It is effective in chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, hypertension or osteoporosis. Experts have insisted that it is possible to prevent 80% cardiovascular diseases and 40% different types of cancer through diet, physical exercise and other healthy habits. Scientists of the UGR are specifically analysing how cells react against aggressions which cause pancreatic alterations and result in cancer.
Scientists of the Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos (Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology) of the University of Granada (UGR, Spain) have been doing research into the positive effects of Mediterranean diet's ingredients on health. Among these works, there is a new research line about pancreatic cancer cells. Emilio Martínez de Victoria Muñoz, director of the Institute, points out that in the study 'Influence of the ingredients of the Mediterranean diet on a cell line on pancreatic cancer cells' (UGR-Junta de Andalucía) they have manipulated the composition of the cell membrane providing olive oil, fish oil or an antioxidant typical of olive oil, analysing how such cells defend themselves from the aggressions which cause pancreatic alterations".
The objective is to expose olive oil compounds (such as oleic acid) and fruit and vegetable antioxidants to "membranes of a pancreatic cancer cell line in such a way that they become more or less resistant to harmful stimulus which cause diseases such as cancer or pancreatitis".
This way, the research work intends to correlate the composition of cell membranes with more or less resistance to suffering from different types of disease. The conclusions suggest that feeding and changes in membrane composition affect cell function and can therefore influence the prevention of certain diseases.
Preventive feeding