Soybean Oil May Cause Irreversible Changes in Your Brain

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Your choice of cooking oil can make a profound difference in your health. I’ve often warned against the use of soybean oil. Not only is partially hydrogenated soybean oil loaded with trans fat, which has been linked to heart disease,1 it’s also a source of an omega-6 fat called linoleic acid (LA), which is highly susceptible to oxidation and is typically from GMO seeds.

The problem results once you start to digest this fat, as you break it down into harmful sub-components called advanced lipid oxidation end products (ALEs) and oxidized LA metabolites (OXLAMs) that can cause significant damage at the cellular level. For example, an ALE called 4HNE is a mutagen known to cause DNA damage. Studies have shown there’s a definite correlation between elevated levels of 4HNE and heart failure.

Additionally, LA breaks down into 4HNE faster when the oil it is contained in is heated.2 This is largely why cardiologists recommend avoiding fried foods. ALEs and OXLAMs also play a very significant role in cancer and heart disease.

LA-Rich Soybean Oil Linked to Obesity and Diabetes

In 2015, a UC Riverside research team found soybean oil induced obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes and fatty liver in mice.3 Two years later, they confirmed this by showing soybean oil modified to be low in LA caused less obesity and insulin resistance than the unmodified soybean oil.4

Then, in 2020, that same team published research5,6 showing soybean oil, both the modified and unmodified versions, actually produced genetic changes in the brains of mice, and they were not for the better. However, this time LA was not the primary culprit.

Soybean Oil Linked to Genetic Changes in the Brain

In this surprising study,7 the researchers compared diets high in three different types of fat.

  1. Soybean oil, which has a high LA content
  2. Soybean oil modified to be low in LA
  3. Coconut oil

It is surprising, because I would have thought that the LA produced the damaging effects, but LA was ruled out. So, they have identified yet another reason to avoid consuming soy products. As reported by the UC Riverside, the researchers:8

“… did not find any difference between the modified and unmodified soybean oil’s effects on the brain. Specifically, the scientists found pronounced effects of the oil on the hypothalamus, where a number of critical processes take place.

‘The hypothalamus regulates body weight via your metabolism, maintains body temperature, is critical for reproduction and physical growth as well as your response to stress,’ said Margarita Curras-Collazo, a UC Riverside associate professor of neuroscience and lead author on the study.

The team determined a number of genes in mice fed soybean oil were not functioning correctly. One such gene produces the ‘love’ hormone, oxytocin. In soybean oil-fed mice, levels of oxytocin in the hypothalamus went down.

The research team discovered roughly 100 other genes also affected by the soybean oil diet. They believe this discovery could have ramifications not just for energy metabolism, but also for proper brain function and diseases such as autism or Parkinson’s disease …

[T]he research team has not yet isolated which chemicals in the oil are responsible for the changes they found in the hypothalamus. But they have ruled out two candidates.

It is not linoleic acid, since the modified oil also produced genetic disruptions; nor is it stigmasterol, a cholesterol-like chemical found naturally in soybean oil. Identifying the compounds responsible for the negative effects is an important area for the team’s future research …

‘The dogma is that saturated fat is bad and unsaturated fat is good. Soybean oil is a polyunsaturated fat, but the idea that it’s good for you is just not proven,’ [UC Riverside toxicologist Frances] Sladek said.

Indeed, coconut oil, which contains saturated fats, produced very few changes in the hypothalamic genes. ‘If there’s one message I want people to take away, it’s this: reduce consumption of soybean oil,’ [assistant project scientist Poonamjot] Deol said …”

Seed Oils — A Most Harmful Ingredient in the Modern Diet

How Much Linoleic Acid Is Too Much?

Many now understand that your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is very important, and should be about 1-to-1 or possibly up to 4-to-1, but simply increasing your omega-3 intake won’t counteract the damage done by excessive LA. You really need to minimize the omega-6 to prevent damage from taking place.

Ideally, consider cutting LA down to below 7 grams per day, which is close to what our ancestors used to get before all of these chronic health conditions, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer, became widespread. If olive oil puts you over the limit, consider cooking with tallow or lard instead.

If you’re not sure how much you’re eating, enter your food intake into Cronometer — a free online nutrition tracker — and it will provide you with your total LA intake. The key to accurate entry is to carefully weigh your food with a digital kitchen scale so you can enter the weight of your food to the nearest gram.

Cronometer will tell you how much omega-6 you’re getting from your food down to the 10th of a gram, and you can assume 90% of that is LA. Anything over 10 grams is likely to cause problems.

Sources and References

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