A recent study featured in the Journal of Lipid Research indicates that soybean oil, the most common cooking oil in the United States, might directly contribute to obesity, with the effect potentially linked to the body’s handling of a key component.
Researchers gave mice a soybean oil-rich diet, monitoring their metabolism of linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid abundant in soybean oil.
Linoleic acid breaks down into oxylipins, and high intake can increase these oxylipins. The study reveals that certain oxylipins are associated with weight gain in mice.
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“This could be an initial step in understanding why some individuals gain weight more easily than others on diets rich in soybean oil,” stated Sonia Deol, a UCR biomedical scientist and the study’s corresponding author, in a press release.
The researchers posed a straightforward question: If the mice’s ability to convert linoleic acid into oxylipins is reduced, will they still become obese on a soybean oil diet?
To investigate, they utilized a genetically engineered mouse line expressing a variant of the liver regulatory gene, P2-HNF4α.
This genetic modification affects numerous metabolic pathways, decreasing the activity of enzyme families that typically transform linoleic acid into oxylipins. These enzymes are present in all mammals, including humans, and their activity can vary based on genetics, diet, and other factors.
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The team fed both the altered and normal mice a diet high in soybean oil. The modified mice exhibited healthier livers and gained significantly less weight than the normal mice on the same diet.
The researchers identified specific oxylipins derived from linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid (another soybean oil fat) that were linked to obesity in the normal mice.
These oxylipins were more abundant in the mice that became obese.
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The findings suggest that how the body processes linoleic acid may be crucial in how soybean oil promotes fat accumulation.
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In essence, the issue might not solely be the oil’s calories, but what the body converts the fatty acids into within the metabolic system.
The study was exclusively conducted on mice, and the authors acknowledge the greater complexity of human metabolism. Nevertheless, the research raises questions about whether high consumption of linoleic-acid-rich oils could contribute to obesity through biochemical pathways beyond simple energy balance.
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Soybean oil is the predominant cooking oil in American homes, restaurants, and processed foods, according to the study. Its affordability and neutral taste contribute to its heavy use in packaged snacks, fast foods, and fried items.
The researchers emphasize that the study does not assert that soybean oil invariably leads to obesity in humans.
Instead, it underscores a biochemical mechanism that may elucidate why diets rich in this oil can encourage weight gain in animal models.
The authors also caution that the genetically modified mice differ from humans because they were engineered to express much lower levels of enzymes involved in converting linoleic acid into its metabolites. This allows for clearer observation of effects but limits the direct applicability of the results to humans.
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