Canola Oil or Olive Oil

Not so many years ago, olive oil was thought to be the preserve of "mediterranean cooking" and was more often found in "continental" delis than in mainstream food stores and supermarkets. In the last ten years, it's gained supremacy. Now, supermarkets and food stores offer row upon row of olive oil of different sizes, colours, densities and intensities. Oddly, other kinds of oil are getting harder to find. I was astounded last week not to be able to find peanut oil in my usual supermarket. (I've long ago given up any hope of finding safflower oil there, and get that from the health food shop.) With this thread in mind, I had a quick look for canola oil - which I would have thought would be common enough - but none was to be seen.

Excuse me while I have a grizzle here - but it annoys me when supermarkets get bigger and bigger, and the range of actual foods they offer gets smaller and smaller. Grrrrr.

This olive oil versus canola and other oils business is more interesting than I thought originally. I've just discovered a fact about the Lyon Study which kicked off our interest in the Mediterranean Diet years ago.

"Olive oil, which got its big "heart healthy" start with the Lyon Study, wasn't even used in the study. The study volunteers didn't like the taste of it, so canola oil was substituted for olive oil. All the benefit that we attributed to olive oil, was actually from Omega-3 enriched canola oil."

There's more at the website of a very interesting librarian, one of my hero professions:

http://www.happyhealthylonglife.com/hap ... l-did.html

[uone of my hero professions][/u]

Long live librarians!

Try this link for a song called "March for the Librarians":
http://www.rabbleberries.ca/rabbleberries_listen.html