This story is about how a few natural foods, and very common foods, could help prevent acute pancreatitis. They are staples of the famous Mediterranean diet and you’ve probably consumed them in the past two weeks. They are fish oil and virgin olive oil.
Virgin olive oil is high in oleic acid and hydroxytyrosol. Fish is high in the now-famous omega-3 fatty acids. All three of these hidden ingredients affect the way acute pancreatitis develops in your cells. The study says that oleic acid and hydroxytyrosol especially may prevent or mitigate this disease.
The health news comes from a study on how food cures in the Mediterranean diet could protect and mitigate cell damage.
RECOMMENDED: More Benefits of the Mediterranean Diet
In the lab, scientists developed an experiment where they could see how changes in the fatty acid of cell membranes affected the ability of cells to respond to damage that leads to pancreatitis. The fatty changes were caused by a change in the types of fat ingested. In this case, it was the two healthiest forms of fat: unsaturated items in olive oil and fish.
This is the first study to study these foods and how they change pancreatic cells that face inflammation. The scientists have evaluated the role of antioxidants from a preventive approach. In other words, cell damage is induced in mice after pre-treating them with the compounds found in olive and fish oils.
They discovered that the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nature of these compounds could help prevent and also lessen the effects of pancreatic cellular damage.
Fish oil is well documented in Doctors Health Press, so let’s just follow up on one of the others for a moment. Oleic acid is the unsaturated fat that is believed to be the primary reason that olive oil is so healthy for us. In fact, oleic acid may be the main reason why the Mediterranean diet itself is so healthy. On one hand, it helps the digestive tract form transport molecules for fat that can increase your absorption of extremely healthy natural chemicals that come in vegetables and fruit. On the other hand, its potent antioxidant nature has been proven to help lower risk of heart disease.