High olive oil intake helps promote longer life

Regular consumption of olive oil may provide protective benefits against cancer, cardiovascular, and all-cause mortality, independent of overall diet quality, suggests a study. 

High (>3 tbsp/day) versus low (≤1.5 tbsp/day) olive oil consumption correlated with a significantly lower risk of all-cause (hazard ratio [HR], 0.80, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.69—0.94), cancer (HR, 0.77, 95 percent CI, 0.59—0.99), and cardiovascular (HR, 0.75, 95 percent CI, 0.58—0.97) mortality. The HR for other cause mortality was 0.97 (95 percent CI, 0.73—1.29). 

When considering biomarkers, the association of olive oil consumption with all-cause and cancer mortality weakened by 21.2 percent and 13.7 percent, respectively. 

“Known risk factors for chronic diseases only in part mediated such associations suggesting that other biological pathways are potentially involved in this relationship,” the authors said.  

This longitudinal analysis used data on 22,892 men and women from the Moli-sani Study in Italy (follow-up 13.1 years) to explore the relationship between olive oil consumption and mortality. The authors obtained dietary data at baseline (2005—2010) through a 188-item food frequency questionnaire and standardized olive oil intake to a 10-g tbsp size. 

The Mediterranean diet score was utilized to assess diet quality. The authors then used multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazard models to calculate HRs and 95 percent CIs. In addition, they explored the potential mediating role of inflammatory, metabolic, cardiovascular, and renal biomarkers on the association between olive oil intake and mortality based on change-in-estimate and associated p-values.