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In the Mediterranean area, olive oil, along with fresh vegetables, fruits and fish, is an important part of the diet, and is believed to be a major factor in a healthy and relatively disease-free population. Research studies have indicated that a Mediterranean diet has significant protective effects against cancer and coronary heart disease.
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In Crete people tend to live longer with lower incidence of stroke, heart disease and various forms of cancer. Researchers also noted that those living in Mediterranean countries had lower rates of heart disease, despite their apparent high consumption of mono-unsaturated fats in the form of olive oil. This led to studies into ‘the Mediterranean diet’, of which olive oil is a significant part.
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Recent research has now indicated that an olive oil containing Mediterranean diet is not only generally healthy, but that the consumption of olive oil can actually help lower harmful LDL cholesterol. Olive oil contains antioxidants that discourage artery clogging and chronic diseases, including cancer.
According to one particular study, the risk of fatal heart attack is reduced by 50% in around two to four years if a person switches to the Mediterranean diet, which uses olive oil as the main source of fat in the diet, increasing vegetable intake, and restricting meat and dairy foods. Research has also incidcated that olive oil may play a role in the distribution of fat around the body in particular with less fat stored around the abdomen.
Olive oil is extracted by pressing/crushing olives and comes in different varieties, depending on the amount of processing involved. These varieties include:
Extra virgin - this oil comes from the first pressing and is generally considered to be the best and most beneficial for health.
Virgin - from second pressing of the olives
Pure - undergoes some processing, (refining and/or filtering)
Extra light - undergoes significant processing and typically only retains a very mild olive flavour.
Blood cholesterol and atherosclerosis
Low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) is thought of an being the ‘bad’ cholesterol. This is because it sticks to the walls of the arteries, causing atherosclerosis, which increases the incidence of coronary heart disease and stroke.
Studies into LDL cholesterol have inidcated that oxidation is an significant step in the development of atherosclerosis. It apperas that mono-unsaturated fats lower the capacity of LDL cholesterol to oxidise, which may possible explain olive oil's protective properties. However, extra virgin olive oil also contains up to forty antioxidant phytochemicals. Antioxidants are associated with reduced oxidation of LDL cholesterol, so it is possible that these phytochemicals are the factors responsible for the beneficial impact on healthof olive oil.
Weight-loss and weight-distribution benefits
Mono-unsaturated fats have the same kilojoule content as other fats at about 38kJ per gram. However, research indicates that it may be harder (or less easy!) to put on weight from mono-unsaturated fats.
Researchers studied the weight loss results from a group following ‘the Mediterranean diet’, to a second group who were following a low fat and high carbohydrate diet. They noticed that the Mediterranean diet group shed excess weight from both the lower and upper body, but the low fat/high carbohydrate group lost fat mainly from the lower body. Those people who store their body fat around the abdomen area (‘apple shaped’) tend to have a greater risk of heart disease than those people who carry weight around the hips and thighs (‘pear shaped’).
Choosing extra virgin olive oil as your main source of dietary fat, combined with eating a healthy diet that is high in plant foods, may reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Moderate amounts of olive oil may also reduce abdominal fat, if eaten as part of a diet high in plant foods.
Any information, advice, recommendations, statements or otherwise contained herein, or in any other communication whether oral or in writing, is not intended to replace or to be a substitute for medical advice trained by a trained physician or healthcare practitioner.
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