A large and new study has found that replacing olive oil for butter, margarine, mayonnaise, and dairy fat has been associated with a lower mortality risk from certain diseases.
The new study claims that by consuming over 7 grams of olive oil every day, which is equal to 1 ½ teaspoons, it can help lower the risk of mortality from such diseases as cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and neurodegenerative disease.
Moreover, the new study found that there is also a lowered risk of mortality associated with replacing 10 grams a day, which is considered 2 teaspoons, of butter, margarine, mayonnaise, or dairy fat with the same amount of olive oil.
The study, which was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, based its findings on the analysis of participants that were part of the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. The research group analyzed information from 60,582 women and 31,801 men who were all free of cardiovascular disease and cancer at the time of the study baseline, which was back in 1990.
Throughout the 28 years of follow-up of the participants, their diets were evaluated via questionnaire, which they were asked to answer every four years. Some of the questions in the survey were asking ‘how often, on average, they consumed specific foods, types of fat and oils, as well as which brand or type of oils they used in the kitchen and at the table.’
Moreover, the study findings also support the current dietary recommendations, which are to increase the intake of olive oil and other unsaturated vegetable oils.
According to senior research scientist at the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the study’s lead author, Marta Guasch-Ferré, PhD, “Clinicians should be counseling patients to replace certain fats, such as margarine and butter, with olive oil to improve their health. Our study helps make more specific recommendations that will be easier for patients to understand and hopefully implement into their diets.”
They calculated olive oil consumption taking the sum of three items in the questionnaire. These were olive oil used for salad dressings, olive oil used for baking and frying at home, and olive oil added to bread or food. The equivalent of one tablespoon was said to be equivalent to 13.5 grams of olive oil.
Meanwhile, consumption of other types of vegetable oils was calculated based on the participants reported type of fat and oil brand that they used for cooking at home. As for butter and margarine consumption, this was based on their reported frequency of stick, the amount of margarine or butter added from baking and frying at home, or tube or soft margarine consumption. Also calculated were the intakes of dairy and other fats and nutrients.
What the researchers found was olive oil consumption ‘increased from 1.6 grams/day in 1990 to about 4 grams/day in 2010.’ Meanwhile, margarine consumption ‘decreased from about 12 grams/day in 1990 to about 4 grams/day in 2010.’ They also found that the consumption of other fats ‘remained stable.’
As for participants with reports of higher olive oil intake were often found to be more physically active, less likely to smoke, had Mediterranean of Southern European ancestry, and ate more fruits and veggies as compared to those that had a lower olive oil intake.
With the average consumption of total olive oil was about 9 grams a day at baseline for those in the highest category, which included 5% of the study participants.
When the research teams compared participants who rarely or never consumed olive oil with those in the highest consumption category, they were found to have ‘19% lower risk of cardiovascular mortality, 17% lower risk of cancer mortality, 29% lower risk of neurodegenerative mortality, and 18% lower risk of respiratory mortality.’
The study also discovered how substituting olive oil with 10 grams a day of other types of fat, like mayonnaise, margarine, butter, and dairy fat was associated with an ‘8-34% lowered risk of total and cause-specific mortality.’ What had no significant associations was substituting olive for other types of vegetable oils.
Throughout the course of the 28 years of the study, there were a recorded 36,856 deaths to examine that happened in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and the Nurses’ Health Study.
Guasch-Ferré said, “It’s possible that higher olive oil consumption is a marker of an overall healthier diet and higher socioeconomic status. However, even after adjusting for these and other social economic status factors, our results remained largely the same.”
He also explained how the study cohort was ‘predominantly a non-Hispanic white population of health professionals, which “should minimize potentially confounding socioeconomic factors, but may limit generalizability as this population may be more likely to lead a healthy lifestyle.”
Associate professor of epidemiology at the Karolinska Institutet, Susanna C. Larsson, PhD, added in an accompanying editorial, “The current study and previous studies have found that consumption of olive oil may have health benefits. However, several questions remain. Are the associations causal or spurious? Is olive oil consumption protective for certain cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke and atrial fibrillation, only or also for other major diseases and causes of death? What is the amount of olive oil required for a protective effect? More research is needed to address these questions.”
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