Eating a lot of soybean oil over a long time might mess up the brain’s control center for hunger, how your body uses energy, and even how you interact with others.

When male mice eat soybean oil instead of coconut oil or a low-fat diet, their brain's hunger and metabolism control center changes which genes are active—and all the soybean oil diets look more alike to each other than they do to the other diets.

When male mice eat soybean oil instead of coconut oil, their brain’s control center shows more changes in genes linked to swelling, hormone signals, and health problems like obesity — and only one gene, Oxt, is affected in all three ways.

When rats eat soybean oil, their stomachs take longer to empty, and their brains send out hunger-signaling chemicals in a delayed way — so they don’t stop eating right away, even though their bodies are starting to react as if they should.