Washington, Dec 8 (PTI) Canola oil - one of the mostwidely consumed vegetable oils in the world - may be harmfulfor the brain, according to a study which found that it canworsen memory and learning ability.
The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports,also linked the consumption of canola oil to weight gain inmice.
"Canola oil is appealing because it is less expensivethan other vegetable oils, and it is advertised as beinghealthy," said Domenico Pratico, professor at TempleUniversity in the US.
"Very few studies, however, have examined that claim,especially in terms of the brain," said Pratico.
Curious about how canola oil affects brain function,researchers focused their work on memory impairment and theformation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in anAlzheimer's disease mouse model.
Amyloid plaques and phosphorylated tau, which isresponsible for the formation of tau neurofibrillary tangles,contribute to neuronal dysfunction and degeneration and memoryloss in Alzheimer's disease.
The animal model was designed to recapitulate Alzheimer'sin humans, progressing from an asymptomatic phase in earlylife to full-blown disease in aged animals.
Researchers had previously used the same mouse model inan investigation of olive oil, and found that Alzheimer micefed a diet enriched with extra-virgin olive oil had reducedlevels of amyloid plaques and phosphorylated tau andexperienced memory improvement.
For their latest work, they wanted to determine whethercanola oil is similarly beneficial for the brain.
The researchers divided the mice into two groups at sixmonths of age, before the animals developed signs ofAlzheimer's disease.
One group was fed a normal diet, while the other was feda diet supplemented with the equivalent of about twotablespoons of canola oil daily.
The researchers then assessed the animals at 12 months.
One of the first differences observed was in body weight -animals on the canola oil-enriched diet weighed significantlymore than mice on the regular diet.
Maze tests to assess working memory, short-term memory,and learning ability uncovered additional differences.
Most significantly, mice that had consumed canola oilover a period of six months suffered impairments in workingmemory.
The findings suggest that long-term consumption of canolaoil is not beneficial to brain health.
"Even though canola oil is a vegetable oil, we need to becareful before we say that it is healthy," Pratico said.
"Based on the evidence from this study, canola oil shouldnot be thought of as being equivalent to oils with provenhealth benefits," he said. PTI MHN SARMHN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.