Scientists Surprised by Research – Soybean Oil is Unhealthier than Sugar

Sugar and fats are considered the unhealthiest foods when it comes to health, but scientists warn that there is something unhealthier than these two ingredients – soybean oil, reports Daily Mail.

It is one of the most commonly used vegetable oils, and soybean oil accounts for half of the vegetable oils produced worldwide. Although you do not need to have this type of oil in liquid form on your kitchen shelf, it is often an ingredient in ready-made, processed foods in cans and similar packaging.

For a long time, soybean oil was considered a very healthy choice, but the results of a study published in the scientific journal PLOS One indicate a number of reasons why this popular cooking ingredient could have serious consequences for individual health, worse than sugar.

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As part of the research into various types of dietary habits, scientists at the University of California conducted tests on laboratory mice. They were given food with 40 percent fat, which is an amount similar to that consumed by most Americans.

One group received saturated fats mostly from coconut oil, while the other was fed foods based on unsaturated fats from soybean oil, to which coconut oil was added. The second group contained the same amount of unsaturated fats as the average American consumes.

As part of two additional dietary plans, scientists gave the mice two versions of fat-rich food with added fructose, a sugar found in fruit and honey.

All four diets contained the same number of calories, which means that scientists could assess the actual effect of various types of oils and fructose on the mice’s bodies.

They expected that the mice eating fats with fructose would gain the most weight and develop the strongest insulin resistance, but the results surprised them. The mice from the group that ate food with soybean oil gained the most weight, 9 percent more than the mice that ate fatty food with fructose, and even 25 percent more than those who ate fats from coconut oil.

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In mice that consumed soybean oil, fatter livers and greater insulin resistance were observed. Study leader Poonamjot Deol admitted that he and his colleagues were surprised by the results, “especially considering the daily warnings about the potential role of sugar in the ubiquitous obesity epidemic.”

Australian nutritionist Lyndi Cohen told Femail magazine that half of the vegetable oils produced worldwide are soybean oil, which, due to its low price, is used in many processed and packaged foods.

When a product is labeled ‘vegetable oils’, it is mostly soybean oil or some of its components. Cohen adds that the genes of the human liver behave similarly to those of mice, which means that the study can also be applied to us.