Mediterranean diet monounsaturated fatty acids

I personally use and enjoy a wide variety of oils. Olive oil is great for sauteing certain foods and is a staple in the Mediterranean diet that s best for blood pressure control. Canola oil is similarly rich in the monounsaturated fatty acids that lower cholesterol when they re used to replace saturated fats. Canola oil is best when you re cooking at higher temperatures or when you don t want the... 

It has been now recognised that die phenolic profile of the foods, along with high intakes of the monounsaturated fatty acids, as oleic acid mainly, confers its health-promoting properties to die Mediterranean diet. In fact, olive oil is the main source of unsaturated acids and polyphenols that constitute a complex mixture in olive fruits and in its derived products. In addition, in O. europaea fruits, phenolic profile and content are important factors to consider in order to evaluate virgin olive oil quality. To remain that they are also partly responsible for autoxidation stability and organoleptic characteristics of olive oil. 

Bos MB, de Vries JHM, Feskens EJM, et al. Effeet of a high monounsaturated fatty acids diet and a Mediterranean diet on serum lipids and insulin sensitivity in adults with mild abdominal obesity. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2010, 8 591-598. 

Monounsaturated fats Triacylglycerols containing primarily fatty acids with one double bond are referred to as monounsaturated fat. Unsaturated fatty acids are generally derived from vegetables and fish. When substituted for saturated fatty acids in the diet, monounsaturated fats lower both total plasma cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, but increase HDLs. This ability of monounsaturated fats to favorably modify lipoprotein levels may explain, in part, the observation that Mediterranean cultures, with diets rich in olive oil (high in monounsaturated oleic acid), show a low incidence of coronary heart disease. 

One common feature of the mediterranean dietary habit is the use of olive oil as fat source in place of animal fat typical of Northern European and USA diets. As compared to other vegetable oils, olive oil is charaeterized by the peculiar composition of the tryglieeride fraction and by the phenolic and volatile constituents which affect the organolectic properties. Olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fat (56-84% of oleic acid), contains 3-21% of the essential linoleic aeid [3], is low in tocopherols [4,5] and therefore the presence of phenols is important to mantain the anti-oxidative stability. Several articles [1,2,6] reviewed the reasons why olive oil should be preferable to other dietary fat, paying particular attention to the fatty acid composition. Oleic acid is antithrombotic compared to saturated fatty acids [7]. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats reduced low density lipoproteins (LDL) levels. 

The Mediterranean diet, rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, was shown to be inversely related to the incidence of eardiovaseular disease, as shown in the Seven Countries Studies [59,169-171]. OUve oil, the dietary fat of choice in the Mediterranean area, in eomparison to other vegetable oils has a peculiar fatty acid composition. The monounsaturated oleic acid (C-18 l, n = 9) is the most abundant fatty acid in oUve oil (56-84%), whereas the polyunsaturated Unoleic acid (C-18 2, n = 6) ranges only from 3% to 21%. In addition, oUve oil eontains a variety of minor components, including polyphenols (up to 800 mg/kg), whieh provide the typical taste and aroma of extra virgin olive oil and eonfer on this oil its stability to oxidation [172]. 

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