If someone was to say what is worse for you, a diet rich in saturated fat, in fructose or in soybean oil? I’m pretty sure most of us would not choose the last one, but worryingly that is the conclusion that a group of scientists from University of California have come to.
They fed mice 4 isocratic diets (i.e. they add up to the same amount of calories), two high fat ones in which the fat came predominantly from coconut oil or soybean oil and two lower fat versions of these where some of the calories came from fructose.
They found that mice fed the diet high in soybean oil had “significant increases in weight gain, adiposity [a measure of body fat], diabetes, glucose intolerance and insulin resistance compared to mice on a diet consisting primarily of coconut oil”.
They also found that the high soy bean oil diet caused fatty livers with ballooning (an indication of liver cell wall death) and large lipid droplets. The diets containing fructose also caused fatty liver but without the ballooning.
The researchers conclude that a diet rich in soybean oil is worse for us than a diet rich in fructose or coconut oil. Interesting stuff, perhaps they would like to follow it up with a study containing other vegetable oils and butter? I don’t know about you, but I’m not so keen to start frying my omelettes in coconut oil.