One of the mayor causes of metabolic syndrome and other metabolic related diseases is the lipid profile. In a recently published randomized clinical trial, olive oil, in the context of a Mediterranean diet, and the additional benefits of oat consumption demonstrated improvements on cholesterol levels. The effects of lower LDL-cholesterol levels (“bad cholesterol”) were observed as early as four weeks and up to eight weeks after oat supplementation and adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern.

Moreover, the PREDIMED-Plus study has been studying olive oil’s high polyphenol content along with other beneficial substances. The polyphenols described in this study improved metabolic syndrome markers, such as fasting plasma glucose, blood pressure, and triglycerides, but most importantly increased HDL cholesterol (“good cholesterol”) levels.