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The Olive Oil Hunter News #93

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Olive Oil Chiffon Cake Recipe, Using Olive Oil in Lieu of Butter or Oil, and The Therapeutic Properties Of Olive Oil

As your Olive Oil Hunter, it’s only natural that I love to share new research on the benefits of olive oil. What gets me so excited is that you get all the health boosts from its polyphenols and other compounds while, at the same time, enhancing your cooking with its deep flavors. Unlike guidelines that call for following a restrictive diet or eating foods that are good for you but that you don’t really enjoy, extra virgin olive oil is more of a healthy lifestyle choice. Yet even the most long-standing members of the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club may be surprised by just how delicious olive oil can be in sweets—as you’re about to find out!

Olive Oil Chiffon Cake

  • Olive Oil Chiffon Cake Olive Oil Chiffon Cake

    What sets chiffon cake apart from other yellow cakes is its versatility—use it for classic layer cake recipes, for ice cream cakes, and even for a breakfast cake. Because it’s made with oil, not butter, chiffon cake stays moist in the fridge or freezer. Extra virgin olive oil adds a subtle yet rich flavor—you’ll never call chiffon cake bland again! What’s more, it’s wonderful for getting all the benefits of olive oil in a sweet way. This recipe yields two 9-inch rounds. I love to cut a wedge from one layer and top it with yogurt and fruit for breakfast or a snack. You can also cut each layer in two horizontally to build a four-layer cake with your favorite filling.

    Ingredients

    • 5 large eggs
    • 1 cup sugar, divided
    • 1/2 + 1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    • 1/3 cup water, room temperature
    • 1 1/4 cups cake flour
    • 1/2 + 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
    • 1/2 + 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

    Directions

    Step 1

    Separate the whites from the yolks when the eggs are cold and then leave them on the counter for about 30 minutes to come to room temperature (the whites will whip much better than when cold). Center one of the racks in the middle of your oven and preheat it to 325°F. Line two 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper and set aside. 

    Step 2

    In a large bowl, whisk the yolks and 1/2 cup sugar for about 2 minutes until fully blended and light in color. Whisk in the olive oil, vanilla, and water. Whisk the flour and baking powder in a small bowl and then whisk this into the yolk mixture until it’s fully incorporated.

    Step 3

    In a standing mixer or large bowl, beat egg whites, salt, cream of tartar, and the remaining 1/2 cup sugar on low speed for about 30 seconds and then gradually increase the speed to high. Continue beating for 8–10 minutes until you get a glossy meringue with firm peaks.

    Step 4

    Fold about a cup of the meringue into the yolk mixture to lighten it and then gently fold in the rest in three batches, just until there are barely any streaks of meringue visible. Divide the batter between the two pans and gently smooth the surfaces with an offset spatula. Bake the cakes on the same rack for 15 minutes and then reverse their positions and continue baking until the tops are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed with a fingertip—about 15 minutes more, depending on your oven.

    Step 5

    When done, invert the pans onto two wire racks to cool for about an hour. Turn them right side up and run an offset spatula around the sides of the cakes to loosen them, then invert them again, take off the pans, and remove the parchment. If you aren’t using the layers right away, you can stack them with a piece of parchment paper between them and store them in a covered cake holder for up to three days on the counter.

    Yields two 9-inch cake layers

Healthy Kitchen Nugget: No-mess Marinating

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

The Great Olive Oil Swap

Whether you’re making a dish that’s sweet or savory, olive oil adds another layer of flavor that butter doesn’t always impart and that’s certainly missing with other plant-based oils. When you’re using olive oil in place of a vegetable oil, use the same amount called for in the recipe. When you’re using it in place of butter, use 75 percent of the amount of butter, so 3 tablespoons of olive oil for 4 tablespoons of butter.  

For Your Best Health: Eye Health

For Your Best Health

Olive Oil as Therapy

In a special issue of the journal Nutrients devoted solely to research on olive oil, a team of scientists from Spain wrote a comprehensive report on the benefits of extra virgin olive oil. What was especially interesting was the role it might one day play in clinical nutrition—when doctors use nutrition to treat or manage health conditions, sometimes with supplemental feedings through an IV or even a feeding tube to correct deficiencies. Extra virgin olive oil is being looked at for this because of its many therapeutic properties. 

Most of us tend to think of the benefits of olive oil as preventive, but there’s also the possibility that it can be healing, thanks to components like oleic acid, hydroxytyrosol, and oleuropein. While the researchers point out that focused studies are needed to “chisel specific recommendations for its therapeutic use through different formulations in other specific diseases and clinical populations,” they list these top benefits of olive oil on its own or as part of the Mediterranean diet:

  1. Supports cardiovascular function and health
  2. Supports lipoprotein metabolism, which could positively influence cholesterol levels
  3. Affects carbohydrate metabolism, helping protect against metabolic syndrome (a precursor of diabetes)
  4. Protects against neurodegenerative diseases
  5. Lowers cancer risk
  6. Supports healthy gut microbiota 

From “Therapeutic Properties and Use of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Clinical Nutrition: A Narrative Review and Literature Update,” Nutrients2022 (14).

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #92

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Glorious Gazpacho Recipe, The Colors of Bell Peppers and Convenience of Canned Tomatoes, More Reasons for a Diet with Deep Colors and The Good Work of Gardening

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes. They’re not only an essential component of delicious gazpacho, but they are also part of the theme that runs throughout this issue of the newsletter. Along with other deeply colored fruits and vegetables, they offer antioxidants that can improve so many facets of our health. And there’s even a special bonus to growing them yourself as part of the benefits of gardening. Read on!

Glorious Gazpacho

  • Gazpacho Drinkable Gazpacho

    This perfect end-of-summer dish brings together the best seasonal produce with a no-muss, no-fuss prep. Think smooth: True gazpacho is made to be sipped as a drink, not eaten with a spoon. For an extra boost of fiber, leave the skin on the cucumber.

    Ingredients

    • 2 pounds ripe red tomatoes
    • 1 green pepper, stemmed and seeded
    • 1 cucumber, peeled
    • 1/2 medium onion
    • 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar, plus more for serving 
    • 2 garlic cloves
    • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
    • Pinch of fine sea salt 
    • 3/4 cup cold water, plus more as needed

    Directions

    Step 1

    Cut the vegetables into chunks and add them with the other ingredients to a blender. Process until they turn into a smooth liquid. If it’s too thick, add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Pour into glasses and garnish with a few drops of olive oil and vinegar. 

    Yields 4 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: How to Store Fresh Herbs

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

The Colors of Bell Peppers

Red, orange, and yellow bell peppers are now nearly as common as green ones, with purple, black, and even white variations making an appearance. What’s the real difference? According to the Mississippi State University Extension Service, it mostly comes down to how long the peppers are on the vine—they all start out green and then, depending on the exact variety, will mature into their predetermined color and get sweeter in taste.

All bell peppers are rich in vitamin C, with two or more times the amount in an orange, and good sources of vitamins B6, K, A, and E, but their nutrients differ slightly with their color. For instance, yellow bell peppers are rich in violaxanthin, and red bell peppers are replete with capsanthin and beta-carotene. Orange peppers are particular powerhouses of lutein and zeaxanthin, states the Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter. So, as with all fruits and vegetables, reaching for a rainbow of peppers will not only brighten your recipes, but will also give you an array of nutrients.

Healthy Kitchen Nugget: No-mess Marinating

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

The Convenience of Canned Tomatoes

There’s nothing quite like a fresh summer tomato, but you don’t need to put tomato-based recipes on hold once the current crop runs out. Canned tomatoes can come to the rescue! I like to keep a variety in the pantry: whole (peeled), crushed, diced, and puréed. But what about brands? And must they be made from famed Italian plum tomatoes or will California-grown ones be just as tasty?

It’s hard to find a true consensus. Taste tests conducted at popular food sites came up with completely different brands and opinions regarding the winner(s). So, have some fun by putting together your own sampling at home. For a starting point, here are some brand names that stand out: Muir Glen and Bianco DiNapoli, both of which use tomatoes grown in Northern California; Redpack, which is made with tomatoes grown in Indiana; and Cento San Marzano, with tomatoes grown in Italy. 

If you want to try an ultra-premium brand with true San Marzano tomatoes, be sure you’re getting the real thing by looking for the letters DOP on the label—they stand fordenominazione d’origine protetta (or protected designation of origin), and signify that the food was produced, processed, and packaged according to local traditions and rules in the Agro Sarnese-Nocerino, a set geographical zone within the provinces of Salerno, Avellino, and Naples in Italy. 

For Your Best Health: Eye Health

For Your Best Health

More Reasons for a Diet with Deep Colors

Women tend to live longer than men but actually have higher rates of illness. According to new research from University of Georgia, a diet rich in foods with pigmented carotenoids such as yams, kale, spinach, watermelon, bell peppers, tomatoes, oranges, and carrots can help, especially for eye and brain health. 

“The idea is that men get a lot of the diseases that tend to kill you, but women get those diseases less often or later so they [persevere] but with illnesses that are debilitating,” says Billy R. Hammond, PhD, a professor in the behavioral and brain sciences program in the department of psychology at Georgia and co-author of the study. “For example, of all of the existing cases of macular degeneration and dementia in the world, two-thirds are women…these diseases that women suffer for years are the very ones most amenable to prevention through lifestyle.”

The study, “The influence of the macular carotenoids on women’s eye and brain health,” published in Nutritional Neuroscience, reviewed and analyzed previous research detailing several degenerative conditions, from autoimmune diseases to dementia. Even controlling for lifespan differences, women experience these conditions at much higher rates than do men. “If you take all the autoimmune diseases collectively, women account for nearly 80%. So, because of this vulnerability, linked directly to biology, women need extra preventive care,” Dr. Hammond says.

One reason for this vulnerability has to do with the way women store vitamins and minerals in body fat—this creates a useful reservoir during pregnancy but, with less available for the retina and the brain, increases their risk for degenerative problems.

This is where eating deeply pigmented foods comes in. Two carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin, are found in specific tissues of the eye and brain and have been shown to directly lessen central nervous system degeneration. “Men and women eat about the same amount of these carotenoids, but the requirements for women are much higher,” says Dr. Hammond. “The recommendations should be different, but there are, generally, not any recommendations for men or women for dietary components that are not directly linked to deficiency disease (like vitamin C and scurvy). Part of the idea for the article is that recommendations need to be changed so that women are aware that they have these vulnerabilities that they have to proactively address, so they don’t have these problems later in life.”

Carotenoids are available via supplements, but Dr. Hammond says getting them through food is a much better strategy for increasing intake (like the orange bell peppers mentioned above). “Components of diet influence the brain, from things like personality to even our concept of self. I don’t think people quite realize what a profound effect diet has on basically who they are, their mood, even their propensity to anger,” he says. “And now of course this is extended to the microbiome and the bacteria that make up your gut—all of these components work together to create the building blocks that compose our brain and the neurotransmitters that mediate its use.”

Fitness Flash: Walking to Manage Osteoarthritis

Fitness Flash

The Good Work of Gardening 

Working with plants may give your mental health a boost, even if you’ve never gardened before. In a new study published in PLOS One, researchers found that gardening lowered stress, anxiety, and depression in 32 healthy women who had never gardened before and attended twice-weekly classes for a month.

“Past studies have shown that gardening can help improve the mental health of people who have existing medical conditions or challenges. Our study shows that healthy people can also experience a boost in mental well-being through gardening,” says Charles Guy, PhD, principal investigator on the study and a professor emeritus in the environmental horticulture department at the University of Florida.

Researchers assigned half of the participants to gardening sessions and the other half to art-making sessions to serve as a point of comparison. “Both gardening and art activities involve learning, planning, creativity, and physical movement, and they are both used therapeutically in medical settings. This makes them more comparable, scientifically speaking, than, for example, gardening and bowling or gardening and reading,” Dr. Guy says.

In the gardening sessions, participants learned how to compare and sow seeds, transplant different kinds of plants, and harvest and taste edible plants. Those in the art sessions learned techniques such as papermaking, printmaking, drawing, and collage. Using assessments measuring anxiety, depression, stress, and mood, the researchers found that both groups experienced similar improvements in mental health over time, with gardeners reporting slightly less anxiety than art makers did.

Despite the small number of participants and short length of the study, the researchers were still able to demonstrate evidence of what medical clinicians would call the dosage effects of gardening—that is, how much gardening someone has to do to see improvements in mental health.

The idea of using gardening to promote better health and well-being—called therapeutic horticulture—has been around since the 19th century. Many of this study’s participants left with a newly discovered passion: “At the end of the experiment, many of the participants were saying not just how much they enjoyed the sessions but also how they planned to keep gardening,” Dr. Guy says.

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #91

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Herb-Marinated Beef Tenderloin Recipe, How to Store Fresh Herbs, No-mess Marinating, The Link Between Diet and Eye Health, Plus the Benefits of Walking to Manage Osteoarthritis

Looking for a showstopper for your dinner party? Beef tenderloin fits the bill, especially when cooked to perfection with the reverse searing method. I’m also sharing a tip to keep fresh herbs fresh longer. Plus, find out why eye health could play a role in overall health and longevity. 

Herb-Marinated Beef Tenderloin

  • The Olive Oil Hunter News #98 Herb-Marinated Beef Tenderloin

    Tenderloin is one of the most elegant cuts of meat, wonderful for romantic dinners and other festive occasions. This recipe features the two-step process called “reverse searing.” It yields meat that is uniformly pink from edge to edge. You can make it an hour ahead of time and serve it at room temperature—it’s perfect as the centerpiece of a buffet.

    Ingredients

    • 2 sprigs fresh thyme, plus more for garnish
    • 1 sprig fresh rosemary, plus more for garnish 
    • 1 sprig fresh basil, stems and leaves
    • 1 sprig fresh sage, stems and leaves
    • 2 cloves garlic
    • 1-1/2 teaspoons coarse sea salt, plus more for seasoning
    • 1-1/2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning 
    • 1/4 cup red wine, such as a Shiraz 
    • 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for serving 
    • 2-pound center-cut beef tenderloin, trimmed 

    Directions

    Step 1

    Strip the thyme and rosemary sprigs, placing the leaves/needles on a cutting board along with the basil, sage, garlic, and 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt; coarsely chop everything together. Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the black pepper and the wine. Slowly whisk in 4 tablespoons of olive oil.  

    Step 2

    Place the tenderloin in a large resealable plastic bag, pour in the marinade, and seal the bag. Refrigerate for 2 to 8 hours (or overnight), turning the bag occasionally to redistribute the marinade.  

    Step 3

    When ready to cook, drain the meat and pat dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper, place on a rack in a roasting pan, and let it come to room temperature for up to an hour. Preheat your oven to 250°F. If you have one, insert a remote temperature probe in the thickest part of the meat. Roast the meat until the internal temperature reaches 110°F. If you don’t have a probe, use an instant-read meat thermometer and start checking after an hour. Remove the meat from the oven and tent with foil. Let rest for 15 minutes. 

    Step 4

    Meanwhile, preheat a cast-iron grill pan or large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until hot. (You can also finish the tenderloin on a grill.) Rub the tenderloin with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, then sear on all sides until the outside is deeply browned and caramelized and the internal temperature is 125°F for rare or 135°F for medium rare. Transfer the meat to a cutting board and loosely tent with foil again. Let rest for 5 minutes. 

    Step 5

    Carve into 1/2-inch-thick slices, reserving the juices. Shingle the slices on a warmed platter. Drizzle with the juices and additional olive oil and garnish with thyme and rosemary sprigs. 

    Yields 6 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: How to Store Fresh Herbs

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

How to Store Fresh Herbs

When you buy herbs from the store or farmers’ market for a recipe, how you store them matters so that leftovers don’t go to waste. 

Start by rinsing the herbs under cool water to wash away any dirt and debris. Shake off excess water and place the herbs on paper towels or a dish cloth. Remove any questionable leaves and stems and blot the herbs dry with more paper towels. 

To store in the fridge, stand them up in a tall glass filled with a scant inch of water. Change the water every two days.

For longer storage, freezing is a great option. Spread out the herbs on a rimmed baking sheet, pop into the freezer, and once frozen, transfer the herbs to a freezer-safe resealable bag labeled with the name of the herb. When thawed, the herbs can be used in recipes, but because they’ll be limp, they won’t work as a garnish.

Another freezing technique that’s great when a recipe calls for minced or finely chopped herbs is to puree the fresh herb in a small amount of olive oil and freeze in the compartments of an ice cube tray. Once frozen, transfer the cubes to a freezer-safe resealable bag labeled with the name of the herb and put the bag back in the freezer to use as needed. 

Healthy Kitchen Nugget: No-mess Marinating

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

No-mess Marinating

When marinating a large cut of meat or brining a turkey, using oversized resealable food-safe plastic bags makes the job easier and cleaner—when you take the meat out of its marinade, just seal the bag again and toss it. A useful size is 5 gallons with a 2-mil thickness. If your local stores don’t carry them, you’ll find many options to choose from on Amazon.

For Your Best Health: Eye Health

For Your Best Health

The Eyes Have It

Researchers from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California have demonstrated for the first time a link between diet, circadian rhythms, eye health, and life span in the fruit fly. The fruit fly has been used for research purposes for over 100 years, even more so after it was discovered that many of its genes are homologous to those involved in human development and disease. The study, published on June 7, 2022, in Nature Communications, also found, quite unexpectedly, that processes in the fly eye are actually driving the aging process. 

It’s already known that, for people, there’s an association between eye disorders and poor health. “Our study argues that it is more than correlation: dysfunction of the eye can actually drive problems in other tissues,” said senior author and Buck Institute Professor Pankaj Kapahi, PhD, whose lab has demonstrated for years that fasting and caloric restriction can improve many functions of the body. “We are now showing that not only does fasting improve eyesight, but the eye actually plays a role in influencing life span.”

According to lead author Brian Hodge, PhD, the explanation for this connection lies in circadian clocks, the molecular machinery within every cell of every organism, which have evolved to adapt to daily stresses, such as changes in light and temperature caused by the rising and setting of the sun. These 24-hour oscillations, or circadian rhythms, affect complex animal behaviors, such as predator-prey interactions and sleep-wake cycles.

Dr. Hodge noticed numerous fruit-fly genes that were diet-responsive and exhibited rhythmic ups and downs at different time points. He then discovered that the rhythmic genes that were activated the most with dietary restriction all seemed to be coming from the eye, specifically from photoreceptors, specialized neurons in the retina that respond to light.

“We always think of the eye as something that serves us, to provide vision. We don’t think of it as something that must be protected to protect the whole organism,” says Dr. Kapahi. Since the eyes are exposed to the outside world, he explains, the immune defenses there are critically active. This can lead to inflammation, which, when present for long periods of time, can cause or worsen a variety of common chronic diseases. Additionally, light in itself can cause photoreceptor degeneration, which can cause inflammation.

“Staring at computer and phone screens, and being exposed to light pollution well into the night, are conditions very disturbing for circadian clocks,” Kapahi says. “It messes up protection for the eye and that could have consequences beyond just the vision, damaging the rest of the body and the brain.”

Of course, there’s a lot more to be learned when it comes to people than what was seen with the fruit fly. Says Dr. Hodge, “The stronger link I would argue is the role that circadian function plays in neurons in general, especially with dietary restrictions, and how these can be harnessed to maintain neuronal function throughout aging.”

Once researchers understand how these processes are working, they can begin to target the molecular clock to decelerate aging, says Dr. Hodge, adding that we could possibly help maintain our vision by activating the clocks within our eyes.

Fitness Flash: Walking to Manage Osteoarthritis

Fitness Flash

Walk This Way

It’s a Catch-22—exercise can help arthritis, but arthritis can make it harder to exercise once pain sets in. A study published in Arthritis & Rheumatology and led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine found an effective form of prevention: walking.

For this study, the researchers examined the results of the Osteoarthritis Initiative, a multiyear observational study in which participants self-reported the amount of time and frequency they walked for exercise. Participants who reported 10 or more instances of exercise from the age of 50 years or later were classified as “walkers” and those who reported less were classified as “non-walkers.” Those who reported walking for exercise had 40 percent decreased odds of new frequent knee pain compared to non-walkers.

“Until this finding, there has been a lack of credible treatments that provide benefit for both limiting damage and pain in osteoarthritis,” says Grace Hsiao-Wei Lo, MD, assistant professor of immunology, allergy, and rheumatology at Baylor, chief of rheumatology at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, and first author of the paper.

“These findings are particularly useful for people who have radiographic evidence of osteoarthritis but don’t have pain every day in their knees,” says Dr. Lo. “This study supports the possibility that walking for exercise can help to prevent the onset of daily knee pain. It might also slow down the worsening of damage inside the joint from osteoarthritis…If you already have daily knee pain, there still might be a benefit, especially if you have the kind of arthritis where your knees are bow-legged.”

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #90

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Roasted Salted Almonds Recipe Plus the Research Behind the Mediterranean’s Diet Long-term Secondary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease

Much research on the benefits of olive oil as part of the Mediterranean diet centered on preventing heart disease, or primary prevention. Now a team involved in one of those studies has examined whether this diet can also be helpful for secondary prevention, meaning for people who already have heart issues such as coronary heart disease (CHD). The health benefits of olive oil as a cornerstone of the Mediterranean diet continue to shine through. Nuts also get high marks, so I’m sharing my favorite way to enjoy them.

Roasted Salted Almonds

  • 
Spicy Roasted Almonds Spicy Roasted Almonds

    Add some spice to the healthful nuts you’re snacking on. Roasted almonds also make a great addition to a charcuterie or cheese board. Feel free to substitute other nuts such as hazelnuts, cashews, walnut halves, or pistachios for the almonds. If you own a smoker, try smoke-roasting the nuts the next time you fire it up. 

    Ingredients

    • 2 cups whole skinless almonds (about 7 ounces)
    • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • Coarsely ground sea salt to taste
    • 1-1/4 teaspoons Spanish smoked paprika (pimentón de la Vera) or ground cumin 

    Directions

    Step 1

    Preheat your oven to 325°F. Put the almonds on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with the olive oil. Stir with a wooden spoon until they are evenly coated, then spread them out in a single layer. Roast the almonds until they are a light golden brown, about 20 to 30 minutes, stirring every five minutes. Drain on paper towels.

    Step 2

    Transfer the almonds to a bowl, season with salt and paprika, and toss to coat. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. 

    Yields 6-8 servings

Fresh Pressed Olive Oil

For Your Best Health

A diet refresh for heart health

The study: “Long-term secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet and a low-fat diet (CORDIOPREV): a randomised controlled trial,” The Lancet, May 14, 2022.

For this study, Javier Delgado-Lista, MD, PhD, of the Universidad de Córdoba in Córdoba, Spain, and his team compare the effects of the Mediterranean diet to a low-fat diet, both of which are healthier than the typical Western diet. They randomly assigned 1,002 participants with CHD (60 percent of whom had already had one heart attack) to one diet or the other and monitored them over 7 years. In that time frame, both diets did well at preventing more heart events, which included heart attacks, ischemic stroke, peripheral artery disease, and cardiovascular-related death, but the Mediterranean diet had the edge. 

According to a report of the study written by TCTMD, a network of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, “Patients with CHD who ate a Mediterranean diet rich in extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), fatty fish, and nuts had roughly a 25 percent lower risk of recurrent major adverse cardiovascular events…compared to those who stuck with a reduced-fat approach during 7 years of follow-up. 

“For the Mediterranean diet, participants consumed 35 percent of their calories from fat, mostly monounsaturated (22 percent) and polyunsaturated fat (6 percent). Protein made up 15 percent of the diet and the remaining calories were comprised of carbohydrates (< 50 percent). The diet included 40 to 60g of extra-virgin olive oil, three or more servings of especially fatty fish per week, and three or more servings of nuts per week, among other foods. Wine was optional, but if participants were habitual wine drinkers, it was capped at one to two glasses per day for women and men, respectively. 

“For the low-fat diet, less than 30 percent of calories were derived from fat, 15 percent from protein, and 55 percent or more from complex carbohydrates. Participants ate low-fat dairy two or three times per day and chose lean fish instead of fatty kinds. Nuts were limited, as was EVOO. Instead, the intervention recommended only 20 to 30g of sunflower or regular olive oil. Wine was not allowed. 

“No physical activity was prescribed, nor was any type of caloric restriction. To make sure patients adhered to the diet, they had face-to-face visits with dieticians, internists, or cardiologists every 6 months, group sessions every 3 months, and telephone calls every 2 months. In total, participants had at least 12 interactions with the study team each year.

“After 7 years of follow-up, there were 198 primary outcome events: 17.3 percent in the Mediterranean arm and 22.2 percent in the low-fat group. In the unadjusted and adjusted models, the Mediterranean diet was associated with a significantly lower risk of the primary endpoint. Adjusted for age and sex alone, eating the diet rich in EVOO, fatty fish, and nuts was associated with a 26.2 percent lower risk of the primary outcome. In the fully adjusted model, the Mediterranean diet lowered the risk of the primary outcome by 28.1 percent compared with the low-fat diet. The was no significant difference in the risk of any of the primary endpoint’s individual components.

“The observed reduction in risk was more pronounced among men than among women, who in fact saw no significant reduction in risk, although the researchers note that this might have been the result of insufficient power. Less than 18 percent of study participants were women, and future studies will be needed to determine if this observed sex-related difference is real. 

“Delgado-Lista said the results are straightforward: patients with ischemic heart disease should follow a Mediterranean diet. Find a professional to help you learn what the Mediterranean diet is and how to eat it, he said, ‘and always consume extra virgin olive oil as the main source of fat in that diet.’” 

Fresh Pressed Olive Oil Fitness Flash Icon

Fitness Flash

Brain boosts abound

Every day we learn more about protecting brain health and avoiding dementia. If you’re looking for all these breakthroughs in one place, look no further than the Alzheimer’s – The Science of Prevention series developed by neurologist David Perlmutter, MD, featuring more than 20 additional specialists from across the country. It originally aired on July 20, but you can catch it on a weekend replay from August 5 to 7.

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