Olive oil could help reduce your risk of illness
Half a tablespoon or more of olive oil a day could help to lower your risk of dying from a range of illnesses including cancer and heart disease. So says a recent study from Harvard University[i]. The researchers found that after studying the diets of around 90,000 health workers the participants who consumed the most olive oil, for example in salad dressings, with bread, or who used it in cooking or frying, reduced their chances of a premature death from several causes compared with those who never or rarely ate olive oil.
It’s not known exactly why this works but it could be down to the fact that olive oil is a source of heart friendly monounsaturated fats as well as containing a variety of plant chemicals. “Clinicians should be counselling their patients to replace fats such as margarine, mayonnaise and butter with olive oil to improve their health,” said Dr Marta Guasch-Ferre who led the study.
Eating yoghurt could help reduce your blood pressure
Worried that your blood pressure (BP) is creeping up? A daily dose of yoghurt could help to bring it down. So suggests a recent study from the University of South Australia[ii]. Even small amounts of yogurt were shown to bring BP down. For those who consumed yoghurt regularly, the results were even stronger: blood pressure readings were nearly seven points lower than those who did not consume yoghurt.
And the reason? Dairy products such as yogurt contain a range of micronutrients including calcium, magnesium and potassium that are all involved in regulating blood pressure. “Yogurt is especially interesting because it contains bacteria that encourage the release of proteins that helps to lower blood pressure,” commented researcher Dr Alexandra Wade.
Exercise could help reduce feelings of anxiety
Regular moderate exercise could help to improve symptoms of anxiety for people suffering from generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic attacks suggests a recent Swedish study[iii]. The patients, most of whom were women, were split randomly into three groups. Those in the first group were prescribed a course of low intensity exercise over 12 weeks. Those in the second group did a more strenuous version of the same programme which included three weekly sessions of cardio and strength training. The third, the control group, did no exercise.
The results showed that the participants in the two active groups had experienced a significant reduction in symptoms, even if suffering from chronic anxiety, compared to the control group. And the more strenuously they worked out, the more their symptoms improved. This strengthened the view that exercise should be prescribed more often rather than antidepressants.
[i] www.nhlbi.nih.gov/news/2022/olive-oil-consumption-linked-reduced-risk-premature-death
[ii] International Dairy Journal, 2021; 122: 105159 DOI: 10.1016/j.idairyj.2021.105159
[iii] pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34644619/
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