Native vegetable oils: healthier than olive oil

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The Mediterranean diet is considered particularly healthy - especially because of the abundant use of olive oil. It has now been shown that other vegetable oils are clearly superior to stone fruit extracts in terms of health protection.

Linoleic acid apparently has a decisive positive effect on the heart and metabolism. This occurs in various vegetable oils, especially abundant in grape seed and safflower oil. Sunflower oil also contains relevant amounts of it. Researchers led by Martha A. Belury from Ohio University have found that men and women with higher levels of this fatty acid in the blood tend to accumulate less fat between the organs. This so-called visceral fat tissue produces messenger substances that promote hardening of the arteries and thus heart attacks and strokes.

Linoleic acid - effective health protection

In addition, a higher level of linoleic acid is associated with a lower likelihood of insulin resistance, the researchers found. With this phenomenon, the body's cells are less able to absorb sugar from the blood - there is a risk of type 2 diabetes.

One and a half teaspoons of linoleic acid a day is enough to positively influence body fat distribution and thus health, the researchers disclose.

However, olive oil is not a good source for this: it contains only small amounts of healthy fatty acids. Instead, it's high in oleic acid. The researchers also investigated whether this has a similarly beneficial effect in the body as linoleic acid.

Olive oil - dubious effect

They found that higher levels of oleic acid are actually associated with reduced inflammatory responses in the body (which in turn promote cardiovascular disease and diabetes). The distribution of fat in the body, in particular the amount of visceral fat tissue, nevertheless did not have a positive effect on oleic acid. This also applied to the participants' insulin resistance and thus their risk of diabetes. "This result came up completely unexpectedly and really surprised us," says study director Belury. After all, olive oil has long been at the top of the list of foods that are considered to be beneficial to health. The assessment of the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, which are also praised as heart protection and which are found in high-fat fish, was similarly disappointing in the context of the study.

For the study, the scientists examined 139 men and women with regard to their body fat percentage and its distribution. In addition, the researchers determined a possible insulin resistance and inflammatory substances in the blood of the test subjects such as interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein (CRP). In contrast, they compared the fatty acid content that they found in the red blood cells of their subjects after a twelve-hour fast. This provides information about the intake of various fatty acids with food.

Diminishing proportion of linoleum oil

In view of the results, the scientists consider it problematic that the composition of industrial fats has been genetically modified in the last five years: sunflower, soy and safflower oil now contain less and less linoleic acid, because it converts more quickly to the particularly unhealthy trans fatty acids during industrial hardening than, for example, oleic acid. (cf)

Source: Martha A. Belury et al .: Erythrocyte linoleic acid, but not oleic acid, is associated with improvements in body composition in men and women. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 2016 Feb 29.

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