HEALTH AND OLIVE OIL

Recently two articles have garnered the intense interest of the public. A dietary recommendations article and an article on cancer. Both having to do in part with olive oil. First and foremost, human nutrition is very complicated, and it is a very difficult research to undertake. Let me briefly tell you about each article and its potential impact on health. Following my 35 year career in health care and oncology, I find these publications of particular interest in the business I am now running, producing really good olive oil and utilizing sustainable agriculture.

FATS

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee

This group has recently published a document about the amount and type of fats each person should eat. The 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee with the Health and Human Services Department have changed some of the fat requirement amounts that are allowed. In discussions with a dietician colleague, she says to remember that “fat is your friend”.   Although fat often gets a bad rap, it is one of the essential elements in the human diet dedicated to providing energy  and fuel for the body.

Here are my comments:
Comment number 1: They are still saying total fat should be lower. Unsaturated fats, in our case Olive Oil, is still preferential to saturated fats (animal fat).

Comment number 2: They are still saying that processed, precooked, and packaged foods are BAD. They are much too high in saturated fats (bad fats), salt, and sugars.

Comment number 3: Cook good food and eat food with color such as dark green, bright orange, and yellow; NOT just white food.

Comment number 4: Eat more vegetables and fruits than meats and seafood.

Comment number 5: It is all in the balance.  Th “Mediterranean diet” (or as I like to call it, a subsistence diet) is a plant based diet that is balanced with good lean protein in small amounts and real extra virgin olive oil.  This coupled with exercise creates a healthy balance.

Remember, human nutrition is very complicated.

 CANCER

In a recent article out of Australia by authors, LeGend, Breslin, and Fostera that was posted online Jan 2015, in the journal, Molecular and Cellular Oncology, the authors state that  oleocanthal, a chemical found in olive oil, will kill cancer cells. Oleocanthal rapidly and selectively induces cancer cell death via lysosomal membrane permeabilization. (LMP).

This is NOT a human nutrition research study. This is a study of human cancer cell lines in the lab. This is a bench lab study. But indeed, the results are very interesting and promising.

The take home message is not to take this interesting research out of context. Cancer research is very complicated and may take 5-10 years to even begin to do human studies.

The bottom line is:

Remember, cancer research is very complicated.

Remember, human nutrition is very complicated.

These articles stand on their own scientific merit, and science is always evolving, changing, and gathering more data.