One of the most important things you can do to improve you or your childs ability to learn is to change your oil. If, like many Americans, you eat a lot of packaged or fast food, you may be eating too much harmful trans fat.

A trans fat is a made by an industrial process that adds hydrogen atoms to unsaturated fat to form a saturated fat. In other words it turns liquid vegetable oil into solid fat. This process is called hydrogenation. It increases the shelf life of packaged foods and imparts a creamy texture. You can find out if the food you eat contains trans fats by looking for the words partially hydrogenated in the list of ingredients.

The problem with industrial hydrogenation is that it doesnt put the hydrogen atoms in the same place that nature does. This causes hydrogenated oils to act differently from their natural counterparts. Research shows a number of problems caused by trans fats:

Lowers HDL good cholesterol and increased LDL bad cholesterol

Linked to heart disease in a study of 85,000 women

Reduces the livers ability to detoxify drugs and cancer causing chemicals

Decreases sensitivity of cells to insulin, leading to insulin resistance and diabetes

Lowers breast milk volume in women and in all species studied

Increases inflammation and can trigger allergic reactions and asthma

Causes immune system dysfunction in mice

Worsens essential fatty acid (EFA) deficiency by interfering with their metabolism. Important symptoms of EFA deficiency include problems with vision and learning, coordination problems, behavioral changes and mental illness.

So what oil do you change to? Cook with grape seed oil. It keeps it nutritional value at all cooking temperatures. Use extra virgin olive oil on salads and to flavor foods, but dont heat it beyond low heat or it will lose its nutritional value. Most importantly, read labels and avoid anything made with hydrogenated oil.