Il 4 February it is celebrated World Cancer Day supported by the World Health Organization to invite citizens to reflect on what institutions and individuals can do together to fight cancer. And this is certainly the opportunity to reiterate how extra virgin olive oil is the food that the scientific world considers to be the most suitable for preventing oncological diseases.
We take this opportunity to review some passages of an intervention that the Dr. Enzo Ceccacci, former head of Anesthesia and Resuscitation, now president of Olea, dedicates itself to the benefits of oil in the prevention of tumors and beyond.
“A balanced diet must include every day taking 1 g. of fat for each kg of our ideal body weight. Our body is capable of perfectly using and metabolizing the fats contained in breast milk, made up of approximately 13% polyunsaturated, approximately 73% monounsaturated, the remaining 14% saturated. This is approximately the composition of olive oil: almost all other vegetable fats used for human nutrition often have a much greater quantity of polyunsaturated (corn, sunflower, etc.) or an excessive quantity of saturated (palm, coconut, etc.).
Let's define Polyunsaturated fats are “essential”, since we must consume them through our diet, failing to produce them with our metabolism taking into account that our desaturase enzyme is unable to make double bonds before carbon 9 starting from the methyl group of the fatty acid molecule. Let's call omega 3 those that have the first double bond after carbon 3, while omega 6 those where it is after carbon 6. These polyunsaturated fats are indispensable as structural components of our cell walls and as components of lipoproteins essential for our life, such as LDL and HDL. The quantity needed is approximately 13% of the total fat intake in the diet: their deficiency can cause serious, even lethal, problems, but we must know that this is the amount that we manage to use correctly. Consume regularly vegetable fats very rich in polyunsaturated fats, having percentages sometimes higher than 50%, forces our body to transform the excess into peroxides, oxidizing substances capable of stimulating the aging of our cells and unfortunately also promoting the onset of tumor diseases.
THEexcessive and prolonged intake of saturated fats can, on the other hand, favor the triggering and rapid evolution of atherosclerosis, to the point of causing severe obstructions that can lead to myocardial infarction, or stenosis of the carotid arteries with possible even very serious brain damage...
THEquality extra virgin olive oil is the fat richest in antioxidants and fat-soluble vitamins, it is the most digestible and can bring significant benefits to our health, such as on:
– Cardiovascular system: can reduce LDL lipoproteins (harmful action) and increase HDL (protective action), can reduce the onset of atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction and cerebral vascular damage;
- Nervous system: it can improve neuronal maturation in children and reduce the incidence of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's by more than 13%;
– Skeletal system: the extra virgin olive oil contains Vitamin D, facilitates the intake of that contained in other foods and improves liver function and calcium metabolism, so it can reduce the incidence of arthritic processes, osteoporosis and fractures;
– Endocrine system: may reduce the occurrence of type 1 diabetes and reduce the severity of type 2 diabetes;
– Tumor diseases: especially thanks to the presence of Oleocanthal, the substance that gives it its spiciness, a very powerful anti-inflammatory inhibitor of cyclooxygenase chemically similar to ibuprofen, it can help reduce the onset of colon tumors by 63%, breast by 39%, lungs 36%, prostate 39%, esophagus 73%, stomach 62%, ovaries 47%.
How much to consume to have all these benefits?
A variable dose between 20 and 40 ml per day, depending on your body weight, added raw to various dishes may already be sufficient, as long as it has a good presence of bitterness and spiciness.
Since high quality extra virgin olive oils can add extraordinary herbaceous, tomato or red fruit aromas to dishes, using a good oil every day can give us goodness and health".
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