Mediterranean Diet

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Hi folks:

The last nine words of this abstract seem to be hinting that the

apparent benefits of olive oil may *NOT* derive from the

monounsaturated fat it contains:

" Ageing and the Mediterranean diet: a review of the role of dietary

fats.

Battino M, Ferreiro MS.

Institute of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Universita

Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy. m.a.battino@...

Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the relationship between

food and health. Concerns have been raised about dietary fats and

their relative nutritional advantages or disadvantages. In

investigations of the associations between health and fat intake,

special emphasis has been placed on the benefits of virgin olive oil

for counteracting certain neurodegenerative diseases and ageing. With

respect to ageing, accumulating evidence indicates that an

improvement in quality of life can be reached by modulation of the

extrinsic factors that influence many ageing processes. Of the

modifiable factors, nutrition appears to be one of the strongest

elements known to influence the rate of ageing as well as the

incidence of age-associated diseases such as atherosclerosis and

neurodegenerative pathologies. This paper reviews the theory of

ageing and the role of fatty acids in the mechanisms affecting its

evolution. It also confirms that virgin olive oil, an essential

component of the Mediterranean diet, provides large amounts of stable

and not easily oxidizable fatty acids as well as remarkable

quantities of powerful antioxidant molecules.

PMID: 15482624 [PubMed - in process] "

Rodney.