I had to Google Canola oil as I'd never heard of it, but it seems to be a product name for rapeseed oil. If so what have you got against rapeseed oil. It's a great oil and every bit as 'valid' as olive oil and I use both when cooking all the time.
Sure you can buy shit rapeseed oil, but you can also buy equally shit olive oil, and I fail to see why you would think one better than the other. Or is it just that the Canola brand produces bad rapeseed oil.
1) Depends on what you're using it for. Personally I think it tastes foul in salad dressing type applications. Olive oil is the gold standard for homemade salad dressings. I would imagine if you're frying donuts or potatoes or something, you'd want the more neutral flavor of canola instead of olive.
2) Rancidity issues lead to three problems. First is massively excessive processing which turns the healthy omega3 oils into trans fats, and also contamination from processing chemicals make the oil smell/taste weird compared to a more natural/real oil. The second is failure of the extensive processing means the stuff goes rancid really quickly, meaning you either dump half the bottle making it more expensive than olive or you eat rancid oil which is really unhealthy. The third problem is you can solve post-purchase rancidity issues by getting tiny little containers and using them up quickly, but that boosts the cost per oz way beyond something tastier, healthier, and longer shelf life, like olive oil or frankly pretty much anything else.
3) Its exceedingly heavily processed compared to most other off the shelf oils. This is not necessarily bad other than as noted above, but the more they screw around with it, the more chance to screw it up. Its easier to purchase un-screwed up evoo than canola.
4) Probably all that matters is your own local shopping experience, but I'm just saying where I live pretty much only shit grade canola is widely available, but pretty good olive (and other stuff) is available. I'm willing to believe there might exist a place, perhaps where you live, where really good excellent fresh properly minimally processed canola is available and no decent olive (and other) is available, although I find it pretty unlikely. The only oil worse than canola on my oil pecking order is generic "vegetable oil". Now that's not exactly made out of cucumbers carrots and tomatoes. Very disturbing, like a package at the butchers which refuses to officially identify itself beyond "meat, animal".
Those are the real world reasons why it usually sucks compared to olive oil. Outside of the real science based world, you run into stuff like over 90% of the canola is non-organic and GMO, so people who don't know anything about science are trained by advertising to respond by freaking out about it. I'm not so worried about pseudo religious "beliefs" as I am about real world biochemistry above. Everything is genetically modified to some extent or another, and as a class of product oil is processed a lot more than, say, lettuce, so being organic probably doesn't matter as much relatively for oil as for apples.
TLDR is its overly vulnerable to rancidity, so it either is super over processed to the point of icky, or has to be consumed while rancid which is icky, or goes bad fast so small bottles are more expensive per unit volume than a big jug of something that doesn't rot so quickly.
I'm going to call bullshit on pretty much everything you've said here.
As I understand, Canola oil is a cheap, neutral oil with decent nutritional properties and an excellent range of cooking temperatures. Its a great alternative to olive oil. Its better than olive oil if you're frying a steak or using high temperatures.
Also, to address your claim about 'heavily processed' canola oil - the more refined/processed it is, the less contaminants are left in the final product. Its unrefined canola oil that is potentially dangerous.
Your claim about rancidity is also bogus. All oil goes rancid. Canola oil stored correctly (ie in a closed bottle in your cupboard or fridge) will last a year. Olive oil will last about the same time.
Yeah, now open the bottle, use about 1/8th of it a month for a couple months and see which goes bad faster. Also, Olive Oil isn't the only option here.
Personally in my kitchen I have coconut oil, olive oil, rice bran oil (about as processed as canola, but much better properties), walnut oil (used sparingly, great flavor) and regular butter. On occasion I'll use regular lard, which is actually pretty healthy.
I probably use more butter and rice bran oil than the others. Canola/vegetable oils are just not good for you, do some cursory searches. There are much better alternatives that aren't much more expensive over the course of a year.
Seriously, this is Hacker News, not Fox News. Misinformation has no place here. I'm calling you out. Provide evidence to back up your ludicrous claims.
Canola/vegetable oils are just not good for you, do some cursory searches.
This is absolute bullshit. Citations please.
I wonder if all this scaremongering comes from the fact that Canola oil is much cheaper than other oils?
Personally in my kitchen I have coconut oil, olive oil, rice bran oil (about as processed as canola, but much better properties), walnut oil (used sparingly, great flavor) and regular butter. On occasion I'll use regular lard, which is actually pretty healthy.
If you're ok using lard I'd highly suggest you try some Schmaltz. Once a month I render a batch of Schmaltz and its fantastic for roasting vegetables and searing. Its extremely cheap to make, the butcher gives me poultry frames for $1/kg. Its a bonus side product of making stock from the frames and simple to clarify given the natural seperation of water/oil.
I'm guessing the nonsense is somehow connected to anti-GM and Monsanto and GM rapeseed. It's not a popular crop in England. People say it's bad for hay fever sufferers.
Olive oil does have much better word-of-mouth marketing.
I wouldn't say that exactly. There's been a small surge in its popularity. You can find bottles of cold-pressed rapeseed oil in most supermarkets (at fairly premium prices). Many of these cold-pressed varieties have come from small-scale producers. Also, a lot of oil in supermarkets simply labelled as vegatable oil is in fact rapeseed oil.
Australia's KFC recently switched to Canola Oil [1], I think because it's cheaper to use the local oil than to import. Maybe other companies will follow?
From the press release:
>High-oleic canola oil contains more oleic acid (a monounsaturated fat) and less polyunsaturated fats (namely alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid), allowing for greater heat tolerance and longer shelf life than regular canola oil.
>A healthier, home-grown alternative to palm oil, high-oleic canola oil also has an extended fry life and is thus more cost efficient than regular canola oil.
Well, if you search google for canola unhealthy, you get quite a few results, some of which are fud, and hippy nonsense regarding GMO foods, etc. My larger concerns are saturated vs. unsaturated fats and their effect on the growth of metabolic syndrome in this country from crisco and other transfat introductions to the more recent canola oil.
Most of these products are as far from natural as it gets considering the sheer amount of processing involved when compared to say butter, lard, or fats absorbed from regular food intake (nuts, and meat).
A couple of decent articles related to the issue are as follows (note, this isn't just canola vs. others so much as trans fats (not all canola is hydrogenated) and the use of unsaturated vs. saturated fats (canola is unsaturated).
I'm not opposed to GMO, but have been avoiding a lot of different types of fats, and starches for the better part of a year, without reducing my caloric intake, and have done far better with that than the USDA recommendations.
Sure you can buy shit rapeseed oil, but you can also buy equally shit olive oil, and I fail to see why you would think one better than the other. Or is it just that the Canola brand produces bad rapeseed oil.