Olive Oil As Medicine
That the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest in the world is an indisputable fact supported by many medical studies. What I do not know yet is that one of its pillars, the extra virgin olive oil contains certain natural chemicals that produce an antiinflammatory effect in the body. It is therefore a reason to eat this beneficial product, rich in heart healthy essential oils and anti-cancer properties.
U.S. experts have found in extra virgin olive oil a compound that has christened oleocanthal, which according to his research, inhibits the enzyme activity of cyclooxygenase (COX), a pharmacological action of ibuprofen itself. The findings of this study have been made known through the scientific journal Nature.
“Some of the health effects related to the Mediterranean diet could be due to the natural anti-COX activity of oleocanthal found in olive oil quality,” says the Nature biologist Gary Beauchamp of Monell Químicosensoriales Studies Center of the University of Pennsylvania (USA). (more…)
