So what’s worse: Soy or fructose?
As it turns out, eating a diet higher in soybean oil could do more harm than fructose, according to new research from the University of California.
According to the research, which was published earlier this week, eating a diet rich in coconut oil and fructose actually caused less weight weight than a diet rich in soybean oil, showing that fructose alone may not be bad for a person’s figure.
In addition, soybean oil increased fat deposits, insulin resistance, and even led to diabetes–all health problem associated with metabolic syndrome, a set of symptoms linked to a higher risk of death.
For researchers, the news is concerning.
“This was a major surprise for us–that soybean oil is causing more obesity and diabetes than fructose–especially when you see headlines everyday about the potential role of sugar consumption in the current obesity epidemic,” says Roonamjot Deol, an assistant project scientist from the University of California, who led the research.
The Research
Now appearing in the journal PLoS One, researchers experimented on a set of laboratory mice, having them consume one of four diets that contained at least 40 percent fat. Researchers varied where this fat came from in each diet, however, ranging from soybean oil, coconut oil, and added fructose.
Their calorie intake was kept the same, however.
Researchers suspected certain diets would change their body composition–which, by the end of the study, proved to be true. What they didn’t expect was that fructose was less fattening to their bodies than soybean oil, however, something they never expected to produce these results.
They eventually estimated that eating a soybean oil-rich diet increased their weight by a whopping 25 percent.
Fructose, however, only increased their weight by 9 percent.
“We show here that in mice dietary fructose does in fact induce obesity but less so than soybean oil,” write researchers in PLoS One. “Furthermore, our results show that soybean oil is able to induce these negative metabolic effects even in the context of coconut oil, which is rich in medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) which have been shown to be anti-obesogenic, anti-inflammatory and insulin sensitizing. Taken together, our results indicate that in mice a diet high in soybean oil is more detrimental to metabolic health than a diet high in fructose or coconut oil.”
So if you’re trying to stay slim, it’s probably best to cut soybean oil of your diet.
What You Should Do
Want to avoid gaining weight? Here’s a simple fix: Cut soybean oil out of your diet. Luckily, it’s not hard to avoid this oil; simply avoid eating processed food as an easy way to curtail your intake.
Readers: How often do you eat soy products?
Sources:
Soybean Oil Causes More Obesity Than Coconut Oil, Fructose – ScienceDaily.com
Soybean Oil is More Obesogenic and Diabetogenic than Coconut Oil and Fructose in Mouse: Potential Role For Liver (Study) – PLoS.org
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