Mounting evidence suggests adding just a spoonful of olive oil to your diet each day can have powerful health benefits. A new study from the US sugges

A Spoonful of Olive Oil a Day Could Lower Risk of Dementia-Related Death by 28%

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2024-05-21 00:00:05

Mounting evidence suggests adding just a spoonful of olive oil to your diet each day can have powerful health benefits. A new study from the US suggests this includes protection against dementia.

While healthy 'Mediterranean' diets in general tend to include a dash of olive oil, the researchers claim the ingredient itself stands out for its beneficial qualities.

"Typically, people who use olive oil for cooking or as a dressing have a better overall diet quality, but interestingly, we found the association to be regardless of this factor," Harvard University nutritionist Anne-Julie Tessier told Kaitlin Vogel at Healthline.

Tessier and colleagues combined the results of surveys on nurses and health professionals conducted from the 1970s and 1980s. All were free of heart disease and cancer when the surveys first introduced questions on olive oil consumption in 1990. In the years that followed, 4,751 of the 92,383 selected participants died from dementia-related causes.

The researchers found adults who regularly consumed more than 7 grams of olive oil a day (a little over a teaspoon, or about half a tablespoon) were 28 percent less likely to die of dementia-related diseases compared to those who never or rarely consumed olive oil.