Olive oil consumption may reduce risk of dying with dementia

I must admit that when I think of olive oil, I am often reminded first of Popeye’s girlfriend.  No, I wasn’t around in 1936, but Olive Oyl and Popeye were still going strong when I was watching TV cartoons in the 1950’s. I doubt very much that there was a bottle of olive oil on our kitchen shelves when I was a child. Olive oil has been widely produced and consumed in Mediterranean regions for at least the last 5,000 years. In colonial America, Spanish missionaries first planted olive trees in the San Diego area in 1769. But until the late 1980s, olive oil consumption in the US remained largely limited to families with roots in the Mediterranean region. Then in the 1990s, there was an amazing increase in olive oil consumption that appears to have happened largely due to a very successful marketing blitz that included high-end tours of the Mediterranean for wealthy and/or influential Americans. The health benefits of olive oil were touted along with the Mediterranean diet. While I am always wary of health information coming from companies that profit financially, the data on benefits of olive oil and the Mediterranean diet have withstood multiple rigorous scientific studies, particularly for cardiovascular health.

Recently a remarkable study published in JAMA Network Open looked at the effect of daily olive oil consumption on dementia-related death in 92,384 subjects followed for an average of 28 years. Olive oil intake was assessed every 4 years using a food frequency questionnaire and categorized as never or less than once per month, greater than 0 to less than or equal to 4.5 grams per day, greater than 4.5 grams per day to less than or equal to 7 grams per day, and greater than 7 grams per day. While significant benefit of daily olive consumption was seen at all levels of intake, the effects were most striking at the highest daily dose, greater than 7 grams per day (about half of a tablespoon of olive oil per day).  Consuming this amount of olive oil was associated with a 28% lower risk of dementia-related death. The authors conclude that “substituting olive oil intake for margarine and mayonnaise was associated with lower risk of dementia mortality and may be a potential strategy to improve longevity free of dementia.”