Please do your research
Forwarding As received. Worth investigating ! 

CANOLA OIL

I recently sent this letter to Fair Lady magazine in SA.  But they haven't published it, which I suspect may have something to do with the fact that Fair Lady runs ads for the product concerned.  I think it's important that as many people as possible KNOW about the origins of this product.  Then, if you choose to buy it, at least you're doing so with your eyes open.

Please forward this to the people in your address book.  Email is the most powerful weapon in the world for free speech. I hope to receive this back in three months' time, when it's circled the globe.  I am very far from being a health freak.  But I believe that we have the right to know what we're consuming.  In South Africa, it seems, our labelling laws are so lax that manufacturers do not have to give any info whatsoever.  Hence my research.  Hence my (so far unpublished) letter to Fair Lady.

 Athalie Russell

Research Finance Officer

University of Cape Town, SA Faculty of Health Sciences

Tel: (021) 406 6491

Fax: (021) 406 6390

Email: skalu@curie.uct.ac.za

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RAPESEED IN A DIFFERENT GUISE

 Dear Editors

Recently I bought a cooking oil that's new to our supermarkets, Canola Oil.

I tried it because the label assured me it was lowest in "bad" fats.  However, when I had used half the bottle, I concluded that the label told me surprisingly little else and I started to wonder:  where does Canola oil come from?

Olive oil comes from olives, peanut oil from peanuts, sunflower oil from sunflowers; but what is a canola? There was nothing on the label to enlighten me, which I thought odd.  So, I did some investigating on the Internet.

There are plenty of official Canola sites lauding this new "wonder" oil with all its low-fat health benefits. It takes a little longer to find sites that tell the less palatable details.  Here are just a few facts everyone should know before buying anything containing canola.  Canola is not the name of a natural plant but a made-up word, from the words "Canada" and "oil".  Canola is a genetically engineered plant developed in Canada from the rapeseed plant, which is part of the mustard family of plants.

According to AgriAlternatives, The Online Innovation and Technology Magazine for Farmers, "By nature, these rapeseed oils, which have long been used to produce oils for industrial purposes, are toxic to humans and other animals".  (This, by the way, is one of the websites singing the praises of the new canola industry.)

Rapeseed oil is poisonous to living things and an excellent insect repellent.  I have been using it (in very diluted form, as per instructions) to kill the aphids on my roses for the last two years. It works very well; it suffocates them.  Ask for it at your nursery.  Rape is an oil that is used as a lubricant, fuel, soap and synthetic rubber base and as a illuminant for colour pages in magazines.  It is an industrial oil.  It is not a food. 

Rape oil, it seems, causes emphysema, respiratory distress,anaemia, constipation, irritability and blindness in animals and humans.  Rape oil was widely used in animal feeds in England and Europe between 1986 and 1991, when it was thrown out.  Remember the "Mad Cow Disease" scare, when millions of unfortunate cattle in the UK were slaughtered in case of infecting humans?  Cattle were being fed on a mixture containing material from dead sheep, and sheep suffer from a disease called "scrapie".  It was thought this was how "Mad Cow" began and started to infiltrate the human chain.  What is interesting is that when rape oil was removed from animal feed, 'scrapie' disappeared.  We also haven't seen any further reports of "Mad Cow" since rape oil was removed from the feed.  Perhaps not scientifically proven, but interesting all the same.

US and Canadian farmers grow genetically engineered rapeseed and manufacturers use its oil (canola) in thousands of processed foods, with the blessings of Canadian and US government watchdog agencies.  The canola supporting websites say that canola is safe to use.  They admit it was developed from the rapeseed, but insist that through genetic engineering it is no longer rapeseed, but "canola" instead.  Except canola means "Canadian oil"; and the plant is still a rape plant, albeit genetically modified.

The new name provides perfect cover for commercial interests wanting to take billions.  Look at the ingredients list on labels. Apparently peanut oil is being replaced with rape oil.  You'll find it in an alarming number of processed foods.  There's more, but to conclude: rape oil was the source of the chemical warfare agent mustard gas, which was banned after blistering the lungs and skins of hundred of thousands of soldiers and civilians during W.W.I.  Recent French reports indicate that it was again in use during the Gulf War.  Check products for ingredients. If the label says, "may contain the following" and lists canola oil, you know it contains canola oil because it is the cheapest oil and the Canadian government subsidises it to industries involved in food processing.  I don't know what you'll be cooking with tonight, but I'll be using olive oil and old-fashioned butter, from a genetically unmodified cow.

Yours Sincerely

Say No to Canola Oil

Athalie Russell

Research Finance Officer

Faculty of Health Sciences

University of Cape Town, SA

Tel: (021) 406 6491

Fax: (021) 406 6390

Email: skalu@curie.uct.ac.za