Is Olive Oil Brain Healthy? Hope Springs Eternal
A new study links olive oil consumption with less risk of dementia-related death, but there are reasons to be skeptical.
As you all know by now, I’m always looking out for lifestyle changes that are both pleasurable and healthy. They are hard to find — especially when it comes to diet. My kids complain about this all the time — “when you say healthy food, you just mean yucky food.” And yes, French fries are amazing, and no we can’t have them three times a day.
So when I saw an article claiming that olive oil reduces the risk of dementia, I was interested. I love olive oil — I cook with it all the time. But as is always the case in the world of nutritional epidemiology, we need to be careful. There are a lot of reasons to doubt the results of this study… and one to believe it’s true.
The study I’m talking about this week is this one, appearing in JAMA Network Open and it follows a well-trod formula in the nutritional epi space.
Nearly 100,000 participants — all healthcare workers — filled out a food frequency questionnaire every four years…
