3 minute read
More EVOO reduces death risk
There’s plenty of great scientific evidence behind the well-recognised health benefits of extra virgin olive oil, particularly around its positive impact on cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, and cancer. A ground-breaking US study has now shown that increasing olive oil consumption can also reduce your risk of early death.
Consuming higher amounts of olive oil may lower the risk of premature death overall, compared to people who never or rarely consume olive oil. That’s the outcome of a new study led by researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, published this year in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
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Significantly, the study also found a similar outcome in relation to specific mortality causes including cardiovascular disease, cancer and neurodegenerative disease.
An additional finding was that consuming olive oil instead of animal fat produced a lower risk of both total and cause-specific mortality.
Long-term study
The research is particularly significant, given that it is the first long-term observational study on olive oil consumption and mortality conducted in the US. Most previous research on olive oil and health has focused on populations from Europe, and particularly Mediterranean regions, where olive oil consumption is the cultural norm and therefore higher. It also provides a unique reference to the effect on lifespan.
“Olive oil consumption has been linked to lower cardiovascular disease risk, but its association with premature death was previously unclear,” said Marta GuaschFerré, a senior research scientist in the Harvard Chan School Department of Nutrition.
“Our findings confirm current dietary recommendations to replace animal fats with plant oils for the prevention of both chronic diseases and premature death.”
Methodology
The research was conducted using health data from more than 91,000 participants in existing US studies, collected over an 18-year period from 1990 and 2018 - 60,582 women in the Nurses’ Health Study and 31,801 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. All participants were free of cardiovascular disease or cancer at the beginning of the study and completed dietary questionnaires every four years. During the study period, 36,856 of the participants died.
Consumption of olive oil was gauged by information provided on frequency of use in salad dressings, added to food or bread, or in baking or frying.
Findings
The researchers found that people in the highest category of olive oil consumption (more than seven grams per day) had a 19% lower risk of total and cardiovascular disease mortality, 17% lower risk of cancer mortality, 29% lower risk of neurodegenerative mortality, and 18% lower risk of respiratory mortality, compared with those who never or rarely consumed olive oil.
In substitution analyses, replacing 10 grams per day of margarine, butter, mayonnaise and dairy fat with the equivalent amount of olive oil was associated with 8%-34% lower risk of total and cause-specific mortality.
Interestingly, however, no significant risk reduction was observed when use of olive oil was compared to use of other vegetable oils.
Clinical recommendations
The researchers say the results provide clear evidence which can be utilised by health professionals to promote pro-active health choices in the wider community.
“Clinicians should be counselling patients to replace certain fats, such as margarine and butter, with olive oil to improve their health,” Guasch-Ferré said.
“Our study helps make specific recommendations that will be easy for patients to understand and hopefully implement into their diets.”
Ref: “Consumption of Olive Oil and Risk of Total and Cause-Specific Mortality Among U.S. Adults,” Marta Guasch-Ferré, Yanping Li, Walter Willett, Qi Sun, Laura Sampson, Jordi Salas-Salvadó, Miguel Martínez-González, Meir Stampfer, Frank Hu, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, online January 10, 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2021.10.041
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