The power of olive oil

You may have seen a story on the evening news this week about olive oil being good for you. Not news to most people I know, but the interesting thing about this very large and long U.S study is that it provides us with an amount of olive oil that has been shown to be beneficial. I have a Mediterranean background, and as a rule we don’t measure our daily intake of olive oil. Suffice it to say that if we did, it would be in parts of cups and not spoons though, because it is traditionally our main source of fat.

In Greek cuisine, there is an entire category of ‘oily’ dishes called lathera (pronounced ‘lu-there-a’, emphasis on the final syllable). They aren’t fried foods as you may at first think, but primarily vegetarian/vegan casserole dishes made with a decent amount of olive oil. So much so that it sits as a layer at the top and you have to mix it through the dish prior to serving it. You mop up the liquid which we call zoumi (pronounced ‘zoo-mee’, emphasis on the final syllable), meaning ‘juice’, with good quality bread at the end of your meal, so your plate is left clean. I guess it’s our (healthier) version of bread and butter. Arabic cuisines also have these types of staple dishes, called bil zayt. I will post my favourite lathera recipe soon and you can let me know what you think. But let’s get back to this enormous study which started in 1990.

Using data from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, researchers analysed 60,582 women and 31,801 men who were free of cancer and cardiovascular disease at the beginning. During the next 28 years, every four years their previous year’s diet was assessed by a questionnaire. It asked how often they ate specific foods, the types of fats and oils, including brands, they used for cooking and those they added at the table. Olive oil consumption was calculated by adding up the three items in the questionnaire: olive oil used for salad dressings, added to food or bread, and used for baking and frying at home. One (U.S) tablespoon was equivalent to 13.5 grams of olive oil.

Results

During 28 years of follow-up, 36,856 deaths occurred. Higher olive oil intake (>0.5 tablespoon/day or >7 g/d) was associated with 19% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease (e.g. stroke, heart attack, heart failure), 17% lower risk of dying from cancer, 29% lower risk of dying from a neurodegenerative disease (e.g. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s), and 18% lower risk of dying from respiratory disease (e.g. asthma, pneumonia, COPD).

The daily replacement of 10 grams of margarine, butter, mayonnaise, and dairy fat with the equivalent amount of olive oil was associated with 8%-34% lower risk of total and cause-specific mortality (death).

Even if you only changed your cooking oil to olive, you could start to reap some of these benefits, but changing your salad dressing during summer is also a great option. A simple salad dressing of olive oil + garlic + either lemon juice or vinegar is delicious, and a little bit of Dijon mustard can also make it creamy.

I know that buying a large amount of extra virgin olive oil can seem like a big outlay, but those small bottles are pretty expensive, even when they are on special. The most affordable good quality extra virgin olive oil currently available in Australian supermarkets is Aldi’s Remano. It comes in a user-friendly 3.78L plastic bottle and is sourced from the Mediterranean (Spain, Italy, Greece or a combination). If you prefer an Australian product, they also sell The Olive Tree brand, which is a bit more expensive. There are often some bargains to be had in continental stores, simply compare the price per 100mL. In Australia, we pay more per litre for Coke than olive oil. It may seem like a large purchase, but it lasts a long time.

Disclaimer: I feel I should disclose that my husband works for Aldi, so of course we shop there sometimes. We also shop at Coles, which now employs one of my children, and sometimes at Woolworths, where some of my friends work. Retailers are huge employers, there is no escaping some sort of relationship with the big three supermarkets. I just want to make it clear that I do not receive payment for any products I mention, I just really like them.

Reference

Marta Guasch-Ferré, Yanping Li, Walter C. Willett, Qi Sun, Laura Sampson, Jordi Salas-Salvadó, Miguel A. Martínez-González, Meir J. Stampfer, Frank B. Hu, Consumption of Olive Oil and Risk of Total and Cause-Specific Mortality Among U.S. Adults, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Volume 79, Issue 2, 2022, Pages 101-112