Hi there everybody this is Monica Reinagle and you're listening to the

nutrition diva quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous

I got an email from a listener a while back who wrote that she had been a big

fan of the podcast until I mentioned canola oil is a healthy choice. Like olive oil, canola

is high in mono-unsaturated fats, the healthiest kind of fat, but it's a better

choice than olive oil when you want a neutral flavor.

You can check out episode number 14 for the whole story.

In some circles, however, canola oil has gotten a very bad reputation.

It's said to be unnatural or even highly toxic.

For this one listener anyway, my recommendation of canola was enough to convince her that she couldn't trust anything I said.

So, should Canola be banned from the cupboard?

So what's all this about Canola oil being toxic?

It's really a misunderstanding. Canola oil is made from a type of

rape seed which is a plant in the cabbage family and it's also related to turnips

and mustard. That last relation may be the basis for the urban legend, which is by the way completely

unfounded, that rapeseed oil was used to make poisonous mustard gas in World War I. It wasn't. In fact, rapeseed oil was used for centuries as a cooking

oil in Asia. In modern times, it fell out a favor as a food oil, especially here in the West.

First, it has a bitter taste that most people find unpalatable. And secondly, it's naturally

high in a mono-unsaturated fatty acid called Arusic acid. And there were some early animal

studies that raised concerns about the effects of consuming too much of this fatty acid.

Still, like many other plant oils, rape seed oil is used industrially as a lubricant, for example,

and more recently to make biodiesel fuel.

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