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Monounsaturated fatty acids, olive oil and blood pressure: epidemiological, clinical and experimental evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2007

Álvaro Alonso ,
Valentina Ruiz-Gutierrez  and
Miguel Ángel Martínez-González
Álvaro Alonso
Affiliation:
Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Navarra, Irunlarrea 1, ES-31008Pamplona, Spain: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA:
Valentina Ruiz-Gutierrez
Affiliation:
Nutrition and Lipid Metabolism Group, Instituto de la Grasa (CSIC), Seville, Spain
Miguel Ángel Martínez-González*
Affiliation:
Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Navarra, Irunlarrea 1, ES-31008Pamplona, Spain:
*
*Corresponding author: Email [email protected]
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Abstract

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Diet has an important role in the prevention and treatment of hypertension. In early epidemiological studies, conducted mainly in the USA, monounsaturated fatty acids showed a deleterious association with blood pressure or no relationship at all. However, more recent studies, conducted in Mediterranean countries, have shed new light on this issue. In the present review we summarise the main results of epidemiological studies and feeding trials, and explain the possible mechanisms through which monounsaturated fatty acids, and specifically olive oil as the major dietary source of this type of fat in Mediterranean countries, could exert a favourable effect on blood pressure.

Keywords

Monounsaturated fatty acidsOlive oilHypertensionMediterranean diet
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , April 2006 , pp. 251 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2006

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