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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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23.06.2009 |
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More adrenalin through olive oil
A diet in which virgin olive oil is the main source of fat is not only healthy because of the beneficial fatty acids that olive oil contains. In a Japanese animal study, the phenols in olive oil raise the metabolic rate because they increase the concentration of adrenalin and noradrenalin, both stimulatory hormones. This may mean that it's easier to maintain your weight if you get more of your dietary fat from olive oil.
Olive oil contains about thirty phenols. So does the metabolic effect of olive oil have something to do with this? To find out more the Japanese did an experiment with rats. They were given a high fat diet for four weeks, in which thirty percent of the energy was derived from fats. One group was given maize oil, another olive oil with few phenols, and another group got virgin olive oil containing lots of phenols.
The table below shows the effects of the four-week diet. We've omitted the data for the rats that got few phenols: the effects measured for this group were in between those for the maize oil and virgin olive oil group [EV Olive oil diet].
The rats that had been fed olive oil had noticeably less fat reserves. The activity of the UCP-1 protein in the brown fat cells was higher in the olive-oil rats. These rats also had increased concentrations of adrenalin and noradrenalin, as the figures below show.
The researchers extracted phenols from the olive oil and then injected the rats with them. Once again the concentrations of adrenalin and noradrenalin rose. For the Japanese this is conclusive evidence that phenols are responsible for the metabolic effect. If they can now work out which phenol is doing the work, they may well have discovered a new component for slimming supplements.
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