---
title: "What's So Bad About Canola Oil?"
date: 2012-11-01T21:34:39Z
modified: 2012-11-01T21:34:39Z
permalink: "https://elizabethyarnell.com/whats-so-bad-about-canola-oil/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 2665
categories:
  - Living Naturally
  - Nutrition in the News
tags:
  - canola oil history
  - dangers of canola oil
  - dangers of GMOs
  - GMO canola oil
author: Elizabeth
---

I used to be a canola oil girl. I believed it was a healthy choice for a cooking oil, and even recommended using it all over my cookbook. Now I know better.

As I live and learn and mature, I reserve the right to change my mind as new information comes to light. Such is the case when it comes to canola oil.

In the 1980s and 90s, we were treated to a massive publicity campaign regarding the health benefits of canola oil, and I, for one, bought into it hook, line, and sinker. This campaign was somehow connected to the National Institutes of Health’s release of a bunch of studies correlating heart disease with cholesterol levels, and we were told over and over that canola oil was a “heart-healthy” cooking oil.

Now, the findings from those 1980s-era studies are in dispute, and we are learning the truth about canola oil.

![say no to canola oil](http://mysoulsrole.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Canola-Oil-Picture.jpg "canola oil")

Canola oil is made from a variety of rapeseed hybridized in the 1970s by the Canadian Oil Company and named “canola” for “Canadian Oil, low acid”. In 1995, the company introduced Genetically Modified canola seeds. By 2011, [96% of the canola grown was GMO canola](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola "96% canola GMO"). Since GMOs don’t have to be labeled, you simply must assume that every time you see canola oil by itself or as an ingredient in a packaged food, it is a GMO.

Why should you care that your cooking oil is [GMO](http://elizabethyarnell.com/effortlesseating/2012/10/what-is-a-gmo/ "what is GMO")? As I’ve been talking about on this blog, and you can see in films such as [Genetic Roulette](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola "genetic roulette movie GMOs"), [GMO crops cause harm to the human body](http://www.responsibletechnology.org/health-risks "GMO health risks"), the [farmland and the farmers](http://farmandfoodrights.org/science-on-canola.html "GMOs bad for farmland, farmers"), and to the [environment](http://www.responsibletechnology.org/gmo-dangers/dangers-to-the-environment "environmental effects of GMO"). In [humans, GMO effects](http://www.responsibletechnology.org/gmo-dangers/65-health-risks "GMO effects in humans") may range from tumors to infertility to leaky-gut diseases (autoimmune disorders, migraines, chronic fatigue, etc.). Once [Genetically Modified canola is planted](http://farmandfoodrights.org/science-on-canola.html "cross pollination of GMO canola"), all the surrounding crops are in danger of cross-pollination, even the non-canola crops.

We have been unwittingly made part of the largest experiment on the public health in history, and in time the effects will be catastrophic. The only way to opt out of this science nightmare is to [avoid GMOs](http://elizabethyarnell.com/effortlesseating/2012/06/what-foods-have-been-genetically-modified-gmo/ "what foods are gmo") by buying organic and looking for the [Non-GMO Project](http://elizabethyarnell.com/effortlesseating/2012/10/the-non-gmo-project-and-gmo-labeling/ "the non-gmo project") seal.