Canola Oil As A Replacement For Olive Oil In Cooking: A Foray Into Alzheimer's

in #steemstem7 years ago (edited)

So that was a weird title. Today we are going to briefly discuss an article published in the journal Nature: Scientific Reports titled "Effect of canola oil consumption on memory, synapse and neuropathology in the triple transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease". This article describes work done with a mouse model, looking into the effects that the addition of Canola (rapeseed) oil into the diet has on proteins associated with Alzheimer's.



It's long been known that the Mediterranean diet, is one associated with a variety of health benefits. One of the main reasons for these health benefits is the fact that this diet is rich in olive oil. However, olive oil is expensive in many parts of the world, as such people have been looking for a cheaper alternative. An oil with a similar profile of fats was sought, and one was found in Canola oil (aka rapeseed oil... but nobody wants to think about eating rape... so its name was changed to canola). [4] As a result of this similar fat profile, canola has been touted as a potentially healthier fat option and a suitable replacement for olive oil in both a Mediterranean and non Mediterranean style diet. However... and I bet you know where this is going... there has been very little study done to actually confirm that canola oil IS actually as healthy an option as olive oil.

The amyloid beta protein [Image 2]

The study we discuss today was exploring just one small facet of this. The effect these oils have on proteins related to the development of Alzheimer's disease. As you are likely familiar by now due to its prevalence, Alzheimer's is a disease characterized by the degeneration of brain function. It is thought to be caused by the build up of amyloid beta plaques or neurofibrilliary tangles in the brain, destroying neuron functioning. The logic for the authors choosing to study alzheimers proteins is due to the findings which indicate that olive oil has a positive effect on amyloid beta levels in the brain. [5] however nothing is known whether or not canola results in a similar benefiticial/protective effect.

The Study

In today's study, the authors were looking at mice, specifically tripple transgenic mice (engineered to develop alzheimer's issues.. IE they develop both amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangles), that were provided with normal mouse chow or chow which had been supplemented with canola oil. The mice were just fed for a duration of 6 months, and then the effects on their physiology was recorded. Lets discuss what they found:

Canola Fed Mice Got Fat

The authors found that over the duration of the study the mice eating the canola chow gained a lot more weight:

Starting Weight: 27.49 ± 0.88 grams (normal chow); 27.66 ± 1.12 (canola chow)
Final Weight (normal chow) 31.88 ± 0.91
Final Weight (canola chow) 37.71 ± 1.24

This finding has no bearing on the study, but was interesting for the authors to report as it was in contrast to previous findings looking at the effects of canola oil on weight. [6]

The Authors Found Some Changes To Mouse Behavior

Reproduced From [1] Figure 1

The authors put the mice through a variety of studies to gauge their behavior as a result of the diets, but found in most of the tests no significant differences between the control group or the canola fed group, which is good. Except for one test which was looking at a parameter called "alternation." This refers to an animals "willingness to explore new environments." It's testing how well Ms. mousey remembers where she already were as she explores a maze. It gives us an idea as to whether there are memory impairments.

What we can see in the figure to the right is that the "alternation" level of the mice fed the canola diet (black bar "co") is lower than the mice who ate the control diet. This is indicative of some level of memory impairment in the animals in excess over that of the control group.

There Were Some Changes In Amyloid Beta Protein Levels

The authors also looked at the soluble and insoluble fractions of the amyloid beta proteins in the brains of these mice after completion of the study. They found that while the normal soluble (dissolved in water) protein fraction remained the same, there were some statistically significant changes in the insoluble (not dissolved in water) fraction (which can be made soluble with formic acid). We can see the changes to the formic acid solubilized amyloid beta proteins below.


Reproduced From [1] Figure 2

This is interesting as it is thought that the soluble amyloid beta aggregates are those relevant to the negative pathological effects that we see for this disease. [7] In laymans terms, it's interesting that these insoluble amyloid beta compositions change, but it is the soluble ones, that in this study do NOT change that are the most relevant to Alzheimer's disease.

HOWEVER! Still other research indicates that increases to the levels of the insoluble AB42/40 aggregate (like what is observed here) play a role in the amount of the soluble aggregated form that ARE thought to have a neurological effect. [8]

Reproduced From [1] Figure 4

One other difference the researchers also reported in a change in a protein eloquently named PSD95 (aka post synaptic density protein 95). This is a protein which is important in regulating the functioning of our synapses (synapses are the gaps between neurons where the signals from one neuron get passed to the next) [7]

What Does All Of This Mean?

It means that in a mouse model at least, these researchers demonstrated issues relating to to memory, amyloid beta plaque formation and the functioning of synapses all resulting from the consumption of canola oil.

The data in the study is not sufficient to state that canola oil is really bad for you or anything like that, so don't start worrying!

What the data in this study does illustrate is that the health benefits afforded by the consumption of olive oil don't appear to be reproduced by canola oil in this one Alzheimer's mouse model.

My One Complaint With This Study?

Why did the researchers go through all of this effort, and not include a third chow group where rather than canola oil, OLIVE OIL was supplemented. It would have been REALLY helpful for me to see the side by side comparison of the data relating to the two oils, and also telling as to whether their methods used here had any effects on the results.

Either way, an interesting piece of work! I look forward to seeing more research into these observations described here, it would be nice to get a better grasp on what other biochemical changes might occur from consumption of a bunch of canola oil relative to olive oil ( olive oil is what I personally prefer in my own cooking... but I have canola in my kitchen as well! )

Sources

Image Sources

Image 1
Image 2

Text Sources

  1. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17373-3
  2. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/mediterranean-diet-meal-plan
  3. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/adopt-a-mediterranean-diet-now-for-better-health-later-201311066846
  4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25322908
  5. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955286315001898
  6. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043661809003028
  7. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982207004149
  8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20628413

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No ..but Olieve oil from Greek its the best .
I buy 10L from there ..and its just delicious ..you can put it directlly on the salad or anything !! Its just ..awesome

Where is a reputable dealer in Greece I could buy 10 litres from and have sent to the US? Its a known fact that most of the olive oil in the US is fake, It has SOME olive oil, but other oils are added, to increase profits.

@marcoagarcia3rd , in the summer i was in Greekland in my vacantions . There are no dealers with oil . All the oil is home made from the people wgo live there .
If you want i can send you a bottle of 250ml for free ..but idk if i can send it to US .

That would be great. I will pay you some litecoin for it to cover the cost and shipping. I want to taste REAL olive oil. I have bough some greek foods online from a greek food market, Zeus seasoning, and some Greek salt and other spices. I could send you some raw honey, from the beehives on Black Hammock Island. Its 100% pure and Mr Bressler just runs it trough the centrifuge, and doesnt boil it or heat it. It tastes just like wildflowers. With honey comb or without. We chew the honeycomb like gum here in the South, its good for you, but very difficult to find pure. I will post a picture.

Come to chat section @marcoagarcia3rd

please explain how to. Im still trying to figure out how a lot of the functions work on this site.

I have some honey home made too

I found the chat thingy on the right side, but it wont let me log in. How should I enter my user name?

steemit.chat is a separate site, you have to create a different account (I use the same username there as I do here, for continuities sake). So just make your same username there, as you have here :)

Then you can sign in with that newly created account.

A lot of the olive oil in the us is indeed fake. I remember reading a study on that a few years ago.

Hey you, habla Español?

Śi poco

Hush hush, local agriculture grows a lot of canola which inevitably gets sold to fast food restaurants. If we convince people that it has the potential for being bad then... like. Oh wait, no that won't happen. Good post there @justtryme90!

Canola was being touted as a better cooking oil, more like olive oil. This research doesn't really prove it's bad (not rigorous enough) just shows that it's probably not as good as the claims would have people thinking.

The powers that be want everyone overweight, so they have to buy diabetic supplies and medication to keep big pharma rich. I remember when I was a child- no one was fat, no one needed an inhaler, cars had metal bumpers, and the food tasted real.

so they have to buy diabetic supplies and medication to keep big pharma rich.

You are talking to a pharma scientist. A small pharmaceutical, but still pharma.

Then you should be able to explain to me why Tresiba- a product of Novo Nordisk- Has sodium hydroxide in it. They took me off my trusty V-Go 40 insulin pump and switched me to Tresiba- about 3 weeks later I had a stroke and heart attack in my sleep. Now Im back on the V-Go pump and trying to recover, my right side is very weak. Thats why Im sitting in front of my laptop instead of being out on the river, fishing.

Unfortunate you had a bad reaction to the insulin, sorry to hear of your struggles.

Sodium hydroxide would be added to adjust the pH of the buffer used.

That product (Tresiba) consists of the insulin (insulin degludec, which is human insulin with one amino acid removed (Threonine 30), and a long chain fatty acid (hexadecanedioic acid) conjugated to the Lysine residue immediately preceding that removed threonine (Lys29)). In addition to what ever amount of insulin they put (based on dosing) they have a variety of inactive ingredients necessary for stability of the protein, they are:

Inactive ingredients for the 100 units/mL are: glycerol 19.6 mg/mL, phenol 1.50 mg/mL, metacresol 1.72 mg/mL, zinc 32.7 mcg/mL and water for injection. [1]

This insulin form is stored at a near neutral pH 7.6, the various components listed above can each influence the overall pH of the solution so as such to adjust the pH to 7.6, sodium hydroxide (a strong base which in solution exists only as Na+ ions and OH- ions) can be added.

The pH of insulin is quite important and storage at other non-physiological pH's can result in changes to the oligomeric state of the protein (IE it exists as a hexamer... 6 insulins together in a complex). If the pH gets too basic then it falls apart into monomeric subunits, if it gets to acidic (low pH) then it falls apart but into a totally different conformation where two insulins stack inverted to one another (this is a dimer). [2]

Does this answer your question? Sodium Hydroxide is used to adjust the buffer pH to a neutral range to ensure the appropriate oligomeric state of the insulin necessary for in vivo efficacy.

Mind you, I don't work on insulin, I don't work for this company, and I've not read much about this protein. This is the best I can do for you with a few mins of research into it.

The FDA has a pretty comprehensive document on this insulin form:

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2015/203314lbl.pdf

If you want to know more about the oligomeric state and pH dependence of the protein you can look at:

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/getauthorversionpdf/C6AY01573E

Both of those two documents were referenced for me to answer your question.

Thank you very much! Sodium hydroxide is also known as Lye. Why not use sodium bicarbonate instead?

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Well it was a good analysis!

I was about to say that this was a very interesting study, especially as we (at least here in Europe) have the tendency to consume a lot of oils from all types. However, then I read your conclusions. They are so true... Why limiting the study to a single type of oil. They could have also added Popeye oil, as you indeed said, but also all the other type of oils we usually consume.

Too bad...

They are so true... Why limiting the study to a single type of oil.

This is what limits an article like this to Nature: Scientific Reports, and not full Nature.

I categorically refuse to submit anything to Science and Nature... and most people in my field do the same... beeh... ^^

Great post.
As you said, it's to bad that they didn't test some other oils also.
As far as Alzheimer's, I've read that coconut oil has helped to reverse some of the symptoms of Alzheimer's and even given some victims the ability to remember a lot more.

Thanks for the excellent article you referred to here.

They give scientific evidence that coconut has components that can cross the Blood Brain Barrier, that is almost impossible to cross, to help provide essential nutrients for healthy brains and help fight Alzheimer's Disease among other great health benefits.

They explain about ketone bodies, medium-chain fatty acids, and lots more.

I recommend everyone read it.

Leave my oils alone! 😬

There's little cooking without oils 😫

An oil with a similar profile of fats was sought, and one was found in Canola oil

It's funny how people will say "food x is as beneficial as food y", simply based on a resemblance in their molecular structure or something of the sort. As if the butter/margarine fiasco wasn't enough to tell them the slightest difference might have huge implications.

What the data in this study does illustrate is that the health benefits afforded by the consumption of olive oil don't appear to be reproduced by canola oil in this one Alzheimer's mouse model.

Have there actually been similar mouse studies showing the opposite findings for olive oil?

Why did the researchers go through all of this effort, and not include a third chow group where rather than canola oil, OLIVE OIL was supplemented.

I always comment as I read, and then I see this... Exactly...

Yes, olive oil is known to have protective effects

http ://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cn400024q

margarine is one molecule away from being plastic, I have been told. Rats will not eat margarine, but they will eat butter.

This is a quality and original post, I have really added to my knowledge.

Some facts about Olive oil


picture credit

Scientific Name – Olea europaea
Family – Oleaceae
Native – Mediterranean Basin
Other Names in different languages – Ororo in Yoruba, Jaitun in Hindi, Jolopai Bengali, Jeeta Tailam in Telugu, Aliv Enney in Tamil, Oliyenna in Malayalam, Oudala Enne in Kannada, Jaitun Ka Tel in Marathi.

Some Health Benefits of Olive Oil

  • It serves to control Cholesterol.
  • It Improves Nails quality.
  • It prevents Diabetes of all kinds.
  • It is good for women to Helps Prevent Breast Cancer.
  • It make bones stronger
  • It can control depression
  • It aids weight loss.
  • It can eliminate kidney stones
  • It aids digestion.
  • It reliefs pains
  • It prevents strokes and all related disease.
  • It Improves Sex Life.
    Reference

Cool, I'm glad you took something from the post. Thanks for the olive oil infos.

Cannabis oil is the most healthy oil. They say

CBD oil is made from the male hemp plant and contains no THC, so it does not produce a "high". Many senior citizens and retirees use it as an alternative to costly pharmaceuticals, which they cant afford. I do not think cooking with it would produce healthy results as it may alter the chemical structure due to the heat.

Well that's a separate case :)

This post is about cooking oils :D

Yea really i heard the same @awesomenyl
And very good post @justtryme90

Haven't really heard of this one before...

It's certainly not healthier then olive oil.

Psalm 104:14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

Genesis 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

I was just thinking of that scripture. God placed these plants and seeds for our use, not for abuse. Its a shame that having a plant created by God, in your possesion can land you with jail or even prison time.

What green herb is that scripture verse referring to though? Could be oregano, or thyme, or parsley, or cilantro or... :)

I was having a flashback from the 1990's : ) And no- I didnt exhale. I cant do it anymore because of my work, and I need my medical insurance and retirement.

Our brains do have thc receptors for a reason ;D

I hope you mean, because we (humans) naturally produce endocanabanoid compounds which bind to them. The binding of THC is not intentional. :P

You really want to cook with it? LOL

Yes lol

Definitely not! Lol (not cooking with it I mean)

It's a nice topic, I've learned a bit more. Thank you.

Thanks for reading.

Olive oil is terrific stuff. I've used canola oil also because of its Omega 3/6 ratio. It is a cheap source of omega-3 and holds up well at a high temperature. It's hard to know if canola oil is an issue or simply over-reliance on it as a single source of fat. Also, I only use organic canola oil, since the conventional stuff comes with a side order of RoundUp, and that may cause issues also (as has been speculated with the wheat "allergy"; less than 10% of the population seems to have any actual gluten issues, but the herbicides on the wheat may be a bigger story). As always, it seems best to use everything in moderation and include variety.

Olive oil is terrific stuff.

Indeed, for flavor alone, it is IMO the best cooking oil.

It's hard to know if canola oil is an issue or simply over-reliance on it as a single source of fat.

This research article wasn't really reporting any inherent issue with canola. The methodology they used was designed to probe whether or not it had similar beneficial properties, as had been previously reported for olive oil (SEE HERE: http ://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cn400024q). What is described is more a rejection of the hypothesis that with regards to amyloid beta plaques and alzheimer's indicators that canola has the same protective effects that olive oil reportedly does.

We can not, from this research conclude that canola oil used for cooking and included as a part of a normal diet, has negative effects. Not enough data to support that.

side order of RoundUp, and that may cause issues also (as has been speculated with the wheat "allergy"; less than 10% of the population seems to have any actual gluten issues, but the herbicides on the wheat may be a bigger story).

I don't buy the glyphosate fears, the data just isn't there to support it... at least not under the exposure levels that one would experience from eating food. Now farmhands ... that is another story since they are essentially bathing in the stuff.

I would be more easily convinced that the root cause of the issues people are attributing to glyphosate is actually derived from some entirely unconsidered source, then I would it being entirely derived from that particular compound. The initial studies done on it were fairly rigorous, and various followups throughout the years haven't been able to illustrate toxicity under normal exposure conditions.

I can't state unequivocally that it isn't bad either, as there are some clear situations where it definitely is. In fact there have been a few studies, looking at really high concentrations where toxicity WAS observed, but those studies were also not done in animal models (just on lab grown cells), and while interesting, experiments done on cells don't have the best carry over track record into a whole organism.

As always, it seems best to use everything in moderation and include variety.

Indeed, I couldn't agree more. Truly this seems to be the solution to a good proportion of peoples ailments in life.

Thanks for giving the post a read and for the thoughtful reply man!

I personally prefer olive oil but I am lucky because my dad has 90 olive trees and we make our own olive oil each year. But when we go to the olive oil mill we see what kind of olives they use to make commercial olive oils and generally the cheap ones are made with olives that have already fallen from the trees. Good rule of thumb is that if it's too cheap it's probably fake or made with bad olives.

Much of the olive oil in the US is fake anyway.