Cold Pressed Organic Rapeseed Oil page

[HazelPrimalNut]

You can get organic cold pressed rapeseed oil in Ireland. It's called Canola Oil in USA I think but is much more processed. Can I use this oil and be healthy? It (the organic cold pressed variety) has become quite fashionable now over here and is used by a lot of restaurants and cafés.

[SteakNchop]

No. Not even close. It's one of the worst oils for you. It may be slightly better than processed canola oil, but it's still absolutely horrible for you.

[HazelPrimalNut]

Ok, I expected that response but I don't understand why it is so bad? Here is a link to a page describing how good it is - are you saying this is all lies? I have read about canola oil here before but it always talks about processed canola oil - this stuff is not processed. Nutrition « Second nature oils – home of happy heart organic rapeseed oil

[Gadsie]

Here's what I know:
Canola oil has a lot of PUFAs. These are fats with carbon atoms connected with each other by bonds. Unlike saturated fat, the "open spaces" between the carbon atoms are not saturated by hydrogen atoms. PUFAs have 1 or more double bonds.
A single bond would look like this c-c (c is a carbon atom and the line is a bond) and a double bond would look like this c=c. These bonds consist of electrons. Heat can get between this double bond since it's not saturated with hydrogen. heat causes vibration, this vibration can "knock" out an electron from the bond. So the fatty acid is now positively charged because it has got more protons than electrons (an electron is knocked out). It has now turned into a free radical. This basically means that the bond wants its electron back. So it takes any electron from other molecules to be neutrally charged again. Once it has done this, there is obviously another molecule missing an electron. And so on, this causes a chain reaction which is damaging cells.

I'm not a scientist but I think this explanation is kind of accurate

[breadsauce]

Hi HPN. There is a farm near where I live in Sussex which makes organic rapeseed oil too

Sussex Gold Culinary Oils: Sussex Gold

with all of the heart healthy propaganda too. Bound to - it is an EU subsidised crop, and has ENORMOUS % returns for the farmer.

The there is the other side

IS CANOLA OIL POISONING YOUR BODY OR HELPING YOUR HEART? There is a controversy over the usage of this oil for cooking and baking.

and you can find just as much of anti rapeseed info as you can pro rapeseed.

In the end, you must make up your own mind. For me, it is a no no. I use home rendered lard for most cooking. For dressings, mayo etc, I use virgin olive oil, and to make sure that it is genuine, not adulterated like so much that you buy in supermarkets etc, I buy from the farm

Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil | eBay

** EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL 5Ltr Spanish Cold Pressed ** | eBay

Superb oils, and as they come in large quantity, I bottle them up and give bottles to close (and deserving!) friends.

My omega 3 comes from fresh fish, or failing that, fermented cod liver oil pills.

I just don't use oils from seeds.

[Lewis]

Ok, I expected that response but I don't understand why it is so bad? Here is a link to a page describing how good it is - are you saying this is all lies? I have read about canola oil here before but it always talks about processed canola oil - this stuff is not processed. Nutrition « Second nature oils – home of happy heart organic rapeseed oil

Not lies, I assume, but not necessarily the whole truth and not all relevant.

If they say they cold-press it and don't use solvents, then I'd assume that's true -- otherwise, they'd be riding for a prosecution for false advertising.

Are they accurate in saying that their oil is "100% free from Erucic Acid"? I don't know. This is the fatty acid known to cause heart lesions, and one reason why people have been so nervous of rapeseed/canola oil. I understood that Canola -- a brand name for Canadian Oil, I think -- was the result of an attempt to breed this out, but that the attempt was not wholly successful. Do they regularly monitor samples to ensure there's none there?

But this is esentially what catches my eye:

Cold pressed rapeseed oil has a content of 6% saturated fat compared to 14% in olive oil which would mean that rapeseed oil is a healthier oil for your heart ...

If that's not simply disengenuous, it's highly ill-informed. A lower content of saturated fat would certainly not mean that.

A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVD risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat.

Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease

I guess the fact of the matter is that olive trees wouldn't grow so well in Ireland. That's been kind of irrelevant in the past, because people in places like Ireland, and Britain, and Northern France used animal carcase fats and butter. People in Britain and Ireland in prehistoric times even buried butter in bogs, whether to keep it cool or as some kind of sacrifice, I don't know:

Bog butter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now people -- mostly Ancel Keys and friends -- have succeeded in working people worldwide into a hysteria about animal fat, people look for some kind of oil instead. If you can't grow olives in your country, you offer the public whatever you've got instead.

Oh, and, of course, the vegetable oil industry has been involved behind the scenes in pumping up that hysteria. Hence "the Oiling of America":

The Oiling of America - YouTube


But, if there's nothing wrong with animal fat ... then it's all kind of irrelevant. Get out the Kerrygold instead. And if you want some oil for dressing, then a little imported olive oil is probably safer.

Would I eat rapeseed oil at all -- even cold-pressed? Probably not. The link you gave, advertsiing the stuff, says:

Rapeseed oil contains 59% monounsaturated fat and 30% polyunsaturated fats

All other problems aside, 30% polyunstaurates seems rather high. Polyunsaturates are highly unstable and will soon degrade with time, temperature, and sunlight. Not a problem if you eat a handful of seeds or nuts, but once you start expressing the oil from seeds or nuts to concentrate it and leave it sitting around in bottles on shelves in warehouses, supermarkets, and homes.

I'd leave it well alone myself. If you really want it, probably best refrigerate it.

[HazelPrimalNut]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I mainly use it to make mayonnaise because it has a light flavour as opposed to EV olive Oil, which can make very overpowering mayo. I use half rapeseed half EV olive oil, I guess I won't be using it any more. On the hunt for another light flavoured oil so.

[Gadsie]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I mainly use it to make mayonnaise because it has a light flavour as opposed to EV olive Oil, which can make very overpowering mayo. I use half rapeseed half EV olive oil, I guess I won't be using it any more. On the hunt for another light flavoured oil so.

I suggest using normal olive oil. It's less overpowering. People also say avocado oil is good, but it's hard to find

[HazelPrimalNut]

I can find Avocado easy over here (Ireland) it's in every super market. Normal olive oil is often not cold pressed and highly refined so I'll stay away from that.