Olive oil and health.

The natural juice of the olive an elixir of health and longevity.

The natural "juice" of oil, with its ideal chemical composition and without extracts and conditioners, has given health and longevity in Mediterranean peoples for centuries. They used it as the main fat in their daily diet. Olive oil is in the list with the 10 most beneficial foods.

Olive oil contains fatty acids, which are divided into three types: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated.
Animal fats contain mostly saturated fatty acids. Polyunsaturated vegetable oils mainly contain fatty acids.
Olive oil varies because it contains mostly monounsaturated fatty acids up to 83%. Oleic acid, a key component of olive oil, is a monounsaturated fatty acid. The other fatty acids of olive oil are few saturated and some very basic polyunsaturated, such as linoleic acid and linolenic. The coexistence of oleic acid with linoleic and linolenic acids gives oil its unique biological value.

Natural antioxidants:
they are vitamins and provitamins (A and E), minerals such as selenium, and an entire, heterogeneous system of (multi)- phenol substances mainly. These antioxidants protect cells from oxidative stress, active oxygen and free radicals. The latter are substances that have been linked to damage of nuclear acids and proteins, and are considered the primary factors adversely affecting a number of chronic diseases such as cancer. This review discusses the role of these micronutrients in olive oil, as protective factors against chronic nosologic situation, with particular emphasis on cancer.
Olive oil and digestive system:
olive oil is better tolerated fat in the human stomach in comparison with other fats. It is excellently digested and absorbed from the intestinal walls. This helps to reduce gastric fluid, smoothing the feeling of indigestion. Moreover, it creates a feeling of satiety
and promotes the digestion of nutrients in food.
Clinical studies have shown that olive oil has great absorption from the gut mucosa leading to soothing many intestinal syndromes and to assisting the proper functioning of the colon. One or two tablespoons of raw olive oil in the early morning is ideal for people suffering from chronic constipation, pregnant women, and people who are fasting or on a diet.
Oil and bile:
In 1932, Chinary published that Dr Touarte in 1887 formally recommended olive oil as therapeutic against gallstones and hepatic
colic. According to Chinary, olive oil is not likely to disappear or dissolve the stones but helps in the process of bile secretion. It is suggested for patients suffering from bile, indigestion and stomach pains that they take 1-2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil with some lemon drops each morning for 10 days a month.
Olive Oil and Skin:
olive oil protects human skin from solar radiation and burns it can cause. This is due to the action of vitamin E and provitamin A of olive oil as well as its polyunsaturated fat. In addition it protects and inhibits the development of especially children’s eczema and relieves insect bites. In 1988, the results of a new research were announced according which the chlorophyll which is found exclusively in the olive oil promotes the metabolism, stimulates cell growth and contributes to blood formation, thus accelerating the healing process of wounds.
Olive oil and old age:
aging is a gradual process, accompanied by a series of biological changes that inevitably lead to death.
Research in the past decade on older people, showed that people who consumed olive oil were protected from damage occurring in the central nervous system and brain over time thanks to its antioxidant substances.
Olive oil and cancer:
according to recent research by Dr Trichopoulos, School of Public Health of Harvard University, women who consume olive oil
more than once a day are 25% less likely to develop breast cancer compared with those who rarely consume olive oil.
For example, in the Mediterranean, a region with high consumption of olive oil, there are low frequencies of several cancers, including breast, ovarian and endometrial cancers.
Olive oil - cholesterol and heart disease:
studies concluded that olive oil protects against heart disease. The diet of the people of the Mediterranean countries with a lot of olive oil, which has the correct ratio of saturated or mono-unsaturated fatty acids, protects them against heart disease.
Olive oil, which is essentially one of the major monounsaturated fats, increases the "good" cholesterol and lowers "bad" cholesterol levels, building a well-balanced system of lipid levels in the blood. Thus it inhibits the formation of "blocks" of fat in artery walls, which eventually evolve into clots and cause heart attacks or coronary infarction. This advantage of olive oil, coupled with increased content in natural antioxidants and other great beneficial elements give olive oil a balanced chemical composition and rank it first in the list of foods that contribute to low levels of cholesterol in the blood, protecting people from cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction.
Olive oil, childhood and brain/skeleton development - frame:
Lipids play a particularly important role in infant and child nutrition, both in quantitative and qualitative terms.
Lipid needs are greater in children than in adults. According to a rough calculation, 50% of total calorie intake for children who are breastfed is done in the form of fats in proportion: 4:3:1: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated acid, and an average cholesterol of around 150 mg. Therefore, polyunsaturated lipids represent 8-10% of these lipids. Of this, 5- 8% is Omega 3 lipids (these figures may vary depending mainly on the mother's diet). Once weaned, the infant still requires a relatively large amount of lipids, which is gradually reduced to 30% of total calories in early and later childhood, until the child adapts to the needs of adults.
FATTY ACIDS saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated.
In infant diet, the ratio of 4:3:1 among saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats should be followed , which is similar to that of human milk, since all the fatty acids are necessary for the balanced development of the child.
Olive oil provides many essential fatty acids for the proper development of newborns and most importantly the ratio is similar to that of breast milk. Moreover, according to new studies, the oil favorably affects the growth and development of the central nervous system and the brain of the newborns.
In the world literature, it is often mentioned that the glyceridic composition of olive oil is similar to that of breast milk. At the same time, it is proved that breastfeeding mothers who take significant quantities of olive oil in their daily diet produce milk with an excellent fatty acid content, thus ensuring the normal development of the nervous system of their babies.
Olive oil and skeleton structure:
Laval-Jeantet and his colleagues reported in 1980 an interesting study on the role of lipids in the development of bones in the human body. The lipids enrich the bones with minerals. The findings show that fat is essential for skeletal development and that the best development and building of minerals is observed in the case of oleic glycerides intake, supplemented by a small amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids, mainly found in olive oil . The researchers found anatomical differences in size, thickness and texture of bones in people who ate olive oil and concluded that oleic acid plays a major role in the development of bone tissue. This is also confirmed by later studies.
Oil and sports activity:
Lipids and hydrocarbons are two of the important nutrients which provide the main chemical reactions essential for any physical
activity. The problem, therefore, for the athlete’s diet has to do with limiting the growth of free radicals. This can be achieved with a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables and monounsaturated fatty acids (olive oil). Therefore athletes should prefer fats rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, which are not susceptible to peroxidation processes and do not favor the creation of free radicals.
Olive oil and diabetes:
in contemporary clinical observations, olive oil plays a dynamic role in maintaining diabetes mellitus at low levels.
According to the literature, ration was administered to diabetics having a diet which included 30-45% olive oil (monounsaturated fatty acids). The result of this diet was the reduction of alpha and beta lipoproteins in blood serum, the stability in the level of cholesterol and the concomitant reduction in levels of triglycerides in blood serum.
Recent announcements (Sintori, 1986) argue that olive oil when taken as the only fat by people with diabetes acts favorably to the slow evacuation of stomach contents in the duodenum. Thus, the digestion of carbohydrates takes place slowly without leading to a sharp increase in blood glucose. The stability of glucose levels in the blood and the non-activation of the neoglykogenesis mechanism in the liver make oil a mild, yet tasty and effective "medicine", which can relieve diabetics.         
The Greeks are first in oil consumption, live more than other nations and have the lowest worldwide rates of heart disease and cancer.
Olive oil improves the proper maintenance of cells and contributes to human longevity.
Key to all these is the presence of lipids in olive oil which are found only in breast milk.