CHARLEBOIS: The canola oil witch hunt

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As Canada's canola harvest comes to an end, the combines rolling across the prairies symbolize more than the end of another growing season. They represent a national success story that has quietly fueled Canada's food economy for half a century. Yet as farmers reap a golden harvest, a storm of misinformation continues to swirl around one key product: canola oil.

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Canola oil, once hailed as a “Made in Canada” innovation that helped transform the global diet, has recently become a scapegoat in a new food scare. Critics conflate it with other so-called “seed oils,” portraying it as inflammatory, toxic, and responsible for a host of modern diseases. Some US human rights movements, including “Make America Healthy Again” have gone so far as to call it a dietary hazard and require warning labels on foods containing it.

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From an economic and scientific point of view, these claims fall apart when examined closely. Canola oil is one of the most studied and well-studied edible oils in the world. Evidence based on decades of clinical research shows consistent health benefits, especially when canola replaces saturated fat in the diet.

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A 2020 systematic review published in Nutrition, metabolism and cardiovascular disease concluded that canola oil consumption significantly reduced total and LDL cholesterol levels compared with a diet high in saturated fat. Two years later, a feeding trial was conducted in Nutrition Journal demonstrated that both regular and high-oleic canola oil reduced total cholesterol, LDL and apoB over six weeks—an effect on par with olive oil, long considered the gold standard for heart health.

Additional studies confirmed these findings. An eight-week randomized trial of women with type 2 diabetes, published in the journal Nutrition & Metabolism (2019), found that replacing sunflower oil with canola reduced levels of C-reactive protein, a key marker of inflammation. More recently, a 2025 meta-analysis published in Nutrition Journal found that canola consumption resulted in modest but statistically significant reductions in body weight and body mass index compared to other oils.

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Even population-level data points in the same direction. A 2025 report from Johns Hopkins University found that higher blood concentrations of linoleic acid—the dominant omega-6 fatty acid in canola—are associated with a lower risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. The compound itself, accused of being harmful, may actually play a protective role.

Thus, the backlash against canola oil is rooted not in evidence but in speculation. Much of this is based on the claim that heating seed oils creates toxic oxidation products. However, most of these claims are based on laboratory or animal studies conducted under extreme conditions that bear little resemblance to everyday food preparation practices. In normal culinary use, the stability and safety of canola oil are well documented. The American Heart Association and numerous health authorities continue to recommend replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats, such as canola, to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

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Of more pressing concern are the broader implications of such disinformation. When consumers are led to believe that canola oil is “toxic,” they often turn to butter, lard, or tropical oils that are high in saturated fat—choices that reverse decades of public health progress. This is not progress in nutrition literacy; it's a retreat into nostalgia disguised as science.

From an economic perspective, the stakes are significant. The canola sector contributes more than $40 billion to Canada's GDP annually and supports more than 200,000 jobs, many of which are in rural communities. Canada supplies about one-fifth of the world's canola, and the crop represents a rare example of a homegrown agricultural innovation that has become a global staple. Undermining consumer confidence in this product risks not only misrepresenting public health information, but also damaging the cornerstone of the nation's agri-food economy.

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The episode also highlights a broader flaw in contemporary food discourse. Complex issues such as nutrition quality, affordability and sustainability are too often reduced to simplistic narratives of good and bad food. Denigrating one ingredient allows activists and experts to appear decisive while oblivious to the more complex realities of nutrition, access and behavior.

Canola oil is not perfect. Like any vegetable oil, it can degrade if stored improperly or exposed to extreme heat, and not every processed food containing it is healthy. But when used correctly—as part of a diet that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, grains, and lean proteins—its benefits are well documented.

— Sylvain Charlebois is director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, co-host of The Food Professor podcast, and visiting researcher at McGill University.

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