Just half a teaspoon of olive oil a day could cut the risk of a heart attack by a fifth, a study has shown.
Harvard researchers studied the health of nearly 100,000 people over 24 years and found higher olive oil consumption was beneficial to heart health.
The study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston took place between 1990 and 2014. It included 63,867 women from the Nurses' Health Study and 35,512 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Every four years for about three decades, study participants answered questionnaires about their diet and lifestyle.
After accounting for diet and lifestyle factors, the researchers found that those who ate more than half a tablespoon per day of olive oil had a 15% lower risk of having any kind of cardiovascular disease.
They also had a 21% lower risk of coronary heart disease, a condition that occurs when the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle is blocked or reduced.
The researchers also found that replacing one teaspoon of butter, margarine, mayonnaise or dairy fat with the same amount of olive oil could boost heart health, Daily Mail reported.
The small swap could lower the risk of any cardiovascular disease by 5% and the risk of coronary heart disease by 7%.
