If I have to come across another bottle, radio ad (including the current hilarious one featuring a direly dull, one-foot-in-the-grave cardiologist) or magazine spread trumpeting the health benefits of canola oil, I shall go mad. GREASING THE WHEEL ...If I have to come across another bottle, radio ad (including the current hilarious one featuring a direly dull, one-foot-in-the-grave cardiologist) or magazine spread trumpeting the health benefits of canola oil, I shall go mad. Another sad example of how marketing machinery and our dislocation from food production can create "facts" and "common knowledge" out of thin air.Canola is of course rapeseed oil, albeit a newly hybridised version with only trace amounts of the toxic erucic acid that rapeseed contains. The name is a combo of Canada (where the industry boom started) and oil, concocted in 1978 because the canny Canadian marketers guessed that the word rape wasn't going to endear consumers to their new product.Despite the hype, processed supermarket-shelf canola oil is far from a healthy choice. Though the industry has always stressed its importance as a heart-healthy food, independent studies show that, if anything, canola oil has a negative effect on heart health, and is also recognised as a growth retarder - which is why there's legislation in place to stop it from being used in infant formulas.True, rapeseed oil has been used in traditional diets for hundreds of years, but studies show that unless these diets also contain certain amounts of saturated fats - such as ghee or coconut oil - to mitigate effects, it has a negative rather than positive impact on health. At any rate, traditionally the oil wasn't processed the way it is now.Industrialised canola oil, extracted through high heat and chemicals such as hexane, is a different animal. Deodorising is also a must: the industry requires oils to have a long shelf life, and omega 3 oils left in their natural state go rancid and smelly easily. Though industrial brands stipulate a relatively high amount of omega 3 (the reason industry could promote it as a healthy option from the start), spot-check lab tests showed that labels and contents don't usually match up. Deodorising changes much of the omega 3 into trans-fats. In the main, trans-fats aren't even listed - yet they are, unavoidably, there. Bottom line, canola is about as far from a natural food as is the average tub of margarine.But let's not get hysterical. As with so many things, there is plenty of danger-mongering and fabrication out there. For example, though rapeseed is a member of the brassica or mustard family it is not, as some articles have claimed, the source of mustard gas used in chemical warfare.A little canola in your diet every now and then is not going to poison you. But that's about as much as it can claim, really. Any actual health benefits touted are entirely mythical. Or to use another word, bullsh*t...