The health benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

By The Olive Wellness Institute

Published studies show that no other food comes close to Extra Virgin Olive Oil for the prevention and treatment of chronic disease.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil has many well evidenced health benefits as an individual food, and as part of the Mediterranean diet.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the main source of fat, and the ubiquitous cooking medium, in the Mediterranean Diet. The Mediterranean Diet is now well established through multiple systematic reviews and meta-analysis to reduce overall risk of mortality, cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, overall cancer incidence, neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes.1

The well-known Predimed study, a high quality randomized controlled study, elucidated in more detail the effect of Extra Virgin Olive Oil specifically as part of the Mediterranean Diet. It compared a Mediterranean Diet supplemented with greater than or equal to 4 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil with a low-fat diet. This resulted in a thirty percent reduction in cardiovascular disease and stroke and the trial was stopped after seven years for ethical reasons when the advantages of the Mediterranean diet became clear. 2

The diet is now recommended by governments, scientists, and health professionals as an example of a nutritional gold standard to support health and wellness, with the Predimed trial often cited.3, 4