L_H
#42
The Mediterranean Diet has about a quarter of calories coming from Olive Oil!
One thing that I think maybe important ( certainly for me) is that putting olive oil on salads etc increases my intake of pulses and vegetables because they taste so much nicer. I’ve never really understood the idea of drinking a shot of olive oil because it doesn’t taste very nice and because you don’t get the added benefit of a healthier overall diet.
One thing to add is that evoo seems good for apob, ldl oxidation and blood brain barrier function.
this post from another thread covers a lot of the research supporting extra virgin olive oil over seed oils.
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You kinda answered your own question there, haha.
There’s quite a nice writeup in JACC: https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.2021.11.006
In this well-designed study, with long-term follow-up and repeated measurements of dietary intake and other risk factors for diseases, participants who reported the highest olive oil consumption (>0.5 tablespoon/day or >7 g/d) had 19% lower risk of all-cause mortality, 19% lower risk of CVD mortality, 17% lower risk of cancer mortality, 29% lower risk of neurodegenerative disease mortality, and 18% lower risk of respiratory disease mortality compared with those who never or rarely consumed olive oil after adjustment for known risk factors and other dietary factors.
IMO, benefits likely from a combination of the removal (substitution) of “bad” oil/fat sources from the diet, and MUFAs. As the editorial says, other oils also had benefits.
I don’t think the polyphenols play much of a role, and most studies using isolated polyphenols haven’t been very impressive.
That said, I still take around 10g of EVOO per day (as a shot, with vinegar), and I buy good, fresh stuff with validated polyphenol content - just in case!
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Large Study of Dietary Habits Suggests More Plant Oils, Less Butter Could Lead to Better Health
The study, which followed the dietary choices of more than 200,000 people over 30 years, found that diets higher in butter but low in plant oils were associated with elevated risk of mortality.
People who consume plant-based oil instead of butter may experience beneficial health effects and even have a lower risk of premature death, according to a new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The researchers examined diet and health data from 200,000 people followed for more than 30 years and found that higher intake of plant-based oils, especially soybean, canola, and olive oil, was associated with lower total, cancer, and cardiovascular disease mortality, whereas butter intake was associated with increased risk of total and cancer mortality. The results are published in JAMA Internal Medicine and presented simultaneously at the American Heart Association EPI/Lifestyle Scientific Sessions.
“What’s surprising is the magnitude of the association that we found — we saw a 17% lower risk of death when we modeled swapping butter with plant-based oils in daily diet. That is a pretty huge effect on health,” said study lead author Yu Zhang, MBBS, research assistant at the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system. Zhang is also a student in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard Chan School.
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Anti-Aging Potential of Avocado Oil via Its Antioxidant Effects
Aging is a process characterized by tissue degeneration, increased susceptibility to chronic degenerative diseases, infections, and the appearance of neoplasms, which leads to disability and a reduction in the length and quality of life. This phenomenon is the result of the convergence of multiple processes, including mitochondrial dysfunction, fibrosis, inflammation, dysregulation of cell death processes, and immunosenescence. These processes have as their point of convergence an increase in the production of ROS. Avocado oil (Persea americana Mill.) contains a diverse array of bioactive compounds, including oleic acid, phytosterols, chlorophylls, xanthones, xanthines, and carotenoids. These bioactive compounds have the capacity to modulate the excessive production of ROS, thereby reducing the progression of age-related diseases and extending lifespan in experimental models of aging. In addition, several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of avocado oil in mitigating age-related diseases, including hypertension; insulin resistance; diabetes; non-alcoholic liver disease; and degenerative processes such as hearing loss, cognitive decline, neurodegeneration, and impaired wound healing. In light of these findings, it is hypothesized that avocado oil is a promising agent capable of promoting healthspan in later stages of life owing to its direct antioxidant actions and the activation of pathways that enhance endogenous antioxidant levels.
Open Access Paper:
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