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Eating olive oil cuts your risk of dying from dementia by 28%, study finds
A new study has found that adding olive oil to your diet can considerably reduce your risk of dying from dementia.
Alzheimer’s and other dementias are the seventh leading cause of death worldwide according to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) figures, and 1 in 3 people will sadly develop the condition in their lifetime.
Olive oil cuts risk of dying from dementia
The study, published in the JAMA Network, analyzed data from more than 92,000 adults in the�Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study over 28 years. None of the participants had heart disease or cancer.
Olive oil intake was assessed every four years using a food frequency questionnaire where people had to answer how often they consumed the healthy fat. The options were: Never or less than once per month, 0 to 4.5 grams per day, 4.5 to 7 grams per day and more than 7 grams per day
Researchers found those who consumed 7 grams of olive oil per day had a 28% lower risk of dying from dementia compared with those who never or rarely ate it.
Replacing 5 grams of margarine and mayonnaise each day with the equivalent amount of olive oil was also associated with an 8% to 14% lower risk of dementia mortality.
Dementia is�the name for a group of neurological conditions that cause a loss of cognitive function, impacting a person’s daily life through loss of memory, language, problem-solving and other tasks that involve thinking.
Interestingly, diet quality didn’t matter. Even those who ate an unhealthy diet still reduced their dementia death risk by consuming olive oil.
“In US adults, higher olive oil intake was associated with a lower risk of dementia-related mortality, irrespective of diet quality,” the study concluded. “These results suggest that olive oil intake represents a potential strategy to reduce dementia mortality risk.”
More health benefits of olive oil
Olive oil is part of the Mediterranean diet, which is widely considered one of the world’s best eating plans and helps people live longer and healthier.
It’s a healthy fat that contains monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs)�instead of saturated or trans fats, which raise the cholesterol in your blood, says UC Davis Health. MUFAs have been shown to increase the good cholesterol and lower the bad cholesterol.
Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that has many essential functions in the body. However, it becomes an issue when you have too much. High cholesterol can block your blood vessels with plaque, making you more likely to have heart problems or a stroke, the NHS explains.
High cholesterol is caused by eating fatty foods with lots of saturated and trans fats, not exercising enough, being overweight, smoking and drinking alcohol. It doesn’t usually show symptoms, and many don’t know their cholesterol is high until it’s too late.
As well as keeping cholesterol levels under control and reducing plaque in your arteries, olive oil also has�anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, meaning it reduces inflammation in the body and fights off unstable molecules that can damage cells called free radicals.
These free radicals have been linked to many diseases including cancer, autoimmune disease and heart disease.
If you are planning on adding the healthy fat into your diet, don’t make these five olive oil mistakes.
