New UC Riverside research published this month in the journal Endocrinology compared mice fed three different diets high in fat: soybean oil, soybean oil modified to be low in linoleic acid, and coconut oil.

The scientists found that a number of genes in mice fed soybean oil were not functioning correctly. Roughly 100 genes were affected by the soybean oil diet.

The team determined that soybean oil induces obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, and fatty liver in mice, but could also affect neurological conditions like autism, Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, and depression.

Soybean oil it is the most widely produced and consumed edible oil in the US, used for fast food frying, added to packaged foods, and fed to livestock.

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20200120054714/https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2020/01/17/americas-most-widely-consumed-oil-causes-genetic-changes-brain