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<pre>Alan Friedman wrote:

> Just read an article in Prevention magazine, "How Healthy Is Your Olive Oil"
> which suggests that the oleic acid in olive oil can protect against cancer.
> Their analysis suggested that ratios of oleic/linoleic in different brands
> can vary from 13.9 to 10.6. Does anyone know if the variability in
> oleic/linoleic ratios a function of climate, variety or other factors?

This has been known, particularly with reference to breast cancer, for some
time. See the following references for more details:

Trichopoulou, A., Katsouyanni, K., Stuver, S., Tzala, L., Gnardellis, C.,
Rimm, E. & Trichopoulos, D. (1995a) Consumption of Olive Oil and Specific Food
Groups in Relation to Breast-Cancer Risk in Greece. Journal of the National
Cancer Institute 87:2, 110-116.

Trichopoulou, A., Gnardellis, C., Katsouyanni, K., Tzala, L., Trichopoulos,
D., Stuver, S. & Rimm, E. (1995b) Consumption of Olive Oil and Specific Food
Groups in Relation to Breast-Cancer Risk in Greece - Response. Journal Of the
National Cancer Institute 87:13, 1022-1022.

Trichopoulou, A. (1995) Olive Oil and Breast-Cancer. Cancer Causes & Control
6:6, 475-476.

Martin-Moreno, J.M., Willett, W.C., Gorgojo, L., Banegas, J.R.,
Rodriguez-Artalejo, F., Fernandez-Rodriguez, J.C., Maisonneuve, P. & Boyle, P.
(1994) Dietry fat, olive oil intake and breast cancer risk. International
Journal of Cancer 58:6, 774-780.

Gerber, M. & Richardson, S. (1995) Consumption of Olive Oil and Specific Food
Groups in Relation to Breast-Cancer Risk in Greece. Journal of the National
Cancer Institute 87:13, 1021-1022.

Did the article mention other types of cancer? I have not seen references
which mention anything other than breast cancer.

Adrian
--
Adrian.Shaw@aber.ac.uk
Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Wales,
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales
http://pcjagg.dbs.aber.ac.uk/index.html
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