Swiss Psychiatric Hospital Adopts Olive Oil for Patient Health

Summary

The Psychiatric Services Aargau AG in Switzerland has tran­si­tioned to using high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil in place of other fats, dri­ven by sci­en­tific evi­dence and health ben­e­fits. Studies sug­gest that daily intake of extra vir­gin olive oil can have pos­i­tive effects on brain health, cog­ni­tive func­tion, and over­all well-being, espe­cially in elderly and psy­chi­atric patients, mak­ing it an impor­tant con­sid­er­a­tion in health­care insti­tu­tions com­mit­ted to qual­ity and health.

Extra vir­gin olive oil is replac­ing other fats in the Psychiatric Services Aargau AG (PDAG) in Argovia Canton, Switzerland.

According to Andreas Thiel, head chef at PDAG, the tran­si­tion from seed oils and other fats to high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil is dri­ven by sci­en­tific evi­dence.

PDAG treated more than 30,000 patients in 2024. It oper­ates four spe­cial­ized clin­ics cov­er­ing psy­chi­a­try and psy­chother­apy, con­sul­ta­tion and geri­atric neu­ropsy­chi­a­try, foren­sic psy­chi­a­try, and child and ado­les­cent psy­chi­a­try with a focus on psy­cho­so­mat­ics and psy­chother­apy.

In a recent inter­view, Thiel explained: ​“Refined seed oils, which only appeared in the 20^th cen­tury, are increas­ingly being viewed crit­i­cally from a health per­spec­tive.”

He added that ​“high-qual­ity olive oil is not only con­vinc­ing in taste and health ben­e­fits but also com­pet­i­tive eco­nom­i­cally, because it lasts longer in the fryer.”

The use of extra vir­gin olive oil in psy­chi­atric and geri­atric units should not come as a sur­prise.

“We have a wealth of data show­ing that when adults fol­low a nutri­tion­ally appro­pri­ate diet, espe­cially the Mediterranean diet, they face a reduced impact from all the typ­i­cal dis­eases of aging: car­dio­vas­cu­lar, onco­log­i­cal and neu­ro­log­i­cal con­di­tions,” Nicola Veronese, geri­a­tri­cian and asso­ciate pro­fes­sor at UniCamillus, International Medical University in Rome, told Olive Oil Times.

“Quality olive oil is almost a con­duc­tor in the orches­tra of the Mediterranean diet. It plays a cen­tral role, with polyphe­nols and fatty acids that sup­port car­dio­vas­cu­lar and cog­ni­tive health,” he added.

A recent study in the British Journal of Nutrition sug­gests olive oil con­sump­tion may help reduce anx­i­ety and depres­sion.

Another clin­i­cal trial found mean­ing­ful improve­ments even in cases of severe depres­sion, a wide­spread con­di­tion among psy­chi­atric patients.

Thiel noted it took time to fully grasp the impli­ca­tions of replac­ing com­monly used fats with EVOO.

“Through test­ing, engag­ing with qual­ity and under­stand­ing the health ben­e­fits, my per­spec­tive changed,” he recalled.

For psy­chi­atric and elderly patients, daily intake of extra vir­gin olive oil may have long-last­ing effects.

“Olive oil for itself con­tains a series of polyphe­nols and fatty acids, with a risk-ben­e­fit bal­ance in favor of car­dio­vas­cu­lar and cog­ni­tive health,” Veronese explained.

“Research shows that even when some­one already suf­fers from a dis­ease such as Alzheimer’s, eat­ing well, fol­low­ing a Mediterranean diet, sig­nif­i­cantly low­ers their risk of mor­tal­ity com­pared to those who do not,” he added.

According to sev­eral stud­ies, extra vir­gin olive oil improves con­di­tions related to brain health even in cases of mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment.

Research pub­lished in Nutrients in 2022 showed that par­tic­i­pants con­sum­ing EVOO improved their Clinical Dementia Rating scores within six months — indi­cat­ing bet­ter mem­ory, ori­en­ta­tion, and daily func­tion­ing, as well as signs of slower decline or even par­tial rever­sal.

Many psy­chi­atric patients, espe­cially older ones, expe­ri­ence dis­or­ders linked to cog­ni­tive decline.

Conditions such as depres­sion, anx­i­ety and anger are often con­nected to impaired cog­ni­tion.

“It is not that easy to define what old age is. For us, as spe­cial­ists, we tend to focus on the bio­log­i­cal age of indi­vid­u­als more than their chrono­log­i­cal age,” Veronese noted.

“It might hap­pen that an 80-year-old par­tic­i­pates in a marathon, and a 65-year-old is no longer inde­pen­dent,” he added.

“Genetics and even con­di­tions at birth, com­bined with lifestyle and diet… all of this con­tributes to health out­comes across the decades,” Veronese explained.

The use of EVOO in brain health tri­als is grow­ing, espe­cially in stud­ies of aging and elderly pop­u­la­tions.

The JAMA Network Open recently pub­lished a prospec­tive cohort study of 92,383 U.S. adults who were fol­lowed for 28 years.

Those con­sum­ing more than seven grams a day of olive oil had about a 28 per­cent lower risk of dying with demen­tia com­pared to never or rare olive oil users.

“We know that with age there is a decline in cog­ni­tive func­tion, but we also have stud­ies show­ing that cen­te­nar­i­ans, espe­cially when healthy, reach very old age with­out demen­tia,” Veronese remarked.

Ongoing research is fur­ther explor­ing these impacts.

“That shows us how impor­tant it is to use olive oil con­sciously and respon­si­bly, espe­cially in insti­tu­tions com­mit­ted to health and qual­ity. Quality over quan­tity pays off in the long run,” Thiel said.

According to Veronese, extra vir­gin olive oil shows such a wide array of health ben­e­fits that it should be con­sid­ered a pri­or­ity when car­ing for elderly or frag­ile patients.

“Older peo­ple love olive oil. The real prob­lem is eco­nomic. Many can­not afford it, even though it is the health­i­est fat and a true pil­lar of the Mediterranean diet,” he warned.

“There is no Mediterranean diet with­out olive oil, yet many peo­ple today can­not afford it,” Veronese con­cluded.