Canola oil is a versatile and practical cooking oil that’s not very expensive and can be used in a wide variety of ways, from baking and grilling to stir-frying and making salad dressings Canola oil consists mostly of monounsaturated fats (61 percent, almost as much as olive oil) and polyunsaturated fats (32 percent). Of all vegetable oils, it is lowest in saturated fats (7 percent). And, notably, it is second highest in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 polyunsaturated fat related to the omega-3s in fish (11 percent ALA, compared to 57 percent in flaxseed oil). In contrast, olive, corn, safflower, and sunflower oils contain just 1 percent ALA. A study carried out in 2013 found that when people use canola oil to replace saturated fat in their diets, it helped them to reduce their cholesterol levels and LDL cholesterol levels, which reduces a person’s risk of a heart attack.
