Extra virgin olive oil to boost your immune defenses

Extra virgin olive oil is an essential component of the Mediterranean diet, as it is rich in precious bioactive nutrients, such as hydroxytyrosol, oleocanthal, and oleic acid. These nutrients are known to boost our immune defenses. To prove this, researchers from the Boston area of the United States recruited 41 obese or overweight subjects, all over 65 years of age.

These subjects generally consumed a typical American diet, rich in saturated fat and refined and processed grains but low in fiber. The researchers provided the subjects with a bottle of oil and spread. However, one group received a bottle of extra virgin olive oil from Spain, whereas the other group was given a mix of corn and soybean oil and a butter spread.

Over the 3-month study period, the participants were invited to continue their normal diet but were instructed to only use their assigned oil and spread. On average, the participants from both groups consumed about three tablespoons of oil per day. At the end of the 3-month study period, blood analyses
revealed that in the olive oil group, the participants’ immune T cells displayed an increased ability to be activated, and their number increased by 53%. In contrast, the immune T cells of the other group exhibited no changes at all in either their ability to become activated or their number.

In conclusion, substituting extra virgin olive oil from Spain for other oils employed in American cooking was instrumental in enhancing the participants’ immune defenses.

1 Rozati M, Barnett J, Wu D, Handelman G, Saltzman E, Wilson T, Li L, Wang J, Marcos A, Ordovás JM, Lee YC, Meydani M, Meydani SN. Cardio-metabolic and immunological impacts of extra virgin olive oil consumption in overweight and obese older adults: a randomized controlled trial. Nutr Metab. 2015;12:28.