Canola oil may trim belly fat — Study

Whittling your waistline might begin with pouring on the oil.

Cooking with canola oil may cut belly fat in just four weeks, according to a Penn State report

released at The Obesity Society's Annual Scientific Meeting on Wednesday.

Canola oil, which is pressed from the yellow-flowered rapeseed plant, consists mostly of the good monounsaturated fats also found in olive oil, avocados and nuts that help to reduce bad cholesterol and decrease breast cancer risk.

Penn State researchers tested five different vegetable oils in the diets of 101 subjects, who all had abdominal obesity, in a controlled study. The participants were randomly assigned to drink two smoothies a day blended with a specified oil, including corn/safflower oil, flax/safflower oil, and three types of canola: the conventional canola oil, high-oleic acid canola oil, and high-oleic acid canola with DHA (a type of omega-3 fatty acid). Those who used canola oil lost a quarter pound of belly fat after one month, and the weight lost from their middles did not redistribute elsewhere in body, like their hips or butts.

“As a general rule, you can’t target weight loss to specific body regions,” said Penny M. Kris-Etherton, a professor of nutrition at Penn State, in the report. “But monounsaturated fatty acids seem to specifically target abdominal fat.”

Studies have also shown canola oil to lower fat levels in the blood. And a JAMA Internal Medicine study published last July found that replacing saturated fats in the diet with monounsaturated fats from foods like olive oil and canola oil reduced deaths from specific diseases like heart disease, respiratory disease, cancer and dementia by 13%.

Chewing the fat can save your life. Kris-Etherton recommends adding canola oil to a healthy diet when sautéing foods, in baking, or by whipping it into smoothies or salad dressings.