Higher Olive Oil Intake Reduces Risk of Total

Consuming more than 7 grams of olive oil per day is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality, cancer mortality, neurodegenerative disease mortality and respiratory disease mortality, according to a study of over 92,000 U.S. adults.

Higher olive oil intake was associated with lower risk of total and cause-specific mortality; replacing margarine, butter, mayonnaise, and dairy fat with olive oil was associated with lower risk of mortality. Image credit: Honglin Mu.

“Olive oil consumption has been shown to lower cardiovascular disease risk, but its associations with total and cause-specific mortality are unclear,” said Dr. Marta Guasch-Ferré, a senior research scientist in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and her colleagues.

“The purpose of our study was to evaluate whether olive oil intake is associated with total and cause-specific mortality in two prospective cohorts of U.S. men and women.”