A new study has found that people who consume higher amounts of olive oil may lower their risk of premature death overall and from specific causes including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease, compared to people who never or almost never consume olive oil. People who consumed olive oil instead of animal fat were also found to have a lower risk of total and cause-specific mortality.
“Olive oil consumption has been linked to lower cardiovascular disease risk, but its association with premature death was unclear,” said Marta Guasch-Ferré, a senior research scientist in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan School. “Our findings confirm current dietary recommendations to replace animal fats with plant oils for the prevention of chronic diseases and premature death.”
The researchers used health data collected between 1990 and 2018 for 60 582 women participating 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 study start.
Participants were asked how often they used olive oil in salad dressings, added to food or bread, or in baking or frying. According to the findings, people in the highest category of olive oil consumption (> 7g/day) had 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. Compared to margarine, butter, mayonnaise, or dairy fat, olive oil usage was correlated with reduced risk of total and cause-specific mortality. However no significant risk reduction was seen compared to use of other vegetable oils.
“Clinicians should be counselling patients to replace certain fats, such as margarine and butter, with olive oil to improve their health,” advised Guasch-Ferré. “Our study helps make specific recommendations that will be easy for patients to understand and hopefully implement into their diets.”
The findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Source: Harvard University
