Οlive is a fruit and Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) is simply the fruit juice of the olive with the water and peel removed by centrifuge. It is a totally unrefined all-natural product without the use of heat or chemicals in any step of the process. In contrary with other vegetable and seed oils like corn oil, peanut oil and canola oil that are all obtained through chemical processing extracting.
EVOO is an essential food of the Mediterranean diet (MD). Countries like Spain, Italy and Greece represent the most important contributors worldwide. MD is represented by a nutritional model based on high consumption of EVOO, vegetables, fruits, cereals, nuts and legumes, a moderate amount of fish, meat and dairy products and a low intake of sweet and eggs.
MD is mainly represented as a way of life, rather than just a food as it is connected to longevity and lower risks of chronic diseases.
Many studies have captured the benefits of the dietary consumption of olive oil.
Nutritional composition of extra virgin olive oil
EVOO is considered the best vegetable oil for human consumption. EVOO contains highly nutritional elements in modest amounts such as, vitamins E and K and plenty of beneficial fatty acids.
To be more specific, 1 tablespoon (13.5 grams) of olive oil contains:
- Polysaturated fat: 14%
- Monounsaturated fat: 73% (mostly oleic acid)
- Vitamin E: 13% of the Daily Value (DV)
- Vitamin K: 7% of the DV
Notably, EVOO shines in its antioxidant content. Antioxidants (1) on olive oil such as polyphenols (2) are compounds that are involved in many pathways of inhibition of oxidative stress (3).
Extra virgin olive oil:
1. Protects against Inflammation
Chronic inflammation is the leading drivers of many diseases such as heart disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and arthritis.
Polyphenols and especially, oleic acid (4) contained in EVOO has been found to decrease inflammatory markers like C-reactive proteins (CRP) (5) and regulates pro-inflammatory and pro-thrombotic genes (6). Another natural polyphenol oleocanthal (7), is estimated that in 50ml (about 3.4 tablespoons) effect as adult ibuprofen (8) dosage for pain relief (9).
Consuming EVOO can lead to a reduced risk of various inflammatory diseases, especially from heart disease.
2. Protects against Cardiovascular Diseases
Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of death, worldwide. EVOO protects against heart disease via numerous mechanisms:
- Anti-inflammatory properties of oleic acid
- Lipid Metabolism. Linoleic acid contained in EVOO lead to reduction of LDL (bad) cholesterol and the ratio of ω6/ω3 fatty acids contained in EVOO have been linked to protective effects on coronary disorders and described as anti-thrombotic and regulator of blood pressure.
- Improvement of blood vessel health. EVOO diminish the risk of hypertension and affects positively the coronary vasodilator capacity.
Given the above, consuming EVOO is closely related in preventing heart attacks and strokes.
3. Reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease
EVOO is related with preventing age-related cognitive decline, memory loss and dementia (10,11).
4. Improves Glucose Metabolism
Numerous compounds contained in EVOO are shown to prevent and take place in the treatment of diabetes type II.
5. Provides Antimicrobial Properties
Phenolic substances in EVOO have been reported to possess antimicrobial capacity and antifungal activity against several pathogenic fungi such as Fusarium verticillioides, Fusarium graminearum and Candida albicans (12).
6. Benefits Digestive System
EVOO is shown to inhibit gastric mobility, stimulates the digestion of lipids and prevents the onsets of gallstones. A study shown the prebiotic action of polyphenols, capable of modulating and improving intestinal microbe populations, which affects the colorectal cancer markers (13).
7. Helps on Weight Loss
Phenolic compounds modulate the metabolism of adipose tissue, which means that balanced consumption of EVOO can be highly associated with the control of weight loss (14).
8. Provides Anti-aging Properties
Phenolics in EVOO contribute to the mechanisms that maintain cell homeostasis, whose imbalance is a hallmark of aging (15).
9. Prevents Osteoporosis
Also, EVOO’s compounds beneficially contribute on bone calcification and bone mineralization, minimizing the risk of cause to osteoporosis.
10. Boost Hair and Skin Health
To sum up, EVOO offers a great variety of therapeutical properties on human health and can be considered as a superfood of great necessity in the nutrition of every human.
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References:
(1): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antioxidant
(2): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphenol
(3): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxidative_stress
(4): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleic_acid
(5): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-reactive_protein
(6): Yubero-Serrano, E. M., Lopez-Moreno, J., Gomez-Delgado, F., & Lopez-Miranda, J. (2019). Extra virgin olive oil: More than a healthy fat. European journal of clinical nutrition, 72(Suppl 1), 8–17. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-018-0304-x
(7): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleocanthal
(8): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibuprofen
(9): Beauchamp, G. K., Keast, R. S., Morel, D., Lin, J., Pika, J., Han, Q., Lee, C. H., Smith, A. B., & Breslin, P. A. (2005). Phytochemistry: ibuprofen-like activity in extra-virgin olive oil. Nature, 437(7055), 45–46. https://doi.org/10.1038/437045a
(10): Martínez-Lapiscina, E. H., Clavero, P., Toledo, E., San Julián, B., Sanchez-Tainta, A., Corella, D., Lamuela-Raventós, R. M., Martínez, J. A., & Martínez-Gonzalez, M. Á. (2013). Virgin olive oil supplementation and long-term cognition: the PREDIMED-NAVARRA randomized, trial. The journal of nutrition, health & aging, 17(6), 544–552. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-013-0027-6
(11): Alaa H. Abuznait, Hisham Qosa, Belnaser A. Busnena, Khalid A. El Sayed, and Amal Kaddoumi Olive-Oil-Derived Oleocanthal Enhances β-Amyloid Clearance as a Potential Neuroprotective Mechanism against Alzheimer’s Disease: In Vitro and in Vivo Studies ACS Chemical Neuroscience 2013 4 (6), 973-982 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/cn400024q
(12): Alicia López-Biedma, Cristina Sánchez-Quesada, Miguel Delgado-Rodríguez, José J. Gaforio, The biological activities of natural lignans from olives and virgin olive oils: A review, Journal of Functional Foods, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2016.07.005.
(13): Mohanambal Moorthy, Nathorn Chaiyakunapruk, Sabrina Anne Jacob, Uma D. Palanisamy, Prebiotic potential of polyphenols, its effect on gut microbiota and anthropometric/clinical markers: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials, Trends in Food Science & Technology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2020.03.036.
(14): Gorzynik-Debicka M, Przychodzen P, Cappello F, Kuban-Jankowska A, Marino Gammazza A, Knap N, Wozniak M, Gorska-Ponikowska M. Potential Health Benefits of Olive Oil and Plant Polyphenols. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2018; 19(3):686. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms19030686
(15): Rocío M. de Pablos, Ana María Espinosa-Oliva, Ruth Hornedo-Ortega, Mercedes Cano, Sandro Arguelles, Hydroxytyrosol protects from aging process via AMPK and autophagy; a review of its effects on cancer, metabolic syndrome, osteoporosis, immune-mediated and neurodegenerative diseases, Pharmacological Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phrs.2019.03.005.
