We’ve long been pitched canola’s
health benefits. After all, Whole Foods uses it in all their prepared foods and
many vegetarian and vegan products proudly promote it as a feature ingredient.
But when scientists, who had shown the brain benefits of
olive oil in mice, decided to run the same studies with canola oil, they uncovered a darker truth:
Canola oil worsens memory and promotes amyloid plaques, a hallmark Alzheimer’s
symptom. This means canola oil should especially be avoided by people with
Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, which also raises the risk of dementia. Hashimoto’s
means needing to take extra care of your brain health.
It’s also important for people
with Hashimoto’s to understand that many symptoms of poor brain health are
dismissed as Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism symptoms by doctors. As such, you may
not understand the importance of taking care of your brain.
In the olive oil study,
researchers gave mice with Alzheimer’s Disease a diet enriched with extra-virgin
olive oil and found that compared to the control group, the mice experienced
improvements in memory as well as a reduction in amyloid plaques and phosphorylated
tau, which creates the neurofibrillary tangles that degenerate the brain in
Alzheimer’s.
They replicated the study with canola oil, one
of the cheapest and most widely used oils in the world, to see what effects it
might have on the brain.
The control group ate a normal
diet while the study group was fed the equivalent of two tablespoons a day of
canola oil.
After 12 months, researchers
observed the following in the canola oil mice:
- They weighed significantly more than the control group.
- They suffered impairments in working memory.
- They had greatly reduced levels of a beneficial form of amyloid beta (amyloid beta 1-40). Amyloid beta 1-40 acts as a buffer to the damaging amyloid beta 1-42. When amyloid beta 1-40 goes down, it leaves the 1-42 form unchecked to degenerate the brain.
- They showed reduced connectivity between neurons in the brain. Synapses are areas of neurons through which they communicate with one another, playing a vital role in memory formation and retrieval. The drop in amyloid beta 1-40 caused extensive synapse injury.
The scientists plan to conduct a
follow-up study to determine how soon neuron damage begins to happen after
regular consumption of canola oil, whether it impacts tau phosphorylation, and
whether canola oil promotes other neurodegenerative diseases in addition to
Alzheimer’s.
Given the increased risk of
dementia in people with Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, it’s not worth the risk
consuming canola oil on a daily basis.
What
to eat instead of canola oil
When you eat out or buy processed
and packaged foods, it’s difficult to find foods that don’t contain canola oil,
soybean oil, or processed vegetable oils, none of which are healthy for the
brain. It’s especially important to avoid hydrogenated or partially
hydrogenated oils, which have also been linked with memory loss.
The brain is made up primarily of
fat, which means the fats you eat help determine the structure of your neurons
and how well they are able to communicate with one another. For instance, hydrogenated
fats have been shown to make cell membranes more rigid and less able to
function properly.
Instead of industrially processed
vegetable oils, use extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, and ghee.
People with Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism should also avoid gluten, as it has been
linked in studies with Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism. Most Hashimoto’s patients
need to avoid dairy as well, and possibly other foods depending on what
triggers an inflammatory reaction that can further damage the thyroid.
Ask my
office for more advice on the best diet to follow if you have Hashimoto’s
hypothyroidism.
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