Cooking with old oil can harm your brain

How long does cooking oil stay in the fryer without changing? A new study published in the journal Journal of Biological Chemistry He says that eating foods fried in old cooking oil can increase the chances of brain damage.

The project's experiments were conducted on rodents, so the results point to the fact that these animals, when fed reheated cooking oils, showed much higher levels of neurodegeneration.

Through the analysis, the group discovered that reheated cooking oil can increase neurodegeneration by disturbing the so-called liver-gut-brain axis, which is responsible for physiological homeostasis.

Cooking oil increases inflammation

The study team organized the rodents into five groups:

• Natural diet (control group);
• Diet supplemented with unheated sesame oil;
• Diet supplemented with unheated sunflower oil;
• Diet supplemented with reheated sesame oil;
• Diet supplemented with reheated sunflower oil.

Rodents need to eat this food daily for 30 days. Thus, the researchers saw that mice fed a diet containing reheated oils had greater oxidative stress and inflammation in liver tissue.

Scientists also reveal in the manuscript the presence of toxins produced by some bacterial strains.

“Liver fat metabolism was altered and transport of omega-3 fatty acids from the brain was decreased, leading to neurodegeneration, which was observed in mice that consumed reheated oil and in their offspring,” the researchers announced.

Speaking of brain damage, the report's authors highlight the seriousness of the consequences in areas vital for regeneration.

Chemical change

When cooking oil is heated, it undergoes changes in its natural chemical composition, reducing its beneficial antioxidants and forming harmful compounds.

Accordingly, researchers point out that old (i.e. reheated) cooking oil exacerbates this process because it becomes increasingly unstable, loses its health benefits and generates more toxins with each use. It was already known that Cooking oil is not exactly healthy to consumeThe study only reinforces this perception.

The full report was presented at Discover BMB 2024, the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

source: Journal of Biological Chemistry

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