Linoleic Acid in Soy Strongly Linked to Obesity Epidemic

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Much of our linoleic acid consumption comes from meat and dairy products from industrially raised animals that are fed soy and corn.
Much of our linoleic acid consumption comes from meat and dairy products from industrially raised animals that are fed soy and corn.
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Soybean oil intake has increased dramatically for those eating the modern industrial food diet, and now research shows that this inexpensive oil contains high levels of a type of fat that’s contributing to the obesity epidemic.
Soybean oil intake has increased dramatically for those eating the modern industrial food diet, and now research shows that this inexpensive oil contains high levels of a type of fat that’s contributing to the obesity epidemic.

Seldom does a story stand so starkly illuminated, boldly outlined by the lines of a graph. The focal point is a period in the mid-1960s, when forces aligned to launch the current obesity epidemic and a host of health problems in the United States. As you’ll see, it was a perfect storm.

The data for this graph comes from an ambitious 2011 study called Changes in consumption of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in the United States during the 20th century, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers posed a question fundamental to understanding modern health concerns, including diabetes, heart disease, obesity and mental health: How does our collective diet today differ from the common diet 100 years ago? The study examined consumption of 373 foods, but then went deeper by looking at how the composition of those foods varied over time, from 1909 to 1999. This latter detail — for example, how a modern chicken breast is different from its 1909 counterpart — turned out to be critical. Specifically, researchers examined fat consumption — not just fat in general, but the quantities of particular fats.

An Era of Cheap Vegetable Oil

Despite what you may have heard, per capita fat consumption hasn’t increased substantially in the United States throughout the past century. Per capita carbohydrate consumption has increased, however, causing low-carb advocates to cite this factor alone as the cause of the obesity epidemic. The data from the fat study doesn’t contradict this hypothesis, but certainly refines the picture to pin at least some blame on the dramatic increase in our consumption of soybean oil, thanks to industrial agriculture’s concentration on this single crop.

Myriad food sources provide dietary fats, from lard and butter — the mainstays of the Edwardian-era kitchen, when the study’s data stream began — to margarine, canola oil, flaxseed oil and olive oil. Starting in the mid-’60s, what stands out — indeed, leaps off the graph — is the thousand-fold increase in per capita consumption of soybean oil (see graph). No other food in the study comes even close to matching that explosion.

  • Published on Jul 9, 2015
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