14 DAY TRIAL // Worldwide food and culinary experts are going to meet this week in the Puglia region found in the southern Italy in order to discuss and promote beneficial effects olive oil and Mediterranean diet has on human health. The international gathering will last for 6 days, throughout which experts are going to investigate and highlight olive oil's potency to improve human health and prevent many serious conditions.
Dun Gifford, President of Oldways think tank in Boston, which organized the program called Olivita, stated: "The Mediterranean diet is of course not new... We know it tracks back to the Phoenicians, the earliest expansive traders that carried olives and olive oil to the Mediterranean coastline. In 2006, 2 800 years later, we know that the Mediterranean diet is as healthy an eating pattern as there is anywhere in the world. Fifty years of very high level science, basic and applied, repeatedly confirms this hypothesis."
The current experts' meeting taking place in Italy is the first step of a larger program which aims at promoting olive oil's health benefits and looks forward to encouraging individuals to adopt a Mediterranean diet. Mediterranean diet is very beneficial for people independent of age, sex, body mass index etc. because it is rich in natural foods which keep all types of diseases and disorders at bay and boost stamina and wellbeing in all individuals, independent of their age or other factors. Fruits, vegetables, cereals, fish and olive oil lay the foundation of the so-called Mediterranean diet.
Recent studies analyzing olive oil's potency to prevent or ease symptoms of a wide range of conditions found that it may play a positive role in cutting rates of both physical and mental disorders. For instance, a study carried out by experts at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York showed that an adept of Mediterranean diet has lower chances of developing Alzheimer's disease and dementia. All the compounds and micronutrients in natural foods eaten in the Mediterranean region prevent neuronal plaque from forming and, therefore, hinder the decline of cognitive function.
Another study found that olive oil is extremely efficient in keeping cells in our bodies from being damaged by free radicals. Researchers from Italy's National Center for Food Quality and Risk Assessment carried out the study and highlighted the fact that the most abundant biophenol in olive oil called tyrosol can boost cells' antioxidant defense shield. Other very potent antioxidants present in olive oil besides phenolic compounds are vitamin E and beta-carotene.
In a separate research, Spanish scientists from the Municipal Institute for Medical Research in Barcelona found that virgin olive oil works excellently on the heart by increasing levels of good cholesterol in the blood stream, consequently boosting heart function. However, they also noted that other types of non-virgin or refined olive oils lose most of their beneficial properties in the production process.