Ok... I agree in an ideal world we wouldn't eat as much canola as we do... but I still think canola is the faaaaar lesser evil than marg. Not all canola is genetically modified.
ETA: yep, I just checked our canola cooking oil.... clearly says that it's not genetically modified... is this wrong?
Canola is one of two cultivars of rapeseed or Brassica campestris (Brassica napus L. and B. campestris L.).[1] Their seeds are used to produce edible oil that is fit for human consumption because it has lower levels of erucic acid than traditional rapeseed oils and to produce livestock feed because it has reduced levels of the toxin glucosinolates.[2] Canola was originally naturally bred from rapeseed in Canada by Keith Downey and Baldur R. Stefansson in the early 1970s,[3][4] but it has a very different nutritional profile in addition to much less erucic acid.[5] The name "canola" was derived from "Canadian oil, low acid" in 1978.[6][7] A product known as LEAR (for low erucic acid rapeseed) derived from cross-breeding of multiple lines of Brassica juncea is also referred to as canola oil and is considered safe for consumption.[8]
So canola is a hybrid?... not necessarily genetically modified.... they wouldn't have had the technology back then. There are soooooo many food hybrids out there... I wouldn't not eat an apple because it was a hybrid (most are)... I don't see canola being nasty in small amounts.
"And don't believe the GMO buzz either: Canola oil was not developed using genetic engineering. In fact, Canadians bred canola from the rapeseed plant in the early 1970s — almost a decade before biotechnology company Monsanto genetically modified the first plant cell."
The full article can be found on the Delicious Living website.
ETA: here is another little extract from the DL site: (referring to full fat vs low fat foods)
When enjoyed in moderation, these real treats actually make you feel more satisfied and therefore (the theory goes) less likely to overeat. I think there's something intuitively wise about this approach. When did we become so afraid of certain foods that we devised counterfeit but seemingly more healthy alternatives? Margarine for butter (though now, of course, we know that margarine's trans fats make it a bad guy), egg substitute for eggs, skim milk and cornstarch for cream, fake fats and artificial sugars … the list goes on.
Now I grant you, some substitutes are a godsend to people who really struggle with certain health issues—but for the majority of typical eaters, a return to using the real deal in judicious amounts for optimum flavor and enjoyment strikes me a lovely and even healthy trend. Do you agree?
Yes! I do! Stick with real foods and avoid the fake!
Last edited by Bathsheba; June 3rd, 2009 at 12:56 PM.
butter here too.
If you are in brissy gympie farm butter at the markets is the best, yum!
Supposed to be, the yellower the better.
Marg is terrible, and they use it at my dd's kindy. eww. I cringe when I see her eating cheap white bread, marg and homebrand tinned spag.
Oh well
Mum says if you beat your butter with a bit of water it is more spreadable. Havent actually tried it but they used to do it at my tuckshop when i was in primary school to spread the bread.
Buttersoft is nice, and has nothing added to the butter.
Originally, canola was bred as a hybrid plant. These days, the large seed corporations HAVE geneticially modified the genome of their canola strains so that they are more disease resistant and so that you can spray massive amounts of herbicides onto the crop without actually killing the canola, just the weeds. They are suing farmers who inadvertantly grow their modified canola by accident as it's mostly a wind pollinated plant. This is way more and more canola plants are turning up on the highways of Australia as the seeds are moved around, the new genes and Round Up resistance is getting into the wild brassicas and the only way to keep the roadsides clear is weeding by hand (as if that's gonna happen!).
Also, I had heard that margarine was originally invented as a grease for ball bearings in the early industrial period and that it was initially black when produced. The French Navy adopted it as a butter substitue after it was discovered that it could be bleached and coloured to look the same as butter.
Last edited by Meo; June 3rd, 2009 at 01:07 PM.
: adding thoughts on margarine
I use crockery butter dishes... it's tricky to get one that is high enough... I know it sounds over the top but I would measure the height of a block of butter before choosing a butter dish... one of mine won't close properly until I have used some of the butter off the top.
Kim: until the refridgerator was invented butter was kept in a cool pantry.... if it stays solid then it should be safe for a few days if left out. Being a family of 5 we go through a block in a few days anyhow.
Canola has an incredibly high insecticide content - and someone mentioned using it in small amounts... Of course everything in small amounts is usually harmless. Just that because canola is soooooo cheap - manufacturers use it in everything.
If you buy jars of pasta sauce - it's in that. Softened butter, some breakfast cereals, fish fingers, nuggets etc etc.
I personally dont purchase the above but if I did my family would ingest a significant amount in a week.
Just another thing to watch. As someone else said - when you buy as close to the source as possible it is usally better.
Canola was originally developed for industry - and has been modified for human consumption... I am highly suspicious...
Kim my butter keeper is white china and is a Maxwell and Williams cheapy number from Myer... I didn't need to measure or anything it fits perfectly a 250 gram block of butter.
I probably use 250g in a week for a large family and I have never had rancidity issues...
An aside - oils should not be kept in plastic... Plastic and oil react... Another reason to check at thesupermarket that your oil is in glass..
I totally agree that canola isn't 100% ideal... but compared to margarine I believe that it's the safer option by far. And yes, it does seem to be in soooo many foods. With us I cook alot from scratch, don't eat many highly processed foods... have gone way off fish fingers and processed frozen crumbed fish now... so for us it's not as much as a concern. I guess I would be more likely to question the ingredients of what you are putting on your toast and sandwiches than the thinly spread butter or butter blends. There is probably canola in the peanut butter too for example... so I definitely see your point Deb
ETA: yes, I have also heard that about storing butter in plastic: best avoided.... that's why I use the crockery dish.
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