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Sunflower oil has even higher PUFA content than soybean, which is presumably the cause of these health issues in mice. I believe soybean was just chosen for the

Sunflower oil has even higher PUFA content than soybean, which is presumably the cause of these health issues in mice. I believe soybean was just chosen for the study because it's extremely ubiquitous in the US. edit: Partially wrong! I'm told above that high oleic sunflower oil has a different profile with less linoleic oil, and apparently it's becoming more common: https://www.nutritionletter.tufts.edu/general-nutrition/what-is-high-oleic-sunflower-oil/ https://www.nutritionletter.tufts.edu/general-nutrition/what...

adrian_b 5y ago
Besides traditional sunflower oil, which contains mostly linoleic acid (a PUFA), now there is "high oleic sunflower oil", which is extracted from a variety of sunflower initially developed in Russia some 50 years ago, but now grown in most countries. This non-traditional sunflower oil has little PUFA and it is perfect for frying and baking. The sunflower variety grown for high oleic oil has a genetic mutation with this effect, but it was not obtained with the modern genetic modification technologies, because obviously such technologies did not exist in the Soviet Union in the seventies of last century. Instead of that, the Russians have treated some sunflower seeds with a chemical known to cause random genetic mutations. Then they have grown and selected several generations of plants until they have found one type with the desired characteristic of producing oil consisting mainly of oleic acid. Later analysis has shown that this is due to a single mutation, which diminishes the activity of the enzyme that converts oleic acid into linoleic acid in traditional sunflower plants.
- telchior 5y ago
  Oh, I updated my comment for someone else's brief reply then you popped up with the full rundown. Thanks! The detail about forcing genetic mutation is neat, will have to read up on that.

adrian_b 5y ago

Besides traditional sunflower oil, which contains mostly linoleic acid (a PUFA), now there is "high oleic sunflower oil", which is extracted from a variety of sunflower initially developed in Russia some 50 years ago, but now grown in most countries. This non-traditional sunflower oil has little PUFA and it is perfect for frying and baking. The sunflower variety grown for high oleic oil has a genetic mutation with this effect, but it was not obtained with the modern genetic modification technologies, because obviously such technologies did not exist in the Soviet Union in the seventies of last century. Instead of that, the Russians have treated some sunflower seeds with a chemical known to cause random genetic mutations. Then they have grown and selected several generations of plants until they have found one type with the desired characteristic of producing oil consisting mainly of oleic acid. Later analysis has shown that this is due to a single mutation, which diminishes the activity of the enzyme that converts oleic acid into linoleic acid in traditional sunflower plants.

telchior 5y ago
Oh, I updated my comment for someone else's brief reply then you popped up with the full rundown. Thanks! The detail about forcing genetic mutation is neat, will have to read up on that.