www.aspartame.ca/page_oho3.htm
• http://editor.nourishedmagazine.com.au/articles/is-canola-oil-healthy
• http://breathing.com/articles/canola-oil.htm
• http://www.dldewey.com/columns/canola.htm
• http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/new/canola.htm
• http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/canola.html
• http://www.mercola.com/2000/jan/16/dangers_canola_oil.htm
• http://www.mercola.com/2002/aug/14/con_ola1.htm

The claims and scare-words fly thick and fast in these screed-like articles, and I would want to check any references given thoroughly before believing any of it.

Does anyone have good information on the change (if any) in the nature of canola oil from the seed oil stage to the processed oil available to consumers? MaxEnt 03:19, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

I reworked it a bit and removed a misleading claim about "trans-fat free versions of canola have been developed", since the seed oil has no trans-fat to begin with. The contributor was probably thinking about high stability Canola with reduced TFA levels to survive better in the fast-food industry. I would have prefered to delete the whole Enig paragraph, but I'm a confirmed non-deletist. MaxEnt 04:04, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

In answer to some of the above: Your asking how long is a piece of string?

Most oils and fats are naturally unstable; look at an oil painting. Their oils polymerize by parts of the molecules cross linking with others. The speed depends on heat and radiation (e.g.., short wave length light) light. Which is 'just part of why' fresh pressed oil tastes a lot better than supermarket bought. The older and more proceed it is, the more 'trans' (these are double carbon bonds) that the oil will have.

Your last entry on this page is confused.

It is low EFA w3 ( notice its 'E' FA not TFA as you had it ) verities that have been developed which are more stable and therefore have a longer shelf life and are less likely to form 'trans configurations' between molecules.The paragraph should have been better phrased and corrected but not deleted.

The reason why this article it is so poorly referenced and to a few sources is that there are only a few people (like Mercola) answering the sales and marketing information from the industry. Some editors find information from these protesters and the food industry PR easier to source, rather than dig out there own references, which of course requires them to have more knowledge and understanding than they probable have, which is why mistakes and falsehoods are creeping in by people who don't fully understand trying to improve the article. The result takes a long time to revert and correct, so food chemists just don't bother, but prefer to concern themselves with articles about their favorite hobbies and things.--Aspro 08:12, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

I can't help but notice the claim here that fast-food manufacturers switched to more stable varieties of canola oil in order to reduce the trans-fat content of their foods. However, this is not an entirely correct statement. What they actually did was switch to canola oil from other types of oil (notably, the infamous mix known simply as "vegetable oil") in order to reduce the trans-fat content of their foods. They did not typically make use of canola oil beforehand. If they had problems with the canola oil being unstable and forming trans-fat (this would be mainly from unsaturated fats as cis-fats turned into trans-fats, not from saturated fats) during its time on the shelf, this was a later problem than the major change people mainly think of when they talk about fast-food manufacturers reducing the trans-fat content of their foods (by using canola oil.) I really would like to see the research on more stable varieties of canola oil being developed though, as this seems to be a later issue that I had never heard of before. Works of Sweat (talk) 20:47, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

I have deleted "Claims of safety are a bit questionable ... three weeks" added by 121.79.31.237 on 29 January 2008. I was drawn to look more closely at the sentence because it was poorly written, but am deleting it altogether because the reference cited concerned claimed health benefits, not product safety. Evaluist (talk) 00:21, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Health Effects

I am planning to remove the following from the Health Effects section:

In [[Nexus Magazine]], Volume 9, Number 5 (Aug–Sept 2002), contrarian
<ref>http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/features/cocgood.html</ref> dietitians Sally Fallon and Mary G.
 Enig, published an article, called "The Great Con-ola", questioning the industry's marketing claims, stating 
that Canola oil 'has a number of undesirable health effects when used as the main source of dietary fats'. 
 Their article cites independent studies done from the late 1970s to 1990s, which show animals fed on a pure 
Canola oil-based diet suffer from [[vitamin E deficiency]], a decrease in blood [[platelet]] count, an increase 
in platelet size, and shortened [[life-span]]s.  

The authors state "Furthermore, it seems to retard growth, which is why the FDA does not allow the use of 
canola oil in infant formula" with terse citation to ''Federal Register 1985''.  However, an article from The 
Journal of Nutrition explains this same citation differently: "The use of canola oil in infant formulas is not
 permitted because infants fed formula might consume higher amounts of 22:1(n-9) than would be provided in 
usual mixed diets and because of the lack of data about infants fed diets containing canola 
oil."<ref>http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/129/7/1261</ref> The "22:1(n-9)" mentioned by the FDA here 
is another name for euric acid. So although levels below the 2 percent limit set by the USDA in Canola are 
permitted in the diet of adults the FDA does not permit these amounts in an infants diet.

The authors state that omega-3s in canola oil are transformed into [[trans fat]]s during the [[deodorisation]] 
process, citing a single [[University of Florida]] study published in 1994 which found [[trans fat]] content to 
be as high as 4.6% in a sample of soy and canola oils purchased in the U.S. <ref>http://www.blackwell-
synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-4522.1994.tb00244.x?journalCode=jfl</ref>   
<!-- even the abstract makes it clear that it wasn't '''most''' omega-3s, but 37% in the worst case -->

The citations are very confusing and do not apparently support the article text. The article being referred to isn't linked. The claims hover to and from and I have no idea if Fallon and Enig are or are not a reliable source (per WP:RS and thus whether their arguments justify this much article space - if they are contrarian dietitions - I think we need to work out how we meet the Wikipedia:Neutral point of view policy - certainly WP:UNDUE should be considered - ie an important qualification: Articles that compare views should not give minority views as much or as detailed a description as more popular views, and may not include tiny-minority views at all..

Please discuss before reinserting the text into the article. --Golden Wattle ^talk 00:03, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Further, I suspect that Nexus (magazine) would not meet WP:RS (for example, the publisher is one of the Apollo Moon landing hoax accusers - at the very least it is not a magazine concerened with health, science or food technology)) - there are plenty of sources that would provide information on Canola's health benefits and other issues covered by science and food technology. If the claims are spurious, to meet Wikipedia standards the preference is for scholarly sources.--Golden Wattle ^talk 00:18, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Alpha-linolenate

Alpha-linolenate cite[4]. SaltyBoatr (talk) 14:56, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

scientific name?!

"Turnip, rutabaga, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, mustard and many other vegetables are related to the two canola species commonly grown: Brassica napus and Brassica rapa."

That makes no sense. B.n. and Br.r. are not canola species.

And what is Canola? According to the confusing intro that i tried to fix, (still missing scientific name) it's a rapeseed cultivar. --Espoo (talk) 18:26, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Needs more clarification of the trans fat content

I am a little confused that NOTHING is mentioned about the 4% trans-fat content found in this oil -- no mention is said of why it's there. But the really confusing thing is the un-questioned sentence "The Canola Council of Canada states that it is completely safe ...". I didn't know that small amounts of (hydrogenated? (ie. not the good animal kind)) trans fats were "completely safe". Please clarify :S Dennisne (talk) 01:24, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

This is whats concerning me too. The Canola Oil Council website says "Cholesterol and trans fat free: Trans fat raises bad LDL cholesterol and lowers good HDL cholesterol." Edit: this http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/ says that the proprtion of trans-fat is 0.395%, which is about one tenth of the amount currently stated in the article. Edit2: I have edited the table and changed it to the 0.4% figure shown by the link above. 92.24.182.48 (talk) 17:40, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20338284 "J Am Diet Assoc. 2010 Apr;110(4):585-92. Trans fats in America: a review of their use, consumption, health implications, and regulation. "...exacerbated by the Food and Drug Administration labeling rules, which allow products containing <0.5 g trans fat per serving to claim 0 g trans fat." Government authorised lying? Bad, bad, bad. 92.15.14.201 (talk) 23:03, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

History

The article does not give specific dates for the earliest documented use or cultivation of rapeseed, important facts that are very likely documented.

This section also contains several claims that seem unlikely.

It says that Chinese and Indians used a form of natural canola, implying that was centuries ago. Shouldn't that say rapeseed oil? Shouldn't that be dated with the earliest time?

It says steam engines proliferated in WWII. Is that correct? It seems more likely to have been WWI or earlier. The various histories of steam engine on wikipedia all fail to give specific dates for their replacement with other types, but it looks like innovation peters out in the very early 20th cent. Surely in WWII most ships and all vehicles were not steam engine powered?

Was rapeseed ever used as lubricant in steam turbines (vs. steam engines), or internal combustion engines?

It does not mention glucosinolates in terms of human consumption of rapeseed- only at the end there is a reference in terms of animals. This was an important deterrent to human consumption as well.

It does not mention the need to deodorize the oil.

RiceMilk (talk) 19:23, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

It says steam engines proliferated in WWII. Is that correct? . The original text has been corrupted. This is how the page read back in Nov 2008:[5]. Correct as you see fit.--Aspro (talk) 21:32, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Health Research

Someone deleted the whole Health Effects section. I agree there may have been some issues with it, however what I wrote consisted 100% of statements from peer reviewed scientific journals and were all relevant to the topic. I did not draw any new conclusions or do any original research. I did not conclude that canola oil is unhealthy for humans to eat. I did cite specific studies on canola and erucic acid and human health.

I did rename the section Health Research to avoid the implication that there is a concern for health in eating canola, (although that was not what I meant by the original wording.) Since there is health research on canola oil, this section should be here, and the studies I have cited are major, often cited studies that should be included here for the article to be NPOV.

I also agree that there are studies showing that canola oil is safe for humans to eat and they should definitely be included in this section. If no one else has time to do that research, I will get to it when I have time. Meanwhile if someone wants to put up an NPOV warning on this section, I am ok with that.

If anyone wants to point out specific places in this section which they feel violate wikipedia policy, please point it out to me so we can discuss it.

The fact that canola oil contains erucic acid, and that erucic acid has been shown in research to harm animals, even in some cases at levels found in canola oil, (just speaking loosely for the purpose of this discussion), is certainly a) true b) important information about canola oil and c) something people will want to know about. I think the way to keep the article neutral is not to delete these articles- but to add research supporting the healthfulness of eating canola oil... it's just something I haven't had time to do.

RiceMilk (talk) 15:01, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

Please read WP:SYNTH and WP:RS. You can't string two things together ("rapeseed oil contains up to x% of x oil" and "x oil is dangerous") - that is WP:SYNTH. Also see WP:WEIGHT - you are giving excessive weight to these studies.

We certainly do not just include anything in wikipedia that is in a peer reviewed journal. It is an encyclopedia, so we have to carefully consider everything and follow the relevant policies.

You need to find reliable secondary source for these claims, and they must talk specifically about canola oil, and their inclusion in the article must be proportional to their WP:WEIGHT within the scientific community. --sciencewatcher (talk) 16:19, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

email hoax

I think the discussion of an email hoax requires an inline citation rather than just a link to a web page. There is a way to cite web pages in an inline citation. Without this, a reader has no way within the article to identify the author, the publisher, the date, etc. of the citation, and also wouldn't that be proper wikipedia style?

Also, the web page source for this is trend micro, which is an antivirus software, and not an expert on health, canola oil, etc. This is another reason I think an inline citation would allow readers to evaluate the reference better.

The reference also doesn't substantiate the date, or the fact that it was "widely circulated".

In fact, there are many websites making false or unscientific claims about canola oil, and there may well have been many such emails asking to be forwarded. This section gives the misleading impression that the negative hype about canola oil comes solely from one email.. which even if true, is not supported by the linked web page.

A more accurate and informative discussion of internet rumors about canola oil would cover the various sites, the different claims, and how they are in conflict with the scientific evidence.

Since this section really deals with (unscientific) health concerns about canola oil, I think it should be moved to the health research section, or perhaps the health research section should be renamed health concerns, or health information.

RiceMilk (talk) 15:31, 4 November 2010 (UTC)