The good oil: Switching to olive oil may be extra healthy

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-01-11 06:00

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Eating at least half a tablespoon of olive oil a day has been linked to a lower risk of dying over a 28 year period, according to US research. The study of around 90,000 men and women found that those with the highest intake of olive oil had a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, or respiratory disease. Replacing 10 grams per day of margarine, butter, mayonnaise, and dairy fat with the equivalent amount of olive oil was also linked to a lower risk of dying. However, substituting olive oil for other vegetable oils (eg, canola, corn, safflower, and soybean oil) did not reduce the risk. A linked editorial says this suggests that vegetable oils may provide the same health benefits as olive oil.

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Research American College of Cardiology, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Editorial / Opinion American College of Cardiology, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: Journal of the American College of Cardiology

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA

Funder: This work was supported by research grants UM1 CA186107, P01 CA87969, U01 CA167552, P30 DK046200, HL034594, HL088521, HL35464, and HL60712 from the National Institutes of Health. Dr Guasch-Ferré is supported by American Diabetes Association grant #1- 18-PMF-029 and 1R21AG070375-01A1. Dr Salas-Salvadó is partially supported by the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) under the ICREA Academia program; and received the virgin olive oil that was used in the interventions of the PREDIMED and PREDIMED-Plus studies from the Patrimonio Communal Olivalero and Hojiblanca SA (Málaga, Spain).

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