Has that salad you ate for lunch left you feeling less than satisfied? Are you constantly craving a snack? Next time around, try adding some olive oil to your food. In a European study, participants mixed either olive oil, lard, butterfat or canola oil into 500 grams of reduced-fat yogurt every day for 3 months and judged which type of fat left them feeling the fullest.
The clear winner was olive oil – participants in the olive oil group had a higher concentration of serotonin, known as “the satiety hormone,” in their blood. Additionally, researchers found that two of olive oil’s aroma compounds – hexanal and E2-hexenal – help to slow appetite by reducing the absorption of glucose from the blood in liver cells. According to lead researcher Peter Schieberle, PhD, the findings showed that the scent of olive oil is able to control satiety.
Schieberle and his team hope that their research will be a catalyst in the creation of better reduced-fat food products. Now that we know of olive oil’s ability to kick cravings to the curb, you may soon spy reduced-fat products containing olive oil in grocery stores near you. In the meantime, you can still benefit from the oil’s satiating properties by adding it to salads, pastas or foods such as yogurt.
