By: Thomas Affatato
Certified Olive Oil Consultant, Italian Culinary Institute, New York, N.Y.
Health Benefits of Olive Oil
Whether eaten raw and heated, olive oil is one of the healthiest foods that we can consume because of its fragrance and taste, its monounsaturated fatty acids and balanced polyunsaturated content, and its content of vitamin E, Provitamin E, and antioxidants. This combination of properties gives it a protective effect on human health.
Food prepared with olive oil exerts an excellent effect on the stomach and intestines by protecting the mucosa and preventing the effects of hyperdhlorhydria as well as empty stomach and it corrects chronic constipation. It stimulates the gallbladder and inhibits secretion during emptying. It protects against the formation of gallstones owing to the way in which it activates bile flow and increases high-density lipoproteins (HDL). Gallstones incidence is lower in those regions where olive oil consumption is higher.
Olive oil has a balanced polyunsaturated composition with a linoleic/linolenic acid ratio similar to that found in human milk. It is an adequate source of essential fatty acids which cannot be synthesized by the body and therefore have to be supplied through the diet. All these factors render it highly suitable for breast-fed and weaned infants. It is also recommended for the elderly because it is palatable and digestible and aids in the assimilation of minerals and vitamins. It stimulates bone mineralazation, thus preventing calcium loss.
A diet rich in animal fats raises blood cholesterol levels, which is one of the principal risk factors in circulatory diseases. In contrast, vegetable oils have a protective effect in that they lower cholesterol. Remember that not all cholesterol is harmful: the fraction transported by the high-density lipoproteins is protective and stimulates cholesterol clearance through the bile. Olive oil lowers total cholesterol but raises HDL cholesterol. It thus has a beneficial effect on health and raises the life expectancy of those who consume it. The risk of dying from coronary heart disease is much higher for people living in countries where olive oil is not consumed than for the Mediterranean peoples whose diet contains a high percentage of olive oil.
Several triterpenic alcohols (especially cycloarthenol) and beta-systerol prevent cholesterol from being absorbed by the intestine. Compared with other fats, olive oil stimulates a greater secretion of bile and pancreatic lipase and is more rapidly absorbed.
Olive oil has always been thought of as falling somewhere between food and medicine. Hypocrites recommend the juice of fresh olives as a cure for mental illnesses and poultices of macerated olives for ulcers. The jars in old pharmacies would always include one labeled “oleum,” that is to say, “olive oil.”
In the Middle Ages, it was used to treat gynaelogical complaints and until the end of the nineteenth century it was used in Northern Italy, where oil was scarce, as a treatment for earaches as a purgative, especially for children. In Southern Italy, where supplies are plentiful, oil has always been served at the dinner table, together with bread and wine.
In the country, some people still use it to ease out a splinter, to treat a stomachache, and to soften calluses. A generation or so ago, women would use it to make their hair soft and shiny.
Modern medicine has begun to give serious attention to the healing properties of olive oil. Olive oil is attributed with the ability to defend the body from arteriosclerosis and heart attacks, both caused by high levels of cholesterol The level of cholesterol is a direct consequence of the amount of saturated fatty acids (especially animal fats) that enter the body as food.
Since ancient times, olive oil has been described as having a beneficial effect on gastritis and gastrduodenal ulcers, which is attributed to its protective function. When animal fats were replaced by olive oil in the diets of patients suffering from ulcers, the result was a reduction of lesions in 33% of the cases and cicatrisation in 55%. Remember, however, that the prescription of olive oil does not eliminate the need for pharmaceutical therapy.
Olive Oil has a very positive effect on anatomy of the gallbladder in that it has a more acute, gentle prolonged action than prescribed drugs and other foods that have similar effects. It inhibits hepstobiliary secretion during gallbladder emptying time and can therefore be used as medicinal food. This effect has been known since antiquity and has been confirmed recently in numerous studies.
Cholelithiasis
Cholelithiasis (or gallstones) is a widespread disease. It is related to the metabolism of fats and is found to a greater extent in more economically developed countries. Overall excess dietary intake, particularly of saturated fats and cholesterol, leads to increased biliary excretion of cholesterol and a reduction in bile acids and lecithin. It appears that high plasma cholesterol levels increase the risk of lithiasis because they simultaneously raise the fraction of cholesterol transported by the low-density lipoproteins (LDL) that inhibit the hepatic synthesis of cholesterol. The cholesterol transported by the high-density lipoproteins is more easily metabolized into bile acids that it is excreted with bile. When a patient with a high cholesterol level undergoes treatment, plasma cholesterol has to be lowered by increasing its elimination via the biliary tract. For that reason, the majority of experts agree that foods rich in saturated and polyunsaturated fast play a possible role in the formation of stones. While monounsaturated-rich olive oil would not appear to play such a role. Olive oil can be said to have a protective effect against the formation of gallstones, due to the way in which it activates bile flow and increases HDL, as well as to its balanced saturates: polyunsaturates ratio and its high content of monounsaturates. Studies have demonstrated that there is a lower incidence of gallstones in areas of Italy where olive oil consumption is higher.
Olive Oil and Childhood
Fat intake is important to both the newborn baby and the weaned infant; even more important is the intake o essential fatty acids. Breast-fed babies receive 4-5% of their calories in the form of polyunsaturated acids, while babies fed on cow’s milk receive substantially less. Low linoleic acid intake can delay growth and produce skin, hepatic, and metabolic disorders. Seed oils, which are rich in polyunsaturates, are not recommended in large quantities for children because it is not advisable to lower their cholesterol level and because these oils promote peroxidative phenomena, especially in youngsters with low vitamin E reserves. It is important to strike a balance between the dietary supply of linoleic and linolenic acid because a high ratio can cause disorders of the nervous system. In his comparison of the effects of olive oil, sunflower oil, and saturated fats on growing rats, studies have detected modifications in the structural lipids of the brain and liver among the groups treated with saturated fats and sunflower oil. There were none in the group treated with olive oil. Olive oil provides a relatively low amount of essential fatty acids but has balanced linoeic-linilenic ratio similar to that found in human milk.
As regards the influence of olive oil on bone mineralazation and development, studies have demonstrated the need for fat. The most positive effects are obtained with the intake of oleic glycerides to which a minimum amount of polyunsaturates is added, and so the best diets for this purpose are those containing olive oil.
Olive Oil and Old Age
From the very outset, food provides human beings with the energy necessary for the renewal and continuation of life. Each cell inherits a program that dictates its biological activity and that can be repeated an unlimited number of times. Successive repetition produces errors that are corrected at first, but which over time become consolidated and give rise to incorrect information to which others are added. A diet rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids can lead to peroxidative phenomena, which expose cells to this production of errors. On the other hand, the presence of antioxidant substances, such as vitamin E, provides a defense mechanism. Mice fed on olive oil have a longer life expectancy than those fed on sunflower an corn oil. This is explained by the better ration between vitamin E and polyunsaturates in olive oil. When applied to man, this research makes for caution in the indiscriminate use of polyunsaturated-rich oils and leads to a preference for olive oil over all dietary fats because of its balanced content of linoleic acid, linolenic acid and antioxidant substances.
In a study on skin changes over time, studies have shown that people on a diet consisting of more than 10% polyunsaturates showed signs of aging. Of these cases, 60% had skin lesions removed that were suspected of being malignant.
Bone classification is another problem common in the elderly. Olive oil seems to have a positive effect, which appears to be dose-dependent, because the more olive oil ingested the better the bone mineralazation obtained. The explanation might lie in the large amount of oleates in the structural lipids of bones. According to French researchers, olive oil would appear to be necessary during growth and later in adulthood to avoid calcium loss.
Old age brings with it reduced digestive capacity and poor absorption of nutrients, especially of vitamins and mineral salts. Olive oil has the best characteristics as regards digestibility and absorption and has a mild laxative effect. Whether consumed cooked, fried, or better yet raw in order to make the most of its vitamin and antioxidant content, olive oil helps make food more appetizing and aids in digestion.
Olive Oil and Atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis is one of the most widespread diseases in industrialized countries in which it is the leading cause of death. Together with genetic predisposition, there are other risk factors that cause the lesion to appear or become aggravated: smoking, arterial hypertension, and hypercholerterolemia. Additional contributing factors are age, sex (male), diabetes, gout, a high triglycerides level, oral contraceptives, and physical inactivity.
The incidence of atherosclerosis is closely linked to dietary habits. A diet rich in animal fats tend to raise plasma cholesterol. On the other hand, vegetable oils rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids have an antiatherogenic, protective action against cholesterol, and lower cholesterol levels.
It was then demonstrated that not all plasma cholesterol transported by the low-density lipoproteins is particularly so, whereas the cholesterol carried by the high-density lipoproteins appears to have a protective effect since their function is to eliminate free cholesterol in the cells and to etherify and carry it to the liver where it is emptied with the bile.
Numerous studies have confirmed a negative correlation between plasma LDL levels and atherosclerosis and a positive correlation between HDL and a longer life expectancy.   Infinite Health Resources does not at any point, for any circumstances suggest that you do not follow or stop medical advice of your physician. We do not advocate any drugs that has not been prescribed by your physician, nor suggest that we are medical doctors nor are we giving medical advice. Infinite Health Resources is here purely as a resource. |
