A recent study on PREDIMED project (Prevention with Mediterranean Diet) by Biomedic Investigation on Physiopathological Network of Obesity and Nutrition Center (CIBEROBN) and Rovira I Virgii University (URV) has determined that the regular use of extra virgin olive oil can help on reducing risks on a 51% of suffering and osteoporotic fracture.
After the investigation, which has been realised by a total of 870 people in 9 years of monitoring, it has been calculated that introducing from 4 to 5 extra virgin olive oil tablespoons on your diary diet helps on the protection of the bone structure and the prevention of osteoporosis.
The results from the investigation taken by the Nutrition Unity from URV-IISPV demonstrates for the first time the benefits of the regular use of extra virgin olive oil for bone protection.
The studies realised until the moment were not focused on the fracture, but in the positive effects derived from the extra virgin olive oil components administration, such as capsuled polyphenols.
The head researchers of the study, Monica Bulló and Jordi Salas-Salvadó from the CIBEROBN Network and the Human Nutrition Unity from URV, attribute these benefits ‘to the combination of different substances that compound extra virgin olive oil, from fat to polyphenols and others because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties’.
The realization of this study was with a total of 870 people, between 55 and 80 years with a high risk on cardiovascular illnesses. These people have been recruited from an ambulatory level by Instituto Catalán de la Salud (Tarragona) doctors, who participated in PREDIMED study.
The incorporation of extra virgin olive oil as a regular use in diary diet is an efficient way to protect the bones, even it is able to lower the apparition of fractures due to osteoporosis. Nowadays, the osteoporosis treatment is pharmacologic, regulated by supplementation of Calcium and vitamin D.
After the investigation, the researchers think that olive oil not only contributes to the improvement on cardiovascular illnesses, but also in other diseases such as osteoporosis (pathology that generates a high public expense due to job losses, immobility and dependency in some cases).