Just a daily tablespoon of olive oil lowered women’s risk of developing diabetes mellitus by 10 percent, according to a Harvard Medical School study.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School analyzed information taken from the Nurses’ Health Study, which included nearly 60,000 women between the ages of 37 and 65 and about 85,000 women between the ages of 26 and 45 in the second Nurses’ Health Study. All of the women were free of diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and cancer when they enrolled. They were followed for 22 years.
Adding a tablespoon (8 grams) of olive oil to a salad every day was linked to a five percent reduced risk of developing diabetes in a recent study. Adding the same amount of oil to bread or food had an even more powerful effect, lowering the risk by 15 percent.
The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and noted on foodconsumer.com. Other research released last spring found that the Mediterranean Diet, which includes daily doses of olive oil, may slow the progression of diabetes even more than a low-fat diet. That study was reported in Diabetes Care.
