Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
When perilla oil is treated with alkali (neutralization), it loses the most phytosterols—more than any other step—meaning this part of processing really strips away a valuable nutrient.
Descriptive
Even though phenols and phytosterols are often thought to be healthy antioxidants, in this lab test of perilla oil, they didn’t seem to help at all in fighting free radicals.
Correlational
In lab tests, the vitamin E-like compounds (tocopherols) in perilla oil are strongly linked to its ability to fight free radicals in two different ways, while the yellow pigments (carotenoids) are only linked to one of those tests.
When perilla seed oil is processed for commercial use, it loses most of its natural antioxidants—especially lutein, which disappears entirely during one step—and other important compounds like phenols and tocopherols are also reduced.
Corn oil made the chickens’ blood and arteries richer in certain healthy fats, while animal fat made them poorer in those fats — but this had nothing to do with how much cholesterol was in their blood.
As chickens get older, their blood cholesterol goes up — but that doesn’t tell you how bad their artery damage is. You need to watch them for years to really understand how diet affects their arteries.
Scientists used computer modeling to guess how this plant peptide might interact with oil molecules to stop them from spoiling.
Since sea lions and human babies both have the same waxy coating, maybe our ancient ancestors spent time in water—like sea lions—before evolving into modern humans.
Adding fat to the chickens’ diet didn’t change their blood pressure — so high blood pressure probably isn’t why their arteries got damaged.
The seeds of this desert plant might be a new, untapped source for making natural ingredients that keep oils from going bad.
Only a few animals—like sea lions, otters, and moles—that live in wet places have a special oil called squalene in their skin, which might help them survive in water.
In chickens, the lower part of the main artery has more cholesterol and more damage than the upper part — and how bad the damage is in each bird is linked to how much cholesterol is in that specific spot, not how much cholesterol is in the whole body.
Scientists found a new small protein piece from a desert plant’s seeds by filtering the broken-down proteins to find the ones that fight oxidation.
As baby sea lions grow in the womb, the special waxy coating on their skin builds up in a pattern that’s almost exactly like how it builds up in human babies—peaking near birth.
Quantitative
Hens fed animal fat died more often, had more cholesterol in their blood and arteries, but surprisingly had less visible artery damage than hens fed no extra fat — meaning more fat in the arteries doesn’t always mean worse damage.
This plant peptide doesn't just fight oxidation itself—it also seems to shield the oil's natural antioxidants and healthy fats from breaking down.
Baby sea lions have a lot of a special oil called squalene in their first poop—way more than in their blood—which might help protect their guts from damage or help good bacteria grow.
Feeding hens corn oil for three years seemed to reduce artery damage more than feeding them no extra fat, even though their blood cholesterol didn’t change much — maybe the type of fat matters more than how much cholesterol is in the blood.
A small protein fragment from a type of desert plant seed was shown in a lab test to neutralize harmful molecules that make oils go bad, and it slowed down the spoiling of walnut oil.
The special fats in baby sea lion vernix come from their skin—not from their mom’s milk—just like in human babies, which means this isn’t something they eat, but something their body makes.
Baby sea lions are born with a waxy coating on their skin that they swallow before birth, and this coating has special fats and oils that are also found in human babies—maybe to help their guts grow healthy bacteria.
The oil that replaced the bad trans fat (palm oil) is mostly saturated fat — which is also bad for your heart — so swapping one bad fat for another might not help much.
About one-third of companies that changed their recipes switched to healthier plant oils like sunflower or canola oil instead of palm oil.
Vitamin K1 helps protect fats in the blood of baby rats, but it doesn't help protect the fats inside their red blood cells — even though the blood has more antioxidants overall.