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Dear Colleagues and Friends,
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Cognitive and mental health
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This week, the Olive Health Information System’s newsletter brings you the latest studies on olive oil and health. Olive oil, an essential component of the Mediterranean diet, represents the primary source of fat. A systematic review assessed the effect of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and its phenolic compounds on the epigenetic landscape. Authors suggested that epigenetic modifications induced by EVOO and its phenols were inversely associated with cancer, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases. The specific biological mechanisms involved DNA methylation and modulation of miRNAs in response to oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol activity and ultimately positive changes to metabolic processes. It is highly recognized that the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) provides beneficial and therapeutic effects on non-communicable dietary-related diseases such as Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), among others. In this context, a systematic review and a dose–response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies estimated a significant inverse association between greater adherence to the MedDiet and the risk of T2D (each 1-point increase in the MedDiet score was linked to a 3% reduction in T2D risk). Another study remarks the importance of dietary patterns with higher dietary antioxidant capacity, such as the MedDiet characterized by anti-inflammatory properties; therefore, various foods could play a preventive role in NAFLD development.
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Nowadays, the Global Syndemic of obesity, undernutrition and climate change affects worldwide and shares common drivers like food systems. Thus, it is thought that the implementation of policies and actions across different sectors of society could result in co-benefits to global and population health. For diets to be regarded as sustainable, these must include four main dimensions: low environmental impact, promoters of health, low economic cost, and to be relatable to specific societies and cultures. Thus, a study evaluated the sustainability of MedDiet. Investigators showed that the MedDiet had a lower environmental impact compared with Western diets (e.g., a carbon footprint between 0.9 and 6.88 kg CO2/d per capita, a water footprint between 600 and 5280 m3/d per capita, and an ecological footprint between 2.8 and 53.42 m2/d per capita). Although in terms of costs it was similar to other diets, the MedDiet presented a greater nutritional quality. The authors, however, could not evaluate the sociocultural dimension as data was not readily available. These findings provide insight into the potential benefits of MedDiet as a sustainable dietary pattern. To conclude, the authors claimed the importance of harmonizing sustainable indicators are necessary in order to perform a complete assessment of the sustainability dimensions.
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