\n
![\"crisco\"](\"http:\/\/heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/crisco.jpg\")
\nBut my biggest question is: what\u2019s a canola? I never heard of a vegetable called canola. Or a grain either. Turns out that\u2019s because there isn\u2019t one. It\u2019s a made-up word!<\/p>\n
Canola oil is often advertised as being as good as, or even healthier than, olive oil, but I\u2019m not buying it (seriously, I\u2019m not buying it). Olive oil is cleanly pressed. Canola oil, like all the other \u201cvegetable\u201d oils, is extremely chemically processed.
\n
\nBut my biggest question is: what\u2019s a canola? I never heard of a vegetable called canola. Or a grain either. Turns out that\u2019s because there isn\u2019t one. It\u2019s a made-up word!<\/p>\n
Canola is, no joke, the combination of the words “Canada” and “oil.” Can + oil = Canola. Great, but what the heck is Canada oil?<\/p>\n
In the 1960s, looking for a cheap way to grow and process cooking oil, Canadian scientists messed around with the rapeseed plant (which is poisonous to just about every living creature) to try and get it to grow without all its poisonous acids. It worked, sort of, and they got a rapeseed plant with \u201clow acid.\u201d They figured out that no one in America would want to buy \u201crape oil\u201d (even though that\u2019s what they call it in Europe), so they decided to make up a name for it.
\n![\"canoil\"](\"http:\/\/heather-maclean.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/canoil.jpg\")
\nMy friend Jodie didn\u2019t believe me when I told her canola wasn\u2019t a real plant, so she called the 800 number on a bottle of canola oil that will remain nameless. The customer service agent told her that canola was a pretty yellow flower (that\u2019s what rapeseed is). Jodie\u2019s feisty like me, and asked why she\u2019d never seen or heard of a canola plant before, and the lady told her that you could \u201conly find them in Canada\u201d because of the \u201cspecial soil\u201d up there. Hilarious (and untrue; they grow it in America, too).<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what I know: the rapeseed plant and the canola plant have the same scientific name, Brassica napus<\/em>. \u201cCanola\u201d is just the nicer new nickname for an unpleasant-sounding plant. Hopefully there\u2019s not enough poison in rapeseed\/canola anymore to hurt humans, but since it\u2019s a new invention and since it’s processed, I\u2019m going to wait this one out. I\u2019ll stick to the juice from real fruit (olives) that\u2019s been used for thousands of years.<\/p>\n P.S. In Italian, cavolo<\/em> means \u201ccrap.\u201d Interesting, no?<\/p>\n
![\"SkinnyItal-cover\"](\"http:\/\/heather-maclean.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/SkinnyItal-cover.jpg\")
<\/td>\n