Let's Talk: Why Canola Oil Is Real Food--Sometimes
Yesterday, we had a meditation on simplicity and a gorgeous pilaf to go along with it. You can find more about it all here. But today, I'd like to talk about what was at the base of that rice dish, the simplest thing of all: canola oil.
Or not so simple at all.
You probably know that Bruce and I have been hard at work on a ham book. But we've also been working on a seven-step plan to get all the processed food out of your life. That book, named after this blog, has proven so important that it's being published in two months! I've barely finished writing it and the publisher is crashing it out onto the market. Crazy. You can see more here.
I'll tell you more about it in the weeks ahead. I sort of consider it the anti-Pollan, anti-Waters book, mostly because I'm done with that hyper-elitism in all its forms. Our food dilemmas and obesity problems are not solved by sneering. Rather, they're solved by careful, slow, even steps.
Canola oil is a case in point. It was a big surprise when we looked into it.
It's made from Canadian rapeseeds, a high-yield grass crop (canola comes from Canadian oil). The little seeds are quite nutritious with a fairly high monounsaturated fat content (like olive oil) and at least 10% omega-3 fatty acids, the heart-healthy stuff in walnuts and salmon.
So far, so good. But most of the canola oil we buy is not real food. Because these good factors also give the oil almost no shelf life: it goes rancid quickly. So it’s processed. And into oblivion.
The oil is taken from the seeds via high-heat mechanized processing and nasty chemical solvents. It’s then further refined, bleached, and degummed. Unfortunately, those omega-3s go rancid during the high-heat processing, leaving foul odors in the oil. So it also has to undergo chemical deodorization before being bottled. This is how we suffer. This is how we got to where we are today. We take a good product, something that should be a part of a balanced diet, and turn it into a tasteless, shelf-stable one.
As a result, Bruce and I have been on a quest to find a good canola oil, the kind made from organic grains, the kind that retains much of its nutrition profile. One we've found comes from La Tourangelle. It adds a lovely silkiness to that herbaceous rice pilaf. Even better, it's got no chemical chicanery.
I'd encourage you to know more about what you're eating--to make sure you're getting the kind of food your body craves. Pass on your discoveries like this one. If you didn't catch it, Suzie left a marinade recipe that sounds pretty fine here. Because they're all real food. Without any fake-outs. And in the end, our path out of our current dilemmas lies not with a haughty sneer but instead with small steps that "simply" finally add up to the big finish.
canola oil, real food
Reader Comments (9)
You are so right about the processing of oils. Most "vegetable oils" are made the same way and so rancid when we buy them. They are also sold in clear bottles and stored in warm places making it worse. Rancid fat is not what we want to put in our bodies.
That is why I only cook with quality animal fat, or use fruit (olive) and nut oils never seed or grain oils. Most of us have too much omega-6 in our diet and seed/grain oils are high in omega-6. Pastured raised meat and fat on the other hand has omega-3.
Generally canola oil has twice as much omega-6 as omega-3. Omega -6 inhibits the body from absorbing omega-3 so the benefit is canceled. Worse still Canola is a highly modified crop, can you tell me where is that canola oil coming from?
Good luck with the books. How do you do it? Can you come and help me?
What a refreshing approach! Hyper-elitism is rampant in our society and in the food community especially. I pre-ordered your book on Amazon and can't wait to read it.
Hello, Jennifer! The Canadian rapeseeds used in this oil are from old, non-modified stock, grown under strict organic practices. While I do love fruit and nut oils and do really love animal fat, I do think there are times when even canola oil has its place. It just gave the right silky, gorgeous finish to that pilaf. But yet, you are on the money about oils/fats. And in the book, we discuss how a flavorful oil or fat is always a better key to satiety. (I'd be delighted to come see you any day and help in the kitchen!)
RMW: Thank you for your kind words. Drop by and tell me what you're thinking. I'm always intrigued.
Respect. We are so in agreement with everything you've written, Mark. Our big aim over the past few years has been to take our food as far down the production ladder as is feasible. We're not in a position to have stock, or grow all our own produce, so it's not something we have complete control over. But bit by bit, we're working on whittling our food back to first principles. We've processed over 100kg of fresh roma tomatoes this season to make our own passata, and this morning, I've cooked a kilo worth of baked beans using our homemade tomato sauce. So when my son has breakfast tomorrow, he'll have homemade sourdough toast with butter, topped with homemade baked beans, made from dried beans and our homemade tomato passata. Sometimes we'll even have home-churned butter on his toast. It's not that this type of thinking saves us money (even though it does), it's that I like to know what we're eating, and the more we learn, the more we want to know. I'm constantly astounded by how much is added to the food we buy, without our knowledge (I wrote a post recently on Homemade Bread about this).
Re the canola oil, I try not to use it except in spray form, and only because I've not been able to find anything else that works on my bundt pans without marking them. I'm sure there's been some stuff in our local press recently about canola oil containing hydrogenated/trans fats. Our current oils of choice are cold-pressed EVOO or grapeseed oil for high heat applications - until that is, someone finds something wrong with them! :)
Celia: This conversation is so darn important. Thanks for engaging it.
I'm not much one for canola oil. I agree with Bittman that it's got a slippery, strange texture--and seems to make foods bizarrely slippery, to boot. And I'm totally with Jennifer: too much omega-6s in our food sources. Better to make your own lard (um, see the post on this blog) and use is sparingly than to use processed seed/grain oils. In fact, as we discovered while writing the book, REAL FOOD HAS CURVES, the plan to get off processed food, satiety--pleasure, flavor, taste, etc.--is the single most important key to 1) eating less, 2) eating better, and 3) losing weight. We've got a boatload of research in the book to make the link between all those.
That all said, sometimes, canola oil is the thing. Like in that pilaf. It indeed adds a slick silkiness that simply cannot be beat. You cannot win the war of eating "real food" by demonizing this and that. Instead, you gotta make good, informed choices. Pollan is a nut case for saying things like "it's not food if it comes in through your can window." It invalidates my friends who own a little rib shack in Texas, every single pork or beef rib from their own pasture-raised, certified organic animals. Such elitist hysteria is crap. Instead, food should be a pleasure, not an exercise in Puritan outrage.
It seems to me that all too often, what starts of as a genuine enthusiasm for real food soon turns into orthorexia. Or people fall prey to an all or nothing attitude - as if the only options were to eat only local sustainable pastured organic blah blah blah foods, or live on a diet of oreos and dollar menus. Eating is an exercise in nourishment and pleasure, not virtue and punishment.
Butter, my friend, you stumped this writer. Orthorexia. You sent me to the dictionary. "An obsession with eating healthy foods." Wow. Who knew there was a word? You made my morning!
But in truth, you are on target. Eating is an exercise in nourishment and pleasure. I couldn't agree more. In fact, as we wrote the book, we kept discovering one thing, period: that pleasure in food is the key to weight loss. A recent USDA study has discovered that people who spend MORE time at the table, MORE time cooking, and MORE time shopping for food weigh less. By an astounding margin. Effort is part of pleasure. But that's another matter entirely.
"..pleasure in food is the key to weight loss..." is the most exciting diet key I've ever read!
I so agree with your attitude about healthy foods. Sometimes we could finish a good race begun with baby steps if we didn't get distracted by the sprinters. I'm looking forward to the new book!
Meanwhile, I'm really enjoying the HAM book.
Annelle: Thanks so much for your kind words.
Yes, REAL FOOD HAS CURVES is out 5/11. Believe me, it begins with baby steps. It was written for people who need to start the journey. And so the first step is simply to eat a peach. But it builds from there--to research about taste and memory, to questions of pleasure and satiety--and ends at farmers' markets and CSAs. But all in small steps.