Scientists unlock a secret of Mediterranean diet

A stroke of good luck has helped scientists explain one of the mysteries of the Mediterranean diet, a world-famous regime credited with cardiac fitness and a longer lifespan. Olive oil, one of the diet’s mainstays, contains a painkilling compound similar to an ingredient found in over-the-counter antiflammatories, they say. The compound has been found to inhibit cyclooxygenase (COX) enzymes, which play a key role in causing inflammation, they report in Thursday’s issue of the weekly British journal Nature. The widely-used painkiller ibuprofen has a similar pharmacological action. The discovery came accidentally, thanks to a trip to Italy by US-based biologist Gary Beauchamp, of the Monell Chemical Senses Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Beauchamp had previously noted that whenever he took ibuprofen he experienced a stinging sensation in the back of the throat — and he suddenly noticed the same tingling when he tasted pungent newly-pressed olive oil while attending a molecular gastronomy conference on Sicily. afp

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