Over the past 5 years, researchers have done a few studies regarding soybean oil consumption and negative affects on the brain. In 2015, researchers from the University of California – Riverside determined that soybean oil induced multiple negative affects on mice including diseases such as diabetes, as well as insulin resistance, obesity, and fatty liver. In 2017, the same researchers from UCR found there is a way to modify soybean oil by lowering the content of linoleic acid which had less of a negative affect in the insulin resistance and obesity categories. This led them to believe that lineolic acid was the contributing factor to the negative affects.
However, earlier this month researches determined in a study that there may not be a difference in the affects between soybean oil with or without linoleic acid. In fact, they found MORE negative affects soybean oil had on proper brain function of male mice used in the study. The oil negatively affects a part of the brain called the hypothalamus, which contributes to your metabolism and body weight, body temperature, reproduction, physical growth, and stress responses. Researchers also believe that soybean oil could contribute to other serious genetic diseases, however it has not been proven to cause any. Many other genes in the mice fed soybean oil were also affected including the gene that produces oxytocin, the “love” hormone— levels of the hormone were lower than the mice not exposed to the soybean oil.
Some people are skeptical about the subject because of the fact that tests were ran on mice, which have different brains and translations than humans. It also has not been determined which chemicals in soybean oil are responsible for the negative effects, but it is NOT linoleic acid. (Remember? Both oils produced with linoleic acid, modified and unmodified, still caused genetic disruptions.) None the less, soybean oil is THE most consumed and produced edible oil in the U.S., so it’s always good to be aware about the potential affects products you’re putting in your body could have. Click the link for the full article! https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200117080827.htm
University of California – Riverside. “America’s most widely consumed oil causes genetic changes in the brain: Soybean oil linked to metabolic and neurological changes in mice.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 January 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200117080827.htm>.
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