Canola oil cuts heart disease risk among Type 2 diabetics

Dr. David Jenkins, head of the hospital's Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre, compared people with Type 2 diabetes who ate either a low glycemic index diet that included bread made with canola oil, or a whole wheat diet known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease .

His study found that those on the canola bread diet experienced both a reduction in blood glucose levels and a significant reduction in LDL, or "bad," cholesterol.

Even more exciting, he said, was the finding that the canola bread diet seemed to have the most significant impact on people who needed help the most - those whose HbA1c test measuring blood glucose over the previous two or three months was highest.

Dr. Jenkins, who is a professor of both nutritional sciences and medicine at the University of Toronto, said the reduction in LDL cholesterol observed in his study of 141 people could translate into a 7 percent reduction in cardiovascular events.

He said the benefit could also be translated into an additional 20mg dose of one of the cholesterol-reducing drugs known as statins-a doubling of a standard dose.

The word canola is a contraction of Canada and ola, meaning oil. It was developed from rapeseed at the University of Manitoba in the 1970s. Canola oil contains only 7 percent saturated fat, less than half that of olive oil, widely touted for its health benefits.

The study is published in the journal Diabetes Care.