BREAST CANCER AND OLIVE OIL

In 2003, M. Solanas from the Department of Cell Biology in Barcelona reported in the International Journal of Oncology that olive oil slowed breast cancer in rats. A corn oil diet stimulated more cancers than a control diet, while olive oil led to fewer and smaller tumors than the control diet.

A 2009 study from Barcelona (the Catalonian Institute of Oncology) by Menendez et al confirmed that the polyphenols in extra virgin olive oil are effective in combating breast cancer cells of the HER-2 type. The study notes that the isolated polyphenols were applied in much higher concentrations than what can be consumed in dietary olive oil, but their findings may help explain the protective effect olive oil seems to have in preventing certain types of cancer among Mediterranean women. The researchers were also careful to point out that only extra virgin olive oil, which is not heated or refined, would contain these beneficial polyphenols.