It is a common occurrence within households to reuse frying oil for cooking or other meal prepping purposes. A new study was conducted where rats were fed food cooked with reheated cooking oils. It was seen that there was an increased level of neurodegeneration among those rats compared to rats consuming a standard diet.Â
According to a report, approximately 7 million adults aged 65 in the US suffer from Alzheimer’s. In the recent rat study, a link between long term consumption of reused refined oil and increase in neurodegeneration was found. It was concluded that using heated oil might increase neurodegeneration by disturbing the liver-gut-brain axis which is crucial for maintaining physiological balance.Â
Deep frying is a common cooking method followed globally and the consumption rate is beyond explanation. Previous studies have also found a link between deep fried food and certain cancers. However few researchers have examined effects of consuming reheated cooking oils on polyunsaturated fatty acids metabolism and development of diseases.Â
The research team organized female rats into five groups and fed them a normal diet with a normal diet supplemented with sesame oil, unheated sunflower oil, reheated sunflower and sesame oil daily for a period of 30 days. This was done to observe conditions of consuming reuse deep frying oilÂ
Compared with others on a separate diet regiment, rats fed diets with reheated oils showed heightened oxidative stress and inflammation in liver tissues. apart from this colonic damage was also observed in these rats which altered levels of endotoxins and lipopolysaccharides which in turn indicated presence of toxins produced by certain bacterial strains.in a second experiment monosodium glutamate was used to promote neurotoxicity in the child rats. This offspring fed diets consisted of reheated oils which showed increased susceptibility to neuronal damage than the control group who were fed diets with unheated oils. The study has shown that diets that consist of reheated oil leads to increased cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, AST and ALT along with significant damage to liver and colon structures leading to organ harm gradually.Â
Consumption of regular diets with reheated oil also leads to brain damage highlighting risk of neurological diseases. The study has also concluded that rats who were fed unheated oils showed better brain health. Heating oils at a high temperature alters their natural chemical structure which reduces beneficial antioxidants and forms harmful compounds like trans-fat and aldehydes.Â
Reheating oil especially for deep frying makes the situation worse since the oil becomes unstable losing all health benefits, thus generating more toxins only. Dietitians explained that repeated heating causes oil compounds to break which results in fatty acid composition and increased levels of lipid oxidation like reactive oxygen species. Imbalance in biological antioxidants trigger oxidative stress within the brain which also damages neurons and increases risk of neurodegenerative disease.Â
To mitigate risks from reheated oil consumption, doctors sufggest the consumption of Omega 3 – fatty acids and vitamin E which are found in turmeric and almond.Â
Journal Reference – The Journal of Biological Chemistry. (n.d.).
Retrieved from https://www.jbc.org/Â
