Type Of Olive Oil Does Matter, For Brain & Gut Health!

On the topic of olive oil and its virginity or lack thereof, we have previously written to answer the question: Is “Extra Virgin” Worth It?

That article continues to be great and correct per the most up-to-date science of which we’re aware, and in fewest words, the overall conclusion was that the “extra” part doesn’t matter too much, but the “virgin” part definitely does. Indeed, we wrote:

If you enjoy olive oil, then springing for extra virgin is worth it if that’s not financially onerous, both for health reasons and taste.

However, if mere “virgin” is what’s available, it’s no big deal to have that instead; it still has a very similar nutritional profile, and most of the same benefits.

Don’t settle for less than “virgin”, though.

While some virgin olive oils aren’t marked as such, if it says “refined” or “blended”, then skip it. These will have been extracted by chemical means and/or blended with completely different oils (e.g. canola, which has a very different nutritional profile), and sometimes with a dash of virgin or extra virgin, for the taste and/or so that they can claim in big writing on the label something like:

_{^{a blend of}}
EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
_{^{and other oils}}

…despite having only a tiny amount of extra virgin olive oil in it.

(For more on this, do see our previous main feature about it, here)

Meanwhile, we shall press on the topic of specific brain and gut benefits of virgin olive oil (extra or not):

Pressed for the very first time 🎶

It’s already known that olives themselves are good for brain health:

How Olives Can Help Protect Your Brain ← they do it by means of hydroxytyrosol, which really is much healthier than it sounds!

And, for that matter: Olive oil is healthy. Turns out olive leaf extract may be good for us too

So, what’s the latest news?

Researchers (Dr. Estefanía Toledo et al.) followed 656 adults with metabolic syndrome aged 55–75 years for 2 years to examine the effects of olive oil type on gut microbiota and cognitive change.

And by “type”, here the distinction was “virgin olive oil” (VOO) vs “common olive oil” (COO).

As for the effects each had:

• Gut microbiota diversity: higher VOO intake was associated with greater alpha diversity (inverse Simpson and Chao1 indices) (that’s good), while higher COO intake was associated with lower alpha diversity, with no significant diversity differences across total olive oil tertiles.
  • In particular, 19 bacterial genera were associated with olive oil intake, and higher VOO and total olive oil intake were linked to reduced abundance of Adlercreutzia, which reduction was associated with improvements in cognitive function. On which note…
• Cognitive outcomes: higher total and VOO intake were associated with modest but statistically significant improvements in general cognitive function, attention, executive function, and global cognition, while higher COO intake was associated with worse changes across several domains.
  • For this one, each 10 g/day increase in total or VOO intake was positively associated with beneficial cognitive changes, but each 10 g/day increase in COO intake was associated with accelerated cognitive decline.

In case you’re wondering how the cognitive outcomes were tested,

❝Cognitive function was assessed using the clock drawing test, mini-mental state examination (MMSE), verbal fluency test, digit span test, and trail making test.

A z-score was calculated for each cognitive test at baseline and follow-up. These scores were aggregated to generate composite scores for neurocognitive domains such as executive function and attention. Clock drawing test and MMSE scores were combined into a general cognitive function score. A global cognitive function score was computed by adding or subtracting individual z-scores based on whether higher scores indicated better or worse performance.

The primary outcome was the change in composite cognitive scores from baseline to follow-up.❞

You can read the paper in full, here: Total and different types of olive oil consumption, gut microbiota, and cognitive function changes in older adults

Want to learn more?

You might like:

All About Olive Oil

Enjoy!