CANOLA OR OLIVE OIL? What's your go to?

My husband rarely grocery shops but last week he was heading to town so I asked him to stop at the Co-op store for me. I needed olive oil for the asparagus. Roger came home with canola oil. "What am I going to do with that?" I asked.

He simply replied, "Use it in place of olive oil and support our farm!" So I did! And guess what? I couldn't tell the difference! So I decided to do some research comparing cooking oils. Turns out that canola oil is very healthy, is good for sauteing with, does not create the same carbon footprint as olive oil, can be used as a biodiesel, and has a huge economic impact on Canada.

Canola is a member of the Brassica genus. It was developed in the 1970's in Canada through plant-breeding to remove the glucosinolates and the eurucic acid in rapeseed. The name canola comes from Canada and ola, which means oil. My first research was on the dietary fat content of canola oil versus olive oil. I had heard of saturated and polyunsaturated fats but I didn't know about linoleic, alpha-linolenic, or oleic acid so it was a huge, but interesting, learning curve for me!

Canola oil has half the saturated fats as olive oil. Saturated fats raise low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. It also contains more Linoleic acid which reduces LDL cholesterol levels. (Farvid et al) Canola oil contains 16% of the Recommended Daily Intake of Vitamin E, olive oil is 13%, and both contain 7% of the RDI of Vitamin K. Canola oil also contains more alpha-linolenic acid which is a type of omega 3 fatty acid similar to that found in fish. ALA helps protect the brain from stroke. (Blondeau et al) Canola oil has a little less oleic acid, which is an anti-inflammatory omega 9 fatty acid but overall, canola oil is a very healthy choice!

I have always used canola oil for cooking as it has a higher smoke point at 460º compared to olive oil at 385º. When oils reach their smoke point the glycerol & Free Fatty Acids break down and form ketones and alcohols.

I have always used olive oil for salads but Roger convinced me to try a blind taste test of the two. Perhaps my palette is not refined enough but I could not taste the difference. Especially a difference of $1.18 per 100 ml. Half of the olive oil sold in Canada comes from Italy, 46% from Spain, Tunisia, and Greece, and 4% from the U.S. Importing from Europe greatly adds to the cost. At my local Co-op, olive oil from Italy is $1.50 per 100 ml versus Canadian canola oil at .32¢ per 100 ml. One must also think about the carbon footprint of importing olive oil. In 2015 alone container ships emitted 932 million tonnes of CO2. (Olmer et al) 812 million of those from international shipping. Container ships burnt 298 million tonnes of fuel in 2015. So that cost must be added in to your oilive oil price, both economically and environmentally.

Canola oil is made here in Canada and can help our environment by being used in biodiesel. Diesel fuel in Canada must contain 2% biofuel. And even at this low-level, canola-based biofuels help reduce annual GHG emissions by 4.4 megatonnes! Canada's new "Clean Fuel Standard" plans to reduce GHG emissions by 30 megatonnes by 2030. This could easily be done if the Canadian government used Canadian canola for biofuel. But as the proposed Act is written now, it will be too cumbersome for Canadian canola seed. Canada exports $307 million worth of canola seed to the EU for biodiesel. Our top market for canola oil is the U.S. which purchased $3.6 billion worth in 2018. China had been Canada's top purchaser for canola seed, purchasing $3.6 billion worth in 2018. However, this has dropped significantly after the arrest of Meng Wazhou on Dec.1, 2018. Western Canadian farmers were left with a billion dollars worth of unsold seed. In the U.S., farmers were paid $150.00 per acre by the U.S. governement when China closed the market on American soybeans in 2018. In 2019 an additional 16 billion in subsidies was handed out. Our government has done nothing to help canola farmers so it must purchase canola seed for Canadian bio-diesel.

Canola creates 250 thousand jobs paying out $11.2 billion in wages and contributes 26.7 billion to the Canadian economy. (albertacanolacouncil.org) The Canadian government needs to help canola farmers and the environment by making canola seed usable for biodiesel. Please help by signing the petition at flower-power.ca

Well after all my reserach I have decided that canola oil tastes light, is good for my health, helps Canada's economy and the environment. I will be supporting Canada by buying canola oil instead of olive oil from now on!

Works Cited

Blondeau, Nicolas et al. “Alpha-linolenic acid: an omega-3 fatty acid with neuroprotective properties-ready for use in the stroke clinic?.”BioMed research internationalvol. 2015 (2015): 519830. doi:10.1155/2015/519830 Accessed 18 Aug.2020

Farvid et al. "Dietary Linoleic Acid and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease." hsps.harvad.edu. 2014, Accessed 18 Aug.2020

Olmer, Naya et al. "Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Global Shipping, 2013-2015" The International Council on Clean Transportation, 2017 theicct.org Accessed 17 Aug.2020