Consuming Olive Oil Lowers the Risk of Stroke by 40%
People all over the world use different kinds of vegetable oils for cooking purposes. There has always been a debate on which oil is best and which one is healthier to use. Number of research works are still going on to find out the best cooking oil. Recently, researchers from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research, France have found an interesting advantage of using Olive oil. They found that consuming Olive oil may help prevent strokes in older people.
Benefits of using Olive oil
It was already shown that among all cooking oils, Olive oil is one of the healthiest oils. It contains monounsaturated fatty acids which can totally lower the cholesterol and the LDL levels (bad cholesterol) in the blood. It has antioxidant properties which help in fighting effectively against the free radicals and thus minimizing the harmful cellular inflammation.
About the research
The study was conducted on 7,625 people aged 65 years and older. All the participants were from the three major cities of France. They were divided according to their consumption levels of Olive oil. The division is in to three categories – “no use”, “moderate use”, that is using Olive oil either in cooking or dressing of bread and finally “intensive use” which includes people who use it for both cooking and dressing.
After five years it was observed that among those participants there were 148 strokes.
The researchers considered a lot of factors like the diet, body mass index, physical activity, and other risk factors for stroke. Finally they found that those who are termed as ‘intensive users’, i.e., who used Olive oil both for cooking and dressing the bread are found to have 41% lower risk of stroke, compared to those who never used olive oil in their diet.
The research also showed that Olive oil has been associated with producing potentially protective effects against many cardiovascular risk factors, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity.
The study is supported by many famous organizations and institutes like the Institute of Health and Public Department (INSERM); The Foundation of Medical research; The National Workers Health Fund; The General Directorate of Health; The Mutual General of National Education and so on.