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The oil that can keep cancer at bay

Alok Jha

LONDON: Another week, another reason for Britons to up their rapidly increasing olive oil habit. Not only does olive oil boasts of the right balance of healthy and unhealthy fats while being naturally low in cholesterol, scientists now have discovered that the catch-all condiment contains a new chemical, named oleocanthal, that acts like a mild form of ibuprofen. Long-term, it seems that drizzling the popular gold-green liquid over your food will reduce the risk of developing cancer.

It is no surprise to find that lots of food we enjoy eating has health benefits. Some of the reasons are obvious — developing a taste for tasty coconuts is clearly better for a person's short-term health than munching on poisonous toadstools — but evolution plays a role in shaping our tastes too.

Those humans who developed tastes for foods with medicinal actions would have survived longer and left more offspring. Gradually, tastes moved to the things which were best for us.

Everyone knows about the ubiquitous super foods. Last year, the British Medical Journal even put together the perfect meal made up of wine, fish, dark chocolate, fruits and vegetables, almonds and garlic which, if eaten every day, scientists said would increase lifespan by more than six years for men and five years for women.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

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