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People who use plenty of olive oil in their diet help to prevent the destruction of body cells, which can lead to cancer, according to new figures published in “The FASEB Journal”.
A team of University Hospital of Copenhagen, led by Dr. Poulsen Chainrik put under medical observation 128 European men and found evidence that olive oil can reduce oxidative damage to genetic material of cells, a process that can be a starting point for the onset of cancer.
Participants were healthy men 20 to 60 years from five European countries. For two weeks they ate one quarter cup of olive oil on a daily basis. At the end of the study had a 13% reduction in substance 8oxodG, which is a marker of oxidative damage to cell DNA.
This damage occurs when byproducts of metabolism overcome the antioxidant defenses of the body. Olive oil contains a number of components, the phenols, which are believed to act as powerful antioxidants.
However, these compounds do not appear to be associated with the reduction of oxidative damage to DNA. The men in the study used three different olive oils with different levels of antioxidant phenols, and oxidative damage declined regardless of the content of phenols.
The researchers suspect that the monounsaturated fats in olive oil behind this effect.
The study makes it quite clear that the oil may be one of the reasons why certain cancers such as breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancer is less common in Mediterranean countries than in northern Europe. |
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