Olive Oil Keeps the Effects of Air Pollution in Check, Evidence Suggests

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It's good news for people who live in areas where elevated air pollution levels are an issue. A new study argues that olive oil can help keep the effects of exposure to smog in check by protecting both the heart and blood vessels against airborne harmful compounds.

The researchers now saying that olive oil can help people who are exposed to smog on a regular basis stay healthy base their claims on information collected while carrying out a series of experiments with the help of volunteers.

Thus, the specialists asked a total of 42 individuals to consume 3 grams of olive oil, fish oil, or no oil each day for a period of time of four weeks. Later on, they had the volunteers visit their laboratory and made them spend two hours breathing contaminated air.

The volunteers who agreed to take part in this research project had an average age of 58, and the contaminated air that they were exposed to during this series of experiments was artificially created for the purpose of this study, Live Science tells us.

Specialists say that, by means of this research project, they have found that people who regularly consume olive oil in fairly small quantities are less likely to have the inner lining of their blood vessels affected by harmful compounds that make up air pollution.

In turn, this makes them less vulnerable to atherosclerosis, i.e. an accumulation of plaque inside the blood vessels. Otherwise put, evidence indicates that olive oil consumption can help protect a person's circulatory system against air pollution.

Before folks who live in regions where air pollution levels are dangerously high run to the cupboard, grab hold of a bottle of olive oil and take one hearty sip, it need be said that there have been some complaints against this research and its findings.

More precisely, it has been said that the study was too small for its findings to be reliable, and that the fact that the 42 volunteers were exposed to artificially created pollution and not real-life one also makes the claim that olive oil protects the heart and blood vessels against smog a tad less believable.

Then again, several previous studies have shown that olive oil consumption yields noteworthy benefits when it comes to keeping healthy and in shape, so no harm can come from adding a spoonful to one's salad. As Haiyan Tong with the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States put it, “In general, adding olive oil to the diet is a healthy choice.”