Can the Canola

by Laura Lamun

Some new findings have been released about oil we all THOUGHT was so good for us: canola oil. There is no "canola" plant - the name comes from the words "Canada" and "oil" - the principle place of export for the oil. Canada produces this oil from a GENETICALLY ENGINEERED plant developed from the yellow-flowering mustard of the "rapeseed" plant. The United States had been searching for an inexpensive alternative to highly saturated fats that were losing popularity, and losing major oil manufacturers large amounts of money, due to their cholesterol raising, health-compromising properties. Before any real human studies had been done on the oil, large quantities were approved for import into this country, based on the fact that the oil exhibits unsaturated fat results in the laboratory. This may have been done in the healthful interest of the people of this fair land, but most tend to believe it was economically motivated, especially as the canola "industry" took off to such an extent that it made oil producers rich. Everyone probably remembers when the "buzz" hit about saturated fats - even the health food industry embraced the movement, and it quickly became the intended media blitz for the canola oil companies, and the green paper to line their pockets.

The spokespeople for the industry cite the long historical usage of the Rapeseed plant by the Chinese and the Native Americans as being the reason no human studies were needed. However, the plant and the oil being used by these peoples were not refined, and certainly were never genetically modified beyond recognition. The two plants are simply no longer the same, and beyond comparison. Rapeseed oil is actually industrial oil, and not a food. Even according to AgriAlternatives, an Internet technology magazine for farmers (a major propaganda resource FOR the entire canola movement), "By nature these rapeseed oils, which have long been used to produce oils for industrial purposes, are…toxic to humans and other animals." The oil was primarily used for fuel, as a synthetic rubber base, paint additive, pesticide, lubricant, and illuminate for color pages in magazines - before our oil producers found a way to feed it to us! After years of ingestion by many of us, disastrous laboratory results have come back from the first studies done on rodents. The animals mostly developed fatty degeneration of the heart, kidneys, adrenals and thyroid due to bizarre deposits on major organs and circulatory pathways. When canola use was discontinued, the fatty deposits eventually were cleared from the body, but residual scar tissue was in evidence in all the major organs. It may be graphic, but the writing is on the wall - of our arteries! So join the growing number of people who are standing firm against the genetically engineered food movement, and the canola oil industry specifically. Do your body a favor and use extra virgin olive oil - which actually comes from a real, unmodified, untampered-with olive! Can the artificial canola and live longer!