OLIVE OILS AND HEALTH 12 Olive oil has always been linked to health. From the time of the Greco-Roman physicians to the present day, its nutritional and therapeutic properties have been highly valued. In ancient times, this was based on empirical reasoning; nowadays, the aim is to seek solid scientific evidence for the relationship between olive oil and health, while countering false claims that, without scientific basis, put forward unfounded opinions. A primitive surgery, certain foods, and the healing properties of plants were the only resources available to physicians in ancient times for treating disease. Their knowledge relied solely on popular wisdom, personal observation, and an enviable foresight, since some of their recommendations have, to a greater or lesser extent, been confirmed today. The ancient Greek poet Homer (8th century BC) referred to olive oil as “liquid gold”. Hippocrates (460 BC – 370 BC), physician also from Ancient Greece, called it “the great healer” and prescribed it for many medical conditions. Dioscorides (Anazarbus, present-day Turkey, 40 – 90), a Greek physician, pharmacologist, and botanist, in his work “De Materia Medica” includes a chapter titled “On the Wild and Cultivated Olive Tree”. He states that “its crushed leaves, applied as a poultice, heal sores and St. Anthony’s fire”. He also gives remedies for diseased gums and loose teeth, which should be anointed with oil from the wild olive tree until they appear white. Galen (Pergamon, currently Turkey, 129 – 216), a Greek physician, surgeon, and philosopher, practised in the Roman Empire, where he served as physician to emperors and also to gladiators. He used olive oil with water and beeswax to create the first moisturising cream in history. In the 12th century, the brilliant Hispano-Arabic medical tradition initiated by Abulcasis was revived thanks to the Banu Zuhr family and the physician-philosophers Averroes and Maimonides. Abulcasis (Medina Azahara, 936/40 – Córdoba, 1009/1013), Andalusian physician and surgeon, recommended olive oil for massages; as a laxative, when mixed with an equal amount of hot barley water; as enemas for colic caused by constipation; and even applied to the eyes to improve vision. Avenzoar (Peñaflor, 1073 - Seville, 1162), a remarkable Hispano-Arabic physician, was the first of the Banu Zuhr and an excellent clinician. In his “Treatise on Dietetics” and “Book that Facilitates Therapeutics and Dietetics”, he advised that food should be cooked with olive oil: “the flesh of lamb with abundant oil”, “the quality of fried eggs improves if they are prepared with fresh olive oil of low acidity”, “physicians prefer that fish be cooked with oil, so that its delicate flesh is balanced”. Averroes (Córdoba, 1126 – Marrakech, 1198), Hispano-Arabic philosopher and physician, intuited that a proper diet “prevents disease”. In his “General Treatise on Medicine” he wrote that olive oil, “if extracted from ripe and wholesome olives and if its properties have not been artificially altered, may
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