Originally published April 5 2015
GMO soybean oil causes obesity, diabetes, fatty liver, but propagandists say it's 'healthier' than non-GMO soybean oil
by L.J. Devon, Staff Writer
(NaturalNews) Of all the seed oil produced in the US, 90 percent comes from soybeans. The shelf life and temperature stability of soybean oil is increased through the process of hydrogenation, which also generates unhealthy trans fats in the oil.
DuPont developed genetically modified soybean oil that has a fatty acid composition that is low in linoleic acid. Linoleic acid was thought of as the unhealthy component of the oil that causes obesity, diabetes and fatty liver in humans; however, new in-depth research has found hardly any health benefits of GM soybean oil over regular soybean oil.
When scientists at the University of California, Riverside, and UC Davis investigated the differences of the soybean oils, they found that the genetically modified soybean oil was not "healthier" at all. The reduced linoleic acid profile does not reduce diabetes, obesity and fatty liver like the industry had promised.
"While genetic modification of crops can introduce new beneficial traits into existing crops, the resulting products need to be tested for long-term health effects before making assumptions about their impact on human health," said senior investigator Frances Sladek, a professor of cell biology and neuroscience at UC Riverside.
GM soybean oil not healthier than regular soybean oil, despite industry's health claims
Genetically modified soybean oil has 0 grams of trans fat and a linoleic acid profile similar to olive oil. On the other hand, regular soybean oil contains about 55 percent linoleic acid. The scientists found out that the linoleic acid profile wasn't the difference maker. The GM soybean oil caused the same problems in studies on mice as the regular soybean oil did. The only advantage that GM soybean possessed: It didn't cause insulin resistance. However, the scientists reported that both olive oil and especially coconut oil are much healthier alternatives.
"Our previous results on mice showed that replacing some of the
fat in a diet high in saturated fats from coconut oil with soybean oil
-- to achieve a level common in the American diet -- causes
significantly more weight gain, adiposity, diabetes and insulin
resistance than in mice fed just the high-fat coconut oil diet," Sladek
said.
To conduct their study, the researchers created a parallel diet which replaced soybean oil with GM soybean oil on a gram per gram basis. They were surprised to find out that GM soybean oil induced weight gain and fatty liver just the same.
"Unidentified component" of soybean oil causes fatty liver and overall weight gain
"These results indicate that linoleic acid may contribute to insulin resistance and adiposity but that another as yet unidentified component of the soybean oil affects the liver and overall weight gain," said researcher Poonamjot Deol.
Four groups of 12 mice each were fed different diets for 24 weeks. A control group was put on a low-fat diet containing just 5 percent of daily calories from fat. The other groups were fed a diet similar to the American diet, deriving 40 percent of daily calories from fat. The groups differed according to the source of the fat they received. One ate regular soybean oil; one consumed GM soybean oil, and the other was given coconut oil. Both soybean-oil-based diets (GMO and non-GMO) produced mice with a much worse fatty liver, obesity and glucose intolerance profile than mice fed a coconut oil diet. When compared to controls, the group on soybean oil weighed 38 percent more. The group on GM soybean oil weighed 30 percent more, and the group on coconut oil only weighed 13 percent more.
"While the GM soybean oil may have fewer negative metabolic consequences than regular soybean oil, it may not necessarily be as healthy as olive oil, as has been assumed by its fatty acid composition, and it is certainly less healthy than coconut oil which is primarily saturated fat," Sladek said. "It is important to understand the metabolic effects and health impact of the GM soybean oil before it is widely adopted as a healthier alternative to regular soybean oil. It is equally important to understand the health effects of regular soybean oil, which is ubiquitous in the American diet and seems to be much more detrimental to metabolic health than saturated fat."
Sources:
http://ucrtoday.ucr.edu
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