Olive oil project ($14,620)
A grant was made to Professor Madeleine Ball and PhD Student Kiran Ahuja to investigate the effect of dietary fat from olive oil on the absorption of antioxidants in the body.
Heart disease is the most common cause of death in Australia. High cholesterol levels and low antioxidant levels in blood are known to increase the risk of heart disease. One antioxidant called lycopene (that gives the red colour to tomatoes) is thought to reduce the risk of heart disease. Also, olive oil is thought to be good for heart and body health. The traditional Mediterranean diet was known to be rich in olive oil and tomatoes and people had very low incidence of heart disease. Research from the last 4-5 decades have indicated that reducing the intake of fat/oil may decrease the blood cholesterol levels and hence the risk of heart disease. Hence, reducing the intake of fat has been a component of dietary advice to reduce blood cholesterol levels in many countries. As antioxidants like lycopene are absorbed in the body with fat, diets with different amounts of fat content may alter the amount of lycopene getting into the body. The researchers wanted to find whether increasing the intake of olive oil and tomatoes has any effect on blood cholesterol and lycopene levels and to compare the effect with that of a reduced fat tomato rich diet in a small group of healthy Tasmanian people. Participants were asked to consume a high olive oil, tomato diet for 10 days. After a break of 18 days participants were asked to eat a low olive oil but tomato enriched diet.
Both diets increased the levels of lycopene in the blood similarly. Comparing the high olive oil and low fat diet, the olive oil diet seemed better because it increased HDL (good cholesterol) and lowered triglyceride levels compared to the low fat diet.
Diets containing tomato products and olive oil may be helpful in reducing the heart disease risk in Australians.
Tasmania's Clifford Craig Medical Research Trust was established in 1991.