Regular consumption of olive oil can improve heart health

Regular consumption of olive oil can drastically improve heart health - especially in people who do not normally eat a Mediterranean diet. Researchers at the Universities of Glasgow and Lisbon and Mosaiques Diagnostics in Germany teamed-up to study the effect of olive oil, an ingredient central to the Mediterranean diet, on heart health in a group of non-consumers. The study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , was set up to examine the effect of phenolics, natural compounds found in plants including olives, on heart health. Phenolics, along with monounsaturated fatty acids, are thought by the Federal Drug Administration in the US and European Food Safety Authority to be responsible for the protective effect of olive oil. ‌ The researchers recruited 69 healthy volunteers who were split into two groups and asked to consume 20ml of olive oil either low or high in phenolics every day over a six-week period. A particular feature of the study was the target group studied: healthy individuals who did not regularly consume olive oil. The research team applied a new diagnostic technology to study the impact of the oil supplements on health: urine samples were examined for a range of peptides (produced by the breakdown of proteins) already identified as indicators or biomarkers of diseases such as coronary artery disease (CAD), chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetes.