Hacker News Reader

Comment by JohnJamesRambo | Hacker News Reader

I used to eat sardines every day trying to get the health benefits of fatty fish. They were packed in soybean oil. I drank the oil too. With time I began to have bizarre mental issues that I finally tracked down to the sardines. Sardines packed in olive oil don’t cause this issue. That’s my anecdata to share.

View on HN

The higher end canned fish are available cooked in their own juices without any added water even [0].

As with anything quality varies substantially. I personally stay away from any of the oil-packed fish. Wild caught sardines in water with no additives can be found, even cheaply from the Season kosher brand.

[0] https://davesalbacore.com/product/3-25oz-no-salt-king-salmon...

Care explaining what bizarre mental issues?

I guess it would best be described as enhancement of repetitive, obsessive thoughts and just in general not feeling good and even angry for the rest of the day after eating them. It was a really weird time.

I have the same thing. It took me ten years to rule things out. Plain as day, if I have soy oil, I will go a little wayward emotionally, mentally, and if I have enough, also noticeable skin issues - canker sores, flaking skin, scalp pimples, and random itchy patches I'll scratch to bleeding. Oh, and if I have enough, in a short amount of time, I can easily trigger a migraine. Sushi with soy oil, mayonnaise (soybean oil), and fried foods are all drifting away from me.

I'm not allergic to soy - I went to an allergy doctor and did the little skin application test, and it's not a histamine reaction. So the term is "sensitive" - I'm "soy sensitive".

If I eat 'clean' for 14 to 21 days, I get a clarity that compels me to continue avoiding it. I'm happy to connect with anyone (profile) that wants to swap notes on this - it's incredibly frustrating to figure out. Dealing with it, not so much. Almost all aspects improve with its avoidance.

See my comment about the gallbladder please.

Get your gallbladder checked. Oil causes the gallbladder to squeeze bile. If you have instruction (stones/polyp), the obstruction causes inflammation.

That inflammation (chole ystitis) can cause a plethora of health issues.

Some oils trigger more output of bile than others. Do not consider all fat sources equal when it comes to bile production from the gallbladder.

I had gallbladder issues for many years, before classic signs appeared. I had cognitive decline, general discomfort, fatigue, rapid heart rate, secondary infections, and other non typical indicators that in retrospect were due to my gallbladder. Typical symptoms appeared very close to when I was able to identify the source. Unfortunately, if left untreated, it can rupture and kill a person, albeit rarely.

Either way, I wish you the best.

PS: In the USA you can get an ultrsound for $140. False positives and negatives do occur. Some people have no noticable pathologies, yet removal of the gallbladder alleviates gastro intestinal symptoms.

Maybe that was oils in general? Eating too much cooking oil makes me feel like absolute crap mentally, regardless of type.

Obviously the syndrome described in article is possible in your case, but the article sounds like a chronic accumulated damage thing, not an acute reaction just after eating.

Recently I learned the Whole Foods Plant Based diet avoids processed oils altogether, including olive and coconut. Not sure I could go that far myself, but it's interesting to know that people do it, and it's the one diet known to reverse cardiac disease.

The sentence "Sardines packed in olive oil don’t cause this issue." suggests that it's not.

TBF eating something that is not part of a traditional diet every single day can have weird consequences that aren't inherent to the food itself.

There's a ton of food that we properly support and has clear benefits at reasonable amount but will trigger adverse effects on abuse.

Overconsumption of canned food can have this effect of poisioning the consumer. No matter what its cooked in.

If you eat alot of tuna/canned stuff, and u have weird health problems. Try removing it from your diet.

Interesting, thanks for sharing, I always avoided the oil ones on taste/principle. As a fan of canned fishes, have you tried sardines in tomato sauces, or herring in dill or mustard sauce? Fantastic, but a little harder to find.

Best to buy ones packed in water. No idea as to the quality of the oil used.

Yep, you can always add oil yourself if you like the taste. I also recommend buying the ones that have the skin and bones, because there's a lot of nutrition there. The bones are barely noticeable. This was the brand I went with: https://www.amazon.com/Crown-Prince-Sardines-Water-4-25-Ounc...

The flavor of the oil isn't what makes oil-packed fish taste better— it's just a better storage medium for fish. Oil doesn't wash fish of its delicate water soluble flavors, oil deeply penetrates the flesh and to keep it from getting as tough, and it won't dilute additional flavorings like smoke or aromatics.

Getting oil-packed fish without soybean oil isn't difficult but it is obviously more expensive. I'd worry as much or more about pharmaceutical waste and other pollutants in cheap, mass-produced fish, too. Fortunately, sardines don't have a ton of mercury.

There's nothing remotely wrong with Crown Prince sardines, but if you're interested in a comparison, something like this, while twice as much per oz (.69us vs .33us) should clearly illustrate the differences.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LB7Q62R/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_BV...

From a culinary perspective, packed in oil tend to be tastier.

I bought some expensive “wild Norwegian cod liver oil” from Whole Foods recently. Didn’t look closely enough at the ingredients. Turns out the carrier oil is soybean oil.

Whoa, how did you track?

If you eat out, soybean oil is used a lot for cooking and it's also included in some blended oils that restaurants use.

I think the problem starts with eating canned food here.

I happen to agree, partly. Canned food 24/7 isn't healthy when other options are available, but that's why it shouldn't be an exclusive ingredient of one's diet.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com