`Spanish Ministers Highlight Importance of Researching Health Benefits of Olive Oil - Olive Oil Times
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Spanish Ministers Highlight Importance of Researching Health Benefits of Olive Oil

By Daniel Dawson
Sep. 22, 2022 14:47 UTC
Summary Summary

Government min­is­ters in Spain praised the results of the CordioPrev study, which found that fol­low­ing a Mediterranean diet is more effec­tive in pre­vent­ing car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease pro­gres­sion than a low-fat diet. The study, funded with €3.1 mil­lion, is seen as a sig­nif­i­cant step in improv­ing the health out­comes of heart dis­ease patients and may lead to future food label­ing reforms in Spain.

Government min­is­ters in Spain praised the role of sci­en­tific stud­ies on the health ben­e­fits of olive oil as they unveiled the results of the seven-year-long CordioPrev study.

Published in May, the CordioPrev study found that fol­low­ing a Mediterranean diet is supe­rior in terms of sec­ondary pre­ven­tion – inter­ven­tions that delay the pro­gres­sion of a dis­ease – of car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease than fol­low­ing a low-fat diet.

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While numer­ous stud­ies have demon­strated the Mediterranean diet to be supe­rior to low-fat diets in terms of pri­mary pre­ven­tion – delay­ing the onset of dis­ease – CardioPrev was the first study to com­pare diet effec­tive­ness in more than 1,000 active heart dis­ease patients.

Diana Morant, Spain’s min­is­ter of sci­ence and inno­va­tion, said that because of the study, we can improve the life expectan­cies of many peo­ple who have already suf­fered a coro­nary inci­dent.”

Luis Planas, minister of agriculture, fisheries and food

The min­is­ter added that this type of research, which she described as sci­ence as a com­mon good for soci­ety,” requires sig­nif­i­cant time and invest­ment to bear fruit. As a result, she announced €3.1 mil­lion to fund 12 approved projects and five research con­tracts.

Planas said stud­ies like CardioPrev form the foun­da­tion of efforts to have future olive oil labels and pack­ag­ing reflect the product’s nutri­tional value.

In the sec­ond half of 2023, Spain will hold the pres­i­dency of the European Union, and Planas wants to make food label­ing reforms a top pri­or­ity. We will work so that olive oil comes out in the place it deserves,” he said.

Planas believes that Spain has great poten­tial to assume a lead­ing role in research and inves­ti­ga­tion regard­ing healthy eat­ing due to the country’s promi­nent role as a food pro­ducer and exporter.

According to the min­istry, Spain is the fourth largest agri-food exporter in the E.U. and the sev­enth largest glob­ally. Despite expec­ta­tions of a his­tor­i­cally low har­vest, the coun­try remains the world’s largest pro­ducer of olive oil by a wide mar­gin.



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