A few facts about extra virgin olive oil in your diet

Last year I read my first book about nutrition and I was surprised to find it very readable and entertaining. The author of the book The diet myth, Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London and Director of the Twins UK Registry, popularises the latest scientific thinking on how the microbes in the gut affect (more than previously thought)

the general health of the body. The book is really entertaining as Spector recounts how he doesn't shy away from participating in a lot of experiments, from colonscopies (ouch!), to fasting and "fromage" experiments.

But the most interesting part of the book for me was chapter 5 on unsaturated fats, here is a little excerpt from this chapter:

[...] Until recently the benefits of polyphenols in olive oil were thought to come mainly from its antioxidant properties, whereby they mop up any excess cell-damaging chemicals and have a calming anti-inflammatory effect. Other studies show that olive oil can somehow switch off the genes (possibly by epigenetics) responsible for much of the inflammation in the blood vessels that leads to heart disease. But research suggest a much greater role of our microbes. Over 80% of the fatty acids and nutrients from olive oil reaches the colon before full digestion and comes into contact with our microbes. Here the microbes feed on the rich mix of fatty acids and polyphonols and break them down into smaller by-products, and at this point several interesting things happen.

Some of the compounds produced act as antioxidants, then use the polyphenols as fuel to produce a range of even smaller bits of fat - short-chain fatty acids. These compounds are more interesting than their name suggests, signalling to the body to lower harmful lipid levels and telling the immune system what to do next. Polyphenols actively encourage some microbes to flourish, such as lactobacilli that mop up and bind fat/lipid particles and clear them from the blood. They also prevent unwanted microbes from colonising our guts. This reduces the incidence of infection from bugs like E.coli that can cause diarrhoea, H.pylori that can cause stomach ulcers, and other bugs that cause pneumonia and tooth decay. Even the build-up of unhealthy atheromatos plaque in our arteries is due in part to abnormal and mysterious microbial activity in the damaged blood vessel - and polyphenols are likely to help reduce this too. [...]

The Diet Myth: The Real Science Behind What We Eat by Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London and Director of the TwinsUK Registry.

#polyphenols