Ban This Common Oil from Your Kitchen Immediately

If you are like many of us that are making efforts to eat a healthier diet, you may have decided to eliminate butter and start using oils instead. We have been told to eat fewer saturated fats and to consume more monounsaturated fats because they are better for heart health, cholesterol, and body weight.

Canola oil which is high in monounsaturated fat may seem like a good alternative to butter, but in actuality that is not true at all. Canola oil is harmful to your health and if you are including it in your cooking and meal prep you’re making a grave mistake.

Here’s why.

The Actual Make-Up Of Canola Oil

To fully understand the problems with Canola oil you need to understand its nutritional makeup.

Canola Oil consists mostly of monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat, and the remaining fat, which amounts to very little, is saturated fat.

On the surface this may not seem bad, however, the problem with canola oil is that it is highly processed and refined, making it very unstable under heat, pressure, light, and in solvents.

This instability causes massive oxidation to occur. Oxidation leads to an increase in free radical production in your body which is a precursor for long term disease.

If you consume vast amounts of canola oil you are increasing your chances of inflammation due to free radical production and inflammation is linked to a wide number of diseases such as, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s.

While the type of fat itself may not lead to disease, the nature in which this fat presents itself in canola oil will.

The Issue of Trans Fats

If there’s one fat all nutritionists agree must be avoided, it would be trans fats. Trans fats are not needed by the body and will only lead to a higher level of disease such as cancer or heart disease.

During the high pressure processing involved to create canola oil, some of the natural omega-3 fats that are found in it are converted to trans fats. This means you are consuming this harmful nutrient whenever you cook with canola oil.

All in all, canola oil is no better than other unhealthy oils such as soybean oil or corn oil.

It should be noted that if you are able to find a ‘cold pressed’ or organic canola oil, this may be a safer alternative, but they are rare.

The majority of canola oil varieties you find will not be cold-pressed, so you’re likely best off to just avoid it entirely.

Better choices?

You simply can’t beat extra virgin olive oil as far as health goes. Although it doesn’t work as well during high temperature cooking, so save it for lower temperature cooking, or to be used in a salad dressing.

Coconut oil would be a much better choice for high temperature cooking and will provide some good saturated fat in the form of a medium chain triglyceride.

This type of saturated fat provides many health benefits such as increased metabolic activity, improved heart health, a stronger immune system, enhanced energy levels, and a leaner body composition.  Actually, it’s one of the best types of fats for weight loss.

A couple other healthy alternatives to consider are macadamia nut or avocado oil. Both of these oils will also provide monounsaturated fats that are relatively stable to be used with heat.

In conclusion, ban the canola oil from your kitchen immediately. It is one of the worst forms of fat you could be putting into your body and with its inflammatory qualities it will only lead to an increased risk of disease.