Avoid the brain-damaging effects of this common oil

This is a tale of two oils and how they could harm your brain.

Earlier this year, researchers at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine in Philadelphia conducted a novel test of olive oil — the famously heart-healthy oil that’s the cornerstone of the Mediterranean diet.

The Temple team began by breeding Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mouse models. That is, the mice were designed to follow the course of human AD, beginning with no symptoms in early life, then progressing to advanced symptoms as the animals aged.

For one year, some of the mice were fed normal mouse chow, while others ate the same chow diet, but enriched with extra-virgin olive oil.

In the olive oil group, a plethora of benefits were found:

  • Levels of memory destroying amyloid plaques were reduced.
  • The brains of these mice also had lower amounts of phosphorylated tau, which is responsible for the formation of the brain’s tau neurofibrillary tangles that promote failing memory and neuronal dysfunction.
  • The mice performed better on memory tests compared to the mice that didn’t receive any olive oil in their diets.

Score another solid check in the “plus” column for extra-virgin olive oil. Unfortunately, we can’t do the same for canola oil…

The curse of canola

In a follow-up trial that appeared in Scientific Reports this past December, researchers repeated the same test using canola oil.

Canola is more widely used than olive oil, by far, since it’s easier to produce, less expensive, and better for restaurant-style deep-frying. If you’re a diligent reader of ingredient and nutrition panels on processed foods (and I hope you are), you’ve probably noticed that canola pops up in a vast variety of products.

The “can” in “canola” comes from the word “Canada,” where it was first created and produced. But judging by its use below the Canadian border, canola is as American as apple pie.

So how did it fare when tested by Temple University researchers? In one word: frightening.

The results looked like those from the olive oil had been flipped upside down:

  • Brain neurons were “engulfed” in amyloid beta plaques
  • Synapse connectors that link neurons showed extensive damage
  • Working memory, short-term memory, and learning ability were all impeded
  • Canola mice experienced significant weight gain

One of the researchers said, “Even though canola oil is a vegetable oil, we need to be careful before we say that it is healthy.”

I suggest putting it another way, that’s rather blunt: “Canola is NOT healthy. Period!”

Why is canola so vastly different when compared to olive oil? After all, both oils contain healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

The difference is in the processing. And it’s a huge difference.

Extra-virgin olive oil is cold pressed, without any heat or chemicals. What you get is a pure oil with excellent nutrition intact. (Yes, there are oil “counterfeiters” who sell inauthentic oil as extra-virgin, but that’s an issue for another day…)

Canola is quite a different story. Here’s how Sally Fallon and Mary Enig of the Weston A. Price Foundation described just some of the processing in their groundbreaking exposé, “The Great Con-ola:”

“Because canola oil is high in omega-3 fatty acids, which easily become rancid and foul-smelling when subjected to oxygen and high temperatures, it must be deodorized. The standard deodorization process removes a large portion of the omega-3 fatty acids by turning them into trans fatty acids.”

They add that one study found a trans fat level of 4.6 percent in a commercial liquid canola.

That’s a super high level! (Most oils contain between 0 – 0.5 percent.) And as a 2014 study from the University of California, San Diego found, high trans fatty acid intake is linked with impaired memory, probably due to the fat’s oxidizing effects that may cause brain cell death.

Fallon and Enig got it exactly right. Canola oil is a big con. Avoid long-term exposure to this oil at all costs!

For more strategies to prevent and reverse memory loss, dementia, or Alzheimer’s disease, check out Dr. Marc Micozzi’s Complete Alzheimer’s Cure Protocol. To learn more about it or to enroll today, click here.

 

SOURCES

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171207141624.htm
Canola oil linked to worsened memory and learning ability in Alzheimer’s
Temple University Health System
December 7, 2017

https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/know-your-fats/the-great-con-ola/
The Great Con-ola
Weston A. Price Foundation
Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.
July 28, 2002

https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/trans-fats-memory-arteries/2014/11/18/id/608093/
Trans Fats Wreck Memory: Study
HealthDay News
November 18, 2014