Olive Oil, Not Coconut Oil, Makes Skin Ageing Slower

[Kartoffel]

On the common sense level the results make sense as higher olive oil consumption would displace PUFA consumption associated with accelerated aging.

Yes, of course. But how do you know that? Because controlled experiments have demonstrated the toxicity of excess PUFA beyond any doubt, and illuminated how they harm all mammals. Controlled experiments are the only form of science that can establish anything close to causational statements. There is no way to account for even a tiny percentage of all possible confounding variables, because we don't know most of them, and the process of identifying and "accounting" for them is based on stupid theories. Why do you think there are so many analyses showing positive correlations between soy oil/fish oil/whole wheat/etc and various health markers? There is no statistical method without a prior theory of causation. You can show absolutely anything with these studies, if you just know how to properly analyze (manipulate) data.
If you want to know whether olive oil is (more) protective against aging than XYZ, you can just get a bunch of animals, keep everything else constant, and then feed them different fats. Simple, elegants studies are what drives science, not correlation studies.

 

[x-ray peat]

If you want to know whether olive oil is (more) protective against aging than XYZ, you can just get a bunch of animals, keep everything else constant, and then feed them different fats. Simple, elegants studies are what drives science, not correlation studies.

Not true. It is the combination of observational, animal, and clinical studies that drive science. I completely agree that one observational study doesnt determine causality but neither does one laboratory animal study as applied to humans.

In the case of olive oil a large number of various different studies mostly show positive health benefits over a standard diet (meaning seed oils). The above study needs to be evaluated in that light and not just by itself.

 

[Kartoffel]

Not true. It is the combination of observational, animal, and clinical studies that drive science

Allmost all animal studies and clinical trials are controlled experiments, and observational study is a very broad term. There are good and meaningful obervational studies that can be seen as natural analogues of controlled experiments, but 99% of all correlation studies certainly don't fall into that category. But enough of fundamentals - I agree that olive oil is vastly superior to standard western fats. My initial criticism concerned the false and misleading title of this thread. Even a strong proponent of correlational evidence would agree that the statment "Olive Oil, Not Coconut Oil, Makes Skin Ageing Slower" cannot be deduced from the cited study and is cheap sensationalism.

 

[x-ray peat]

My initial criticism concerned the false and misleading title of this thread. Even a strong proponent of correlational evidence would agree that the statment "Olive Oil, Not Coconut Oil, Makes Skin Ageing Slower" cannot be deduced from the cited study and is cheap sensationalism.

I dont disagree with that. My only point was that these observational studies are not useless, and actually make up a big part of the field of human nutrition. Double blinded controlled studies also have their drawbacks. It's well known that most clinical studies cant be replicated. At least in the case of long term population studies the data is public and isn't so easily manipulated.

 

[Captain_Coconut]

To test for authentic olive oil at home. See what point the oil starts to smoke in the oven, most extra virgin olive oils will start to smoke around 320 to 410. If it is over 410 and still not smoking then you very likely have something cut with PUFA. Generally it should also solidify in the refrigerator, unless the oil has been “winterized” but that is not a common process and I personally doubt winterized oil would be very healthy anyway.

 

[jb116]

Don't discount smelling the oil too. Real olive oil should be a strong smell, pungent of concentrated olive. It's a "warm" smell if that makes sense. Fake olive oil just smells rancid.

 

[Daniel11]

This is a really nice organic olive oil, very green in color with clean rich flavor..

Bragg Live Foods, Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar, Bragg Liquid Aminos,Systemic Enzymes, Bragg Live Organic Food Products, Patricia Bragg, Paul Bragg, Bragg Organic Olive Oil, Bragg Salad Dressings, Bragg Seasonings, Bragg Health Products

 

[SQu]

Any idea how can you get the good stuff in the US. I hear its all organized crime dominated and heavily diluted

South African olive oil especially with the sticker "SA Olive" is not adulterated. It's amongst the best quality in the world. You might be able to find it. Morgenster is the one I'm using. Tastes a little grassy and astringent. There are many other names, that's just a well known one.

 

[Avishek]

Lol good call people. You can read an abstract...it says nothing of coconut oil.

 

[Daniel11]

Where a path begins and where it goes is never the same…

- Kung Fu Panda

 

[shepherdgirl]

Generally it should also solidify in the refrigerator, unless the oil has been “winterized” but that is not a common process and I personally doubt winterized oil would be very healthy anyway.

Cap'n Coconut: do you have any idea how it would be "winterized"? I put a giant bottle of supermarket 100% olive oil in my fridge for two days. There was no change in it - clear and liquid as before. The label said it was something like 10% pufa. Unless they are adding MCTs or something to it (which would probably be prohibitively expensive), my impression is that it must be very high in pufa, perhaps cut with crap oil, and that the label is a total lie.

 

[Captain_Coconut]

Cap'n Coconut: do you have any idea how it would be "winterized"? I put a giant bottle of supermarket 100% olive oil in my fridge for two days. There was no change in it - clear and liquid as before. The label said it was something like 10% pufa. Unless they are adding MCTs or something to it (which would probably be prohibitively expensive), my impression is that it must be very high in pufa, perhaps cut with crap oil, and that the label is a total lie.

Likely it is either fake, or your refrigerator is not cold enough - pure non-winterized olive oil should turn solid below 37 f. Put the bottle to the back of the refrigerator, it is usually coldest near the back top shelf. A refrigerator will be around 33 to 40 f depending on it's setting, a refrigerator thermometer would be helpful for you here. I always set mine around 34 f as I find that helps a lot to prevent food spoilage. Extra virgin olive oil should not be winterized, a processes that removes "wax" from the oil, this is done for things like salad dressing where the manufacturer wants their product to stay liquid when refrigerated, I suspect the "wax" is actually where most of the healthy components of olive oil reside.

 

[MoonDay]

How about avocado oil? Is it PUFA free or healthy?

 

[Captain_Coconut]

How about avocado oil? Is it PUFA free or healthy?

It has a similar fat composition to olive oil, so I guess would provide the same kind of benefits that mono-unsaturated fat consumption provides. Olive oil has been studied a lot longer and therefore has more documented advantages.

 

[MoonDay]

It has a similar fat composition to olive oil, so I guess would provide the same kind of benefits that mono-unsaturated fat consumption provides. Olive oil has been studied a lot longer and therefore has more documented advantages.

Good to know. Thanks!

 

[Dave Clark]

Macadamia nut oil has a similar profile to avocado oil, but has less PUFA, if I recall. Price and availability is the problem.

 

[shepherdgirl]

Likely it is either fake, or your refrigerator is not cold enough - pure non-winterized olive oil should turn solid below 37 f. Put the bottle to the back of the refrigerator, it is usually coldest near the back top shelf. A refrigerator will be around 33 to 40 f depending on it's setting, a refrigerator thermometer would be helpful for you here. I always set mine around 34 f as I find that helps a lot to prevent food spoilage. Extra virgin olive oil should not be winterized, a processes that removes "wax" from the oil, this is done for things like salad dressing where the manufacturer wants their product to stay liquid when refrigerated, I suspect the "wax" is actually where most of the healthy components of olive oil reside.

Thank you! I suspect it was plenty cold enough, although I should retest it to be sure. To be clear it was not evoo, just "mild olive oil" or something - i didn't want to cook with evoo so would buy ordinary olive oil, but it was supposed to be pure olive oil. Wouldn't it still cloud up if it were real? Maybe a week after the supermarket oil failed my fridge test, i put a bottle of California Olive Ranch evoo in the fridge - after 2 days it was solid.
Yeah, to me winterizing sounds like they would be removing all the things that solidify in cold - i.e. monounsaturated and saturated fat. That means you're left with pufa i guess!

 

[Captain_Coconut]

Thank you! I suspect it was plenty cold enough, although I should retest it to be sure. To be clear it was not evoo, just "mild olive oil" or something - i didn't want to cook with evoo so would buy ordinary olive oil, but it was supposed to be pure olive oil. Wouldn't it still cloud up if it were real? Maybe a week after the supermarket oil failed my fridge test, i put a bottle of California Olive Ranch evoo in the fridge - after 2 days it was solid.
Yeah, to me winterizing sounds like they would be removing all the things that solidify in cold - i.e. monounsaturated and saturated fat. That means you're left with pufa i guess!

If it didn't even turn cloudy in the refrigerator that sounds like it must be cut with a lot of pufa.

 

[x-ray peat]

Thank you! I suspect it was plenty cold enough, although I should retest it to be sure. To be clear it was not evoo, just "mild olive oil" or something - i didn't want to cook with evoo so would buy ordinary olive oil, but it was supposed to be pure olive oil. Wouldn't it still cloud up if it were real? Maybe a week after the supermarket oil failed my fridge test, i put a bottle of California Olive Ranch evoo in the fridge - after 2 days it was solid.
Yeah, to me winterizing sounds like they would be removing all the things that solidify in cold - i.e. monounsaturated and saturated fat. That means you're left with pufa i guess!

in general "mild" olive oils uses more refined olive oil, read heat and/or chemicals. Not exactly a health product compared to the real deal.

 

[Captain_Coconut]

Does anyone know if RP has ever mentioned in depth the direct benefits of monounsaturated fat consumption. Generally I have gathered is he thinks of it as a neutral fat, not bad like pufa but also not as health protective as saturated fats are. It doesn't seem he has ever promoted monounsaturated fats for anything particular. I'd be interested to read more from him on them. It seems to me while monos may not be essential that there are likely some basic benefits from getting some monounsaturated fats over exclusively consuming saturated fats; for one - the protective effect of monounsaturated fat against endotoxin.

This is about all I could find from RP on benefits of monounsaturated / oleic acid:

From: 'Oils in Context':
"Animals contain desaturase enzymes, and are able to produce specific unsaturated fats (from oleic and palmitoleic acids) when deprived of the ordinary essential fatty acids, [7] so it can be assumed that these enzymes have a vital purpose. The high concentration of unsaturated fats in mitochondria–the respiratory organelles where it seems that these lipids present a special danger of destructive oxidation–suggests that they are required for mitochondrial structure, or function, or regulation, or reproduction. Unsaturated fats have special properties of adsorption, [8] and are more soluble in water than are saturated fats. The movement and modulation of proteins and nucleic acids might require these special properties. As the main site of ATP production, I suspect that their water-retaining property might be crucial. When a protein solution (even egg-white) is poured into a high concentration of ATP, it contracts or superprecipitates. This condensing, water-expelling property of ATP in protein solutions is similar to the effect of certain concentrations of salts on any polymer. It would seem appropriate to have a substance to oppose this condensing effect, to stimulate swelling [9, 10] and the uptake of precursor substances. Something that has an intrinsic structure-loosening or water-retaining effect would be needed. The ideas of chaotropic agents and structural antioxidants have been proposed by Vladimirov [11] to bring generality into our understanding of the mitochondria. Lipid peroxides are among the chaotropic agents, and thyroxin is among the structural antioxidants. The known oxygen-sparing effects of progesterone [12, 13] would make it appropriate to include it among the structural antioxidants. The incorporation of the wrong unsaturated fats into mitochondria would be expected to damage the vital respiratory functions."

From: 'Fats, functions & malfunctions':
"When stress signals activate enzymes in fat cells to release free fatty acids from the stored triglycerides, the enzymes in the cytoplasm act on the surface of the droplet of fat. This means that the fatty acids with the greatest water solubility will be liberated from the fat to move into the blood stream, while the more oil soluble fatty acids will remain in the droplet. The long chain of saturated carbon atoms (8 in the case of oleic acid, 15 in palmitic acid, and 17 in stearic acid) in the "tail" of oleic, palmitic, and stearic acid will be buried in the fat droplet, while the tail of the n-3 fatty acids, with only 2 saturated carbons, will be the most exposed to the lipolytic enzymes. This means that the n-3 fatty acids are the first to be liberated during stress, the n-6 fatty acids next. Saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids are selectively retained by fat cells (Speake, et al., 1997)."

"One of the essential protective functions that decline with aging is the liver's ability to detoxify chemicals, by combining them with glucuronic acid, making them water soluble so that they can be excreted in the urine. The liver (and also the intestine and stomach) efficiently process DHA by glucuronidation (Little, et al., 2002). Oleic acid, one of the fats that we synthesize ourselves, increases (about 8-fold) the activity of the glucuronidation process (Krcmery and Zakim, 1993; Okamura, et al., 2006). However, this system is inhibited by the PUFA, arachidonic acid (Yamashita, et al., 1997), and also by linoleic acid (Tsoutsikos, et al., 2004), in one of the processes that contribute to the accumulation of PUFA with aging."