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A daily dose of one vegetable oil may lower risk of dying from dementia, research finds
Including olive oil in your regular diet offers several benefits — such as protecting heart health or cognitive function.
The Mediterranean staple might also reduce your risk of dying from dementia by 28% if you eat just a spoonful every day.
This new finding is according to research presented Monday in Boston at Nutrition 2023, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.
Whether olive oil is linked with risk of dementia-related death had never been studied until now, according to the authors.
“Our study reinforces dietary guidelines recommending vegetable oils such as olive oil and suggests that these recommendations not only support heart health but potentially brain health, as well,” said Anne-Julie Tessier, a coauthor of the research and postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in a news release. “Opting for olive oil, a natural product, instead of fats such as margarine and commercial mayonnaise is a safe choice and may reduce the risk of fatal dementia.”
Research participants included nearly 60,600 women who had participated in the Nurses’ Health Study from 1990 to 2018, and nearly 32,000 men who had been in the Health Professionals’ Follow-Up Study during the same time period. The former study investigated risk factors for major chronic diseases among women in North America, whereas the latter is looking into the same topics but for men.
The authors of the latest research assessed the diet of the participants — who were age 56 on average at the start of the study — every four years via a questionnaire. The team also reviewed diet quality using the Alternative Healthy Eating Index, which assigns ratings to foods and nutrients predictive of chronic disease. The higher people score on this index, the better.
Over a follow-up period of 28 years, regardless of diet quality, eating more than half a tablespoon of olive oil per day was associated with a 28% lower risk of dying from dementia, compared with participants who never or rarely consumed olive oil.
Additionally, replacing a daily teaspoon of mayonnaise or margarine with the same amount of olive oil was correlated with an 8% to 14% lower risk of dementia-related death, the authors found.
However, this research is early, so some experts uninvolved with it urge caution.
“These findings are simply being reported at a conference and have not undergone peer-review so there has been no examination of the study by independent experts,” said David Curtis, honorary professor at the UCL Genetics Institute at University College London, in a statement. “We do not know whether the results will end up being published in a journal. If the study does eventually result in a published paper, we do not know whether the published results will be the same as those now being presented.”
The 4,749 participants who died from dementia were more likely to have APOE e4 — the strongest known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease — according to analysis of DNA from participants’ blood or mouth cells. But having the gene doesn’t mean a person will certainly develop the disease, and the authors’ findings were still consistent after taking this factor into account, they said.
Regardless, “it is important to note that this is not causal, as the authors point out, only an association,” said registered dietitian Duane Mellor, a senior teaching fellow at Aston Medical School of Aston University in England. “More research is needed.”
Olive oil and dementia risk
The potential benefits of olive oil for brain health could be due to antioxidant compounds that can cross the blood-brain barrier, directly affecting the brain, Tessier said.
“It is also possible that olive oil has an indirect effect on brain health by benefiting cardiovascular health,” she added.
Though participants’ overall diet quality didn’t make a difference in the findings, those who consume olive oil may have overall healthier lifestyles.
“There are many, many differences between people who consume olive oil and those who do not, and it is never possible to fully account for all possible confounding factors,” Curtis said.
Another important point to keep in mind is that about half of dementia cases are caused by vascular disease, Curtis added.
“Anything which improved cardiovascular health, such as not smoking, would be expected to reduce dementia risk,” he said. “It has been shown that olive oil consumption is associated with better cardiovascular health, so one would expect that it would also be associated with lower dementia risk.”
Olive oil is a staple of the Mediterranean diet, which has been found helpful for health of the brain, heart, bones and more. Besides cooking with olive oil, you can also use it to make salad dressings or vinaigrettes, mayonnaise, pesto or bread dip. And people should also remember that when it comes to food and brain function, it’s not just about what we eat, but how we eat, Mellor said.
“Remaining sociable around mealtimes and eating with others can benefit our mental health in the short term and cognitive function as we age,” he added.
注释：
staple: n
表示"主食"，如：Bread, potato and other staple continue to rise in price. 面包、土豆及其他主食的价格继续上涨。
margarine: n
表示" 人造黄油"，如：Margarine is derived from vegetable oils. 人造黄油是从植物油提取的。
mayonnaise: n
表示" 蛋黄酱；美乃滋"，means "egg yolks and oil and vinega"，如：Mayonnaise is made from egg yolks and oil. 蛋黄酱是用蛋黄和油制成的。
causal: adj
表示"原因的；关于因果的"，means "involving or constituting a cause; causing"，如：The causal link between the subsidy and damage. 补贴与损害之间存在因果关系。
vascular: adj
表示"血管的；脉管的"，means "of or relating to or having vessels that conduct and circulate fluids"，如：What is peripheral vascular disease? 什么是周围血管疾病?
pesto: n
表示" 香蒜酱"，means "a sauce typically served with pasta; contains crushed basil leaves and garlic and pine nuts and Parmesan cheese in olive oil"，如：Kept this way, your handful of basil in oil can become pesto in minutes, by adding garlic. 这样你就可以随时把你的罗勒变成香蒜酱了，只需要加点儿蒜就可以。
中文简要说明：
最新出炉的哈佛研究指出，每天摄取一匙橄榄油，能降低28％失智症死亡风险。
美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）报导，哈佛大学陈曾熙公共卫生学院（Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health）研究团队24日在「美国营养学会」（American Society for Nutrition）年会上发表成果，团队追踪于1990至2018年间参加另一研究的9万2000名男女的饮食习惯，这些受试者每4年填写一次问卷，团队也分析受试者饮食习惯与慢性病的关联。
研究显示，不论饮食质量，和从未食用橄榄油、或显少食用橄榄油的人相比，每天摄取超过半汤匙橄榄油的受试者，失智症引发的死亡风险少了28％，
此外，若每天减少摄取1茶匙美乃滋或人造奶油（margarine），改以等量的橄榄油代替，失智症死亡风险下降8％至14％。
研究共同作者、博士后研究员泰西耶（Anne-Julie Tessier）指出，研究进一步强化推荐摄取如橄榄油等植物油的饮食指南，这些建议不只支持心脏健康，也可能支持大脑健康。
不过这份研究仍只是初步研究，未参与研究的伦敦大学学院遗传学研究所（UCL Genetics Institute）荣誉教授柯帝斯（David Curtis）指出，研究成果目前只发表在会议上，尚未经过独立专家同侪审查；英国阿斯顿大学（Aston University）医学院高级讲师梅勒（Duane Mellor）也表示，这份研究只点出饮食与失智症的关联，并未证实因果关系。
泰西耶表示，橄榄油可能有益大脑健康的潜在因素或许在于其中的抗氧化化合物，此外，也可能因为橄榄油有益于心血管健康，间接影响大脑健康。
另外报导也指出，会摄取橄榄油的受试者，整体而言可能有更健康的生活型态。
柯帝斯分析，半数失智症患者罹病原因为血管疾病引发，因此包括戒烟等任何能改善心血管健康的因素，都会被预期能降低失智症风险，「研究已显示，摄取橄榄油与改善心血管健康有关，所以人们也预期，它与降低失智症风险有关」。
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