"Olive oil is the healthiest in the world"

The health benefits of olive oil were scientifically proven in the second half of the last century.

Olive oil is one of the essential components of the Mediterranean diet and culture, with an unmistakable taste and aroma that makes it a prominent presence in the kitchens of millions of homes and select restaurants. Since ancient times, it has been revered as a divine elixir thanks to its healing properties, but it was only in the second half of the last century that its health benefits were first proven using scientific evidence.

Olive water is a source of substances that prevent or slow the occurrence of some pathologies with the highest diseases in the world, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetic diseases.CSIC RocierEs of the Fat Sánchez Pona Institute said: "Studies in recent decades show that olive oil is the healthiest oil in the world.After more than two decades of researching how fats contribute to chronic disease and illness, the CSIC-Catarata Oil Science and Health Scientist has signed on.

In the new edition of the What do we know about?collection, the scientist explains how the different oils are made from olive groves, highlights their organoleptic and nutritional values ​​and compares them to seed oils such as sunflower or palm oil.The book also covers the best scientific research on the benefits of olive oil and explains the components that have attracted the interest of the scientific community in recent decades.

Oil grading

What fats are eaten?This is one of the questions that Javier Sáviz prona has been asked many times in his professional career and as an Assistant.

in 2023 A team at the Fat Institute, including Peron, classified 32 edible oils and fats according to their chemical composition and using consumption recommendations and nutritional claims approved by prestigious international organizations such as the WHO. The results were unique: on a scale of 0 to 100, extra virgin olive oil came out on top with a score of 100, followed by oillinseed, extra virgin olive oil and extra virgin olive oil with 86. scores.

Most vegetable oils received scores above 50;Fish like salmon and sardines exceed 68 points;Animal fats such as lard, tallow and butter scored less than 50 points.The last position with 0 points is coconut oil.Researcher says Phytosterol is beneficial.

One olive oil, many oils

Olive oil is a fruit, olive, betel nut, betel nut, nut or canary, subject to production regulations, if you find a few olive oil olive oil, olive oil, olive oil olive oil olive oil, others.

Since the base is olive oil, the composition of the oils that can be obtained is very different, especially in terms of health."The oil of the highest quality is the extra virgin, which is distinguished from the virgin only by a lower acidity and above all by the absence of defects in taste and aroma, as well as the presence of fruitiness," explains Perona, who advises the first to be consumed raw.

On the other hand, if we only care about the level of nutrition and not the level of taste, "Because among them there is no virgin in the calculation of the greatest value for health", he added.For its part, regular olive oil is mixed and used to prepare foods that we already have available, such as foods with many aromas and ingredients,” the author points out.

Healthy ingredients in the oil

Oleic acid is a characteristic of olive oil and is also one of the most abundant among other fats and oils, such as high-oleic sunflower, rapeseed, peanut, hazelnut or avocado." At first, the presence of oleic acid was considered key, but after some time it was discovered that olive juice contains a very high variety of substances able to protect it from the human body, explains Sanchez, and protect it from diseases.

Those substances that Sánchez Perona refers to are "unique minor compounds" that "play a key role in the quality, authenticity and health benefits of olive oil."Among them, the most relevant are phenolic compounds, which stand out for their antioxidant capacity, stability and contribution to sensory attributes such as bitterness, astringency and spiciness.More than 30 phenolic compounds have been identified that can play an important role in the health properties of virgin olive oil, but "there are significant variations in their concentration depending on the type of phenolic compound, as well as many other factors such as the variety of the olive tree, geographical origin, cultivation techniques, maturity at harvest, processing and storage, Perona is very important in this case. the oil consumed is virgin because the refining process eliminates a large part of these compounds, and therefore "the differencesin terms of health, between refined and virgin olive oil is obvious".

Health benefits: two key studies

One cannot talk about olive oil and health without mentioning Ancel Keys, a physiologist from the University of Minnesota known as the "father of the Mediterranean diet".His interest in nutrition and cardiovascular disease led him to conduct the Seven Country Study, "one of the most famous in the short history of nutrition science," the CSIC researcher emphasizes.

The study involved 12,000 men aged 40 to 59 years from Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, the United States, Greece, Japan, Italy and Finland.Results published in the 1980s showed that mortality from cardiovascular disease was highest among men in Finland (120 deaths per 1,000 participants) and lowest in Crete (3.8 deaths per 1,000 participants).participants).“Finns consumed more animal fats and much less vegetable oils, and the main vegetable oil consumed in Crete in the mid-20th century was of course olive oil,” Perona points out.Although this study has been criticized for its methodology, it marks the "before" and "after" of olive oil research.

Decades later, in 2003, Spain launched PREDIMED (Prevention with the Mediterranean Diet), the world's largest clinical trial to find out whether the Mediterranean diet reduces death from cardiovascular disease.7447 participants with high risk of cardiovascular diseases participated in the work.They were divided into three groups and each assigned a type of diet, one with extra virgin olive oil added, one with added nuts and one with no fat.

The results showed a 50% reduction in the incidence of diabetes in the first two diets, which was 50% in diet 2, compared to the low-fat diet, which had a 50% reduction in the Mediterranean diet.Similarly, a 30% reduction in the risk of cerebrovascular accident and stroke was observed in the groups consuming the Mediterranean diet.According to the author, unlike the work of the keys, it was an epidemiological, premed, controlled and randomized clinical study that established a causal relationship."Finally, there is a high level of scientific evidence that the Mediterranean diet is protective against stroke," he said.

Many studies conducted by the international scientific community have shown that the beneficial action of olive oil extends to other serious pathologies, such as cancer, diabetes or stomach or colon disease.According to CSIC researchers

Olive oil problems

Despite all the progress in their research, there is still a long way to go."Not all bioactive components found in olive oil have yet been described, nor are the metabolic processes related to the known benefits in depth," the authors said.

This is why, as the researcher explained, the Fat Institute maintains a lively activity around the "liquid gold" extracted from olive trees.One of the lines of work is based on the development and improvement of reliable instruments that enable the determination of volatile compounds in olive oil.In this way, the quality of the oil can be evaluated, complementing the work of sensory panels composed of experts."The research we do at the Fat Institute tries to avoid fraud with mechanisms that quickly and accurately detect the composition of the oil," says the researcher.