Adding more olive oil to your cooking may seem of little consequence, but new research shows that consuming more olive oil in your diet could lower your risk of dying from dementia and boost brain health.
Recent research analyzed data from more than 90,000 Americans – 60,582 women and 31,801 men. The study took place over the course of three decades, during which 4,749 died from dementia.
Researchers found that participants who consumed more than 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil each day had a 28% lower risk of dying from dementia, compared to those who never or rarely consumed olive oil. They also found that swapping out 5 grams (or about 1 teaspoon) a day of margarine or mayonnaise for olive oil was associated with an 8-14% lower risk of dementia-related death.
What are the health benefits of olive oil?
With its antioxidants and powerful anti-inflammatory compounds, olive oil has a long list of health-protective benefits. In general, olive oil may be helpful for reducing the risk of heart disease, boosting gut health, protecting brain health, and improving health parameters, like A1C levels associated with type 2 diabetes.
Diets such as the Mediterranean diet are rich in unsaturated fats have been found to have cardiovascular health benefits, and studies have also found that the Mediterranean diet plays a role in reducing the risk of cognitive decline in individuals at risk of dementia. Because olive oil is a source of unsaturated fat and a major component of the Mediterranean diet, incorporating olive oil into a healthy lifestyle may provide additional cardiovascular and brain health benefits.
How does olive oil reduce the risk of dying from dementia?
The study mentioned above was observational, so making statements that imply causality cannot be made. Rather, what the study found was that consuming higher quantities of olive oil was associated with a lower risk of dying from dementia, even when the quality of the diet and genetic risk for dementia was accounted for.
Though the study did not specifically test how dementia-related death risk was reduced, unsaturated fats (of which olive oil is a source) are known to decrease inflammation, assist with normalizing triglyceride levels (high triglycerides can increase the risk of stroke, heart attack, and heart disease), and lowering cardiovascular and cerebrovascular event risk.
The bottom line
Compared with rarely or never enjoying olive oil, having more than 1 ½ teaspoons of olive oil a day may be associated with about a 25% reduced risk of fatal dementia. So as far as reducing your risk of fatal dementia, regularly including olive oil in your eating plan may be helpful.
With that said, don’t feel you need to gulp a “shot” of olive oil to obtain its benefits; enjoy it in your meals where it can help you better absorb fat-soluble nutrients, like carotenoids, while adding great flavor to your dishes.
We have a very interesting and prominent MD, in Istanbul; Dr. Canan Karatay. She is a true “functional medicine” practitioner, rather than allopathic one (those who just try to cure the symptoms and not the disease AND THUS SUPPORT “BİG PHARMA”).
Anyway, Dr.Karatay says drink a tablespoon of olive oil on an empty stomach every morning, and eat 30 olives every day.
That’s it for now my friends; see you all the next time.
