Canola Quick Facts
Canola Facts: Trans Fat and Public Health
The skinny on fats
Fats and oils are made of four different types of fatty acids: polyunsaturated, monounsaturated,
saturated and trans. Trans and saturated fats raise blood cholesterol. High
blood cholesterol is a risk factor for coronary heart disease - the number one killer of adults
in Canada and the U.S.. Meanwhile, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated (omega-3 and omega-6)
fats tend to help lower the risk of heart disease.
Where does canola fit?
Canola oil has a well balanced fatty acid profile. It has the lowest level of saturated fats
of all commercially available oils (7%); it has the second highest level of monounsaturates
(61%); it is a good source of polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acid; and, as a liquid oil, canola
has zero trans fat. Overall, canola is touted by many nutritionists and food
manufacturers to be the healthiest of all available oil and fat sources.
What’s new?
In 2004, the House of Commons passed a motion to eliminate or reduce trans fats in
the Canadian food supply to the lowest levels possible. Flowing from that commitment, Health
Canada and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada are co-chairing a Task Force (including
government, civil society, academia and industry representatives) which will make recommendations
to the government on how to achieve this objective.
How does this affect canola?
The government initiative to lower trans fat in our diet holds tremendous opportunity for the Canadian canola industry.
Some of the canola oil consumed in Canada is "partially hydrogenated" to make it
more stable, giving it a longer shelf life. While, partial hydrogenation makes liquid oils
more solid for use in shortenings, margarines and for deep frying, the process does create
trans fats.
An innovative new canola product known as "high stability canola" can now be used
by food companies and restaurants to make margarines, baked goods and in deep frying without
having to go through the hydrogenation process. It is estimated that this new product can
decrease saturated and trans fat in foods such as cookies and crackers in the range
of 85%.
So what’s the problem?
The Task Force’s current deliberations are not taking into account all the factors.
First, Parliament made a political decision to differentiate between
certain sources of trans fat in its direction to the task force. While trans
fat can be found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, it is also found in dairy products
and red meats. The Task Force is currently thinking of discriminating between vegetable and
ruminant-based sources of trans fat even though scientific evidence does not support
that.
Second, the Task Force co-chairs have also chosen not to consider saturated fat as part of
the objective - because Parliament did not direct them to - even though science has clearly
established that consuming either saturated or trans
fats raises cholesterol.
These two problems have the potential to seriously undermine the objective of improving
overall public health because the alternatives to partially hydrogenated vegetable oils
(other than "high stability canola") could include fats and oils such as palm,
butterfat or tallow which are all high in saturated fat -- not to mention that the animal
sources also contain trans fat! Furthermore, the availability of cheap palm oil
or tallow would mean food manufacturers would see a premium product such as high stability
canola as less economically attractive.
Government intervention that ignores the two issues noted above would provide a clear
incentive to use the less healthy alternatives and also have a negative impact on domestic
products such as canola.
Canola’s Position
We strongly support the government’s objective to reduce trans fat from
all sources, but not at the expense of overall
public health by allowing saturated fat levels to sky rocket in the Canadian diet.
April 3, 2006
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