Olive oil consumption to reduce incidence of cardiovascular events: PREDIMED Trial

Olive oil the pillar ingredient of Mediterranean diet, consumption has drastically increased in the recent decade due its benefits on health. Olive oil is commonly used in cooking, for frying foods or as a salad dressing. It is also used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps, and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps, and has additional uses in some religions. Olive oil inclusion in diet has been associated with lower incidence and mortality from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

The PREDIMED (PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea) randomized clinical trial, reveals that more consumption of olive oil is beneficial when consumed upto 57g a day and extra virgin olive oil upto 35g a day was much effective in reducing occurrence of cardiovascular diseases.

The findings of the trial published in Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Trial included 7,447 Spanish adults at high cardiovascular risk and were supplemented with Mediterranean diet supplemented with either extra virgin olive oil upto 50g [approximately 4 tablespoons] or more per day) or mixed nuts .

The results of the trial were

• The risk of the composite endpoint of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke by about 30% compared with the control diet i.e advice on a low-fat diet .

• A post hoc analysis of the PREDIMED trial showed that the Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil also conferred a reduction in atrial fibrillation risk.

• Even though the PREDIMED trial could not distinguish between the effects of olive oil or nuts from other foods that were recommended for the 2 Mediterranean diet groups, a main difference between those groups and the control group was the increase in extra virgin olive oil and nut consumption in the Mediterranean diet groups.

The trial concluded that in an observational analysis of the PREDIMED study, participants in the highest category of baseline consumption of total olive oil (mean56.9 g/d) and extra virgin olive oil (mean 34.6 g/d) had a significant reduced risk of total CVD incidence.

Reference: https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.2021.11.006