Vegetable oil: the silent brain killer

Unlike traditional fats (butter, tallow, lard, olive oil, etc.) our industrial vegetable oils are a very new addition to the “food” world, practically non-existent until the early 1900s. But with the invention of certain chemical processes and a need for “cheap” fat substitutions, the world of fat hasn’t been the same since.

These oils are marketed as healthy because they contain monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids. But what we aren’t told is that these damaged fats are slowly wreaking havoc our brain over time.

Here is 5 reasons why some medical doctors have referred to vegetable oils as ‘the silent brain killer’:

1. They attack your gut

Yes your gut, and then your brain. Probably one of the contributing factors to all the gut and autoimmune issues today, these vegetable oils can disrupt your microbiome (bacteria in your gut). We now know there is a direct connection from our gut to brain-part of the lymphatic system- and indeed attack on healthy gut bacteria alters mood, and can cause depression, anxiety, or other illness. Here is another example, using rodents, scientists have found they can increase anxiety, depression, and impair executive thinking by disrupting the gut microbiome. And in order to destroy their flora and induce obesity in the animals, they feed them vegetable oil for months on end.

 

2. All antioxidants have been removed from vegetable oils 

Processing of these fats in the brain (the fats in vegetable oils AND in healthy fats/oils) produces what are known as free radicals. Free radicals are by products of energy production that are toxic unless cleaned up (like the exhaust from vehicles). While healthy fats like olive oil or butter naturally include adequate levels of antioxidants to rid of these free radicals, the antioxidants in vegetable oils are stripped during processing. This allows the free radicals to hang around longer and slowly but surely cause damage.

 

3. Vegetable oil cuts off blood flow to the brain

Just as muscles require greater blood flow to increase performance, so too does your brain. If you want to get better performance to brighten your mood, enhance concentration, improve cognitive abilities, blood flow is where its at. Enhanced blood flow requires the molecule nitric oxide (NO). Studies show nitric oxide signalling increases blood flow to the brain and stimulates nerve cell maintenance, growth, and repair.

Vegetable oil disrupts nitric oxide by interfering with the antioxidants that protect it. In fact, New Zealand researchers have shown that a single meal of fries cooked in week-old vegetable oil (it is common for some restaurants to re use the same vegetable oil for several days) can cause endothelial dysfunction for up to 24 hours; disrupting our blood flow system. So while some of the negative symptoms of consumption of copious amounts of vegetable oil are probably delayed by months or years, this one can be felt within a day. For example, headaches are a common sign of this.

 

4. They cause “rusting” in the brain

We need oxygen to survive, but just like the burning of gasoline, the conversion of oxygen to energy comes with a cost. This is known as oxidation, you can think of this as a “rusting” effect. It can be argued that two factors impacting whether or not we develop Alzheimer’s disease are 1) the rate at which the brain is exposed to oxidative damage and 2) your brains ability to control this oxidative damage. Thus one goal of longevity should be to mitigate the levels of oxidation in our brain.

Vegetable oils contribute to oxidation by oxidizing fragile membrane PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids)- the protection around our brain cells. What does that mean? Well one of the things which happens following a blow to the head (concussion) is the same thing; it leaves fragile membrane PUFAs vulnerable to oxidation.

 

5. Vegetable oil contains 4-HNE (4-hydroxy-2-nonenal)

4-HNE destroys  microtubules; the highways for nerve cells. It is difficult to form memories without these. One study performed in Japan knocked out microtubules and they found the rodents could no longer form new memories to complete a simple maze task.

4HNE also modifies the shape of a particular protein called tau. Tau protein tangles are commonly found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients or CTE brains. Vegetable oil makes tau prone to tangling and sticking to itself, that’s scary.

It also destroys our DNA (if it doesn’t kill our cells first).

A 2009 review paper stated the reason it took so long to identify 4HNE as genotoxic (toxic to DNA) is because, “the cytoxicity (cell killing ability) of 4HNE masked its genotoxicity (ability to mutate our DNA).”

In other words, it kills cells so readily that we don’t even get a chance to divide and mutate (DNA).

 

Many studies do use mega doses of vegetable oils, so its hard to say how long it takes for this stuff to cause serious damage. That being said, we consume alot of this stuff, try finding something at the grocery store that doesn’t have vegetable oil in it, you will be there a while.