Virgin olive oil protects brain
A two‑year analysis of 650+ older adults found higher intake of virgin olive oil — not just common olive oil — was linked to preserved cognitive function, likely via beneficial gut interactions and microbiome effects Virgin olive oil intake linked to cognitive preservation via the gut.
The paper was published 24 January 2026 in the journal Microbiome (link.springer.com). The prospective analysis followed 656 participants aged 55–75 (mean age 65.0 ± 4.9 years; 47.9% women) who were overweight or obese with metabolic syndrome and cognitively healthy at baseline, using data from the PREDIMED‑Plus project (link.springer.com). Diet and biology were measured directly: researchers used a validated semi‑quantitative food‑frequency questionnaire, collected stool samples for microbiome profiling, and administered a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery at baseline and at two‑year follow‑up (link.springer.com). Results showed higher virgin olive oil consumption was linked to better cognitive trajectories and greater gut‑microbiota alpha diversity, while higher intake of common (refined and olive‑pomace) oils associated with lower diversity and faster cognitive decline over two years (link.springer.com). Mediation analysis in the study flagged the bacterial genus Adlercreutzia as a candidate mediator of the association between virgin olive oil intake and cognitive change, and several summaries of the work report Adlercreutzia explained roughly half of the statistical mediation observed in the models (link.springer.com). The authors — led by Jiaqi Ni with senior investigator Jordi Salas‑Salvadó — note the distinction between unrefined virgin oils and industrially refined oils (the latter lose polyphenols and other bioactives), and they call for further high‑quality clinical cohort and intervention studies to confirm causality and mechanism. (link.springer.com)
