Taiwanese internal medicine doctor Fu Yu-hsiang shares a case: during a clinic visit, a woman asked him, "Doctor, my mother's memory has been getting worse and worse lately. Should I buy some brain-boosting supplements for her?" Dr. Fu instead first asked her, "What oil do you use at home for stir-frying, cold dishes, or pan-frying fish?" The woman was stunned on the spot. Many people think that cognitive decline can only be accepted as fate or addressed solely with nutritional supplements, but the latest authoritative research points out that the cooking oil elders use every day may have an impact on brain health far beyond what everyone imagines.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil Has Protective Power - The Key to Choosing Oil Is the Processing Method
A study published in the authoritative journal Microbiome tracked 656 middle-aged and older adults aged 55 to 75 who were overweight or had metabolic syndrome. Researchers observed their cognitive changes after two years and found significant differences brought by different cooking oils:
Extra virgin olive oil: Those with higher intake showed better overall cognitive performance, covering multiple aspects such as attention, executive function, and verbal expression.
Ordinary or refined olive oil: Those with higher intake showed more obvious cognitive decline instead.
Fu explains that this study classified olive oil very meticulously. Extra virgin olive oil retains more natural antioxidant components and bioactive substances; while ordinary olive oil, because of its higher degree of refining, has these beneficial components greatly reduced. This means that it is not the case that just because the bottle has the word "olive oil" printed on it, the effect is the same—the "processing method" of cooking oil is the key to whether it can protect the brain.
Doctor Teaches That Brain Protection Should Start from Daily Kitchen Diet
The research team further discovered a rather interesting "gut-brain axis" mechanism, revealing how cooking oil affects the brain through the gut:
Probiotic diversity: People who ate more extra virgin olive oil had overall richer and more diverse gut microbiota; conversely, people who ate more ordinary olive oil had poorer gut microbiota diversity.
Gut-brain axis operation: Gut microbiota is the intermediate bridge through which cooking oil affects the brain. The cooking oil on the dining table does not only enter the stomach, but first changes the gut environment, and then slowly affects brain neural function.
Fu reminds that this does not mean that from today on, drinking lots of good oil will immediately reverse degeneration or make you smarter—what the study observed is a "long-term healthy change trend." To protect elders' memory and brain power, besides controlling blood sugar and blood pressure, maintaining regular exercise, and getting enough sleep, the most practical first step is to examine the cooking oil at home and gradually adjust the small choices made repeatedly every day into a dietary pattern that is friendlier to the brain.
Source: Your Chef Doctor Fu Yu-hsiang
