Recently, Dr. Eduard Escrich spoke about the virtues of extra virgin olive oil regarding breast cancer at the D.O. Awards. Priego de Córdoba. Dr. Escrich leads a research group that has been studying the relationship between nutrition and the development of cancer for more than 30 years. Its latest results focus on extra virgin olive oil and its role in the prevention of breast cancer. According to their research, the consumption of this type of oil within a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle could have an important protective role.

With her group she investigates the effect of diet on cancer, and according to her studies, of everything we eat, what has the most influence on breast cancer is fat. Among all the results obtained, a discovery stands out that has taken them just over ten years of work. In 2010 they exhaustively discovered a pathway that cells use to divide and discovered that extra virgin olive oil was slowing down cell proliferation, inhibiting the activity of these proteins that help the process go faster. And not only that, but it induced the possibility that these cells would “self-suicide”, through a physiological mechanism known as apoptosis.

They have also studied cell damage and have seen that there is less damage in the diet groups with extra virgin olive oil. The recommendation therefore is: low quantity, high quality and throughout life. This is not like a drug, which you take for a certain time and you get an effect. We are talking more about public health, a healthy lifestyle, healthy dietary habits.

In conclusion, the consumption of extra virgin olive oil, in moderation and within a balanced diet, has a protective effect in the prevention of breast cancer.