13 Virgin Olive Oil Benefits be perfectly assimilated by the human constitution”. He further affirmed: “The best eggs are hen’s eggs. When fried in olive oil they are very good, for foods seasoned with oil are most nourishing; but the oil must be new, of low acidity, and from olives. In general, it is a most suitable food for man”. Maimonides (Córdoba, 1138 – Cairo, 1204), a Sephardi physician, philosopher, astronomer, and rabbi, wrote in his “Mishneh Torah” that “all the illnesses suffered by humans, or at least the great majority of them, are the consequence of a deficient or excessive diet”. In an extract from his medical aphorisms, he urged his disciples to cultivate critical observation and reasoning, a lesson still relevant today regarding food and health: “If someone tells you that he has proof from his own experience of something that confirms his theory, even if he is a person of great authority, seriousness, and morality, you must still doubt him. Do not let your mind be carried away by the novelties he recounts; instead, examine his theories and beliefs carefully, just as you should with what he claims to have seen. Consider the matter well, and do not allow yourself to be easily persuaded…”. Al-Arbuli (Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, between the 13th–14th or 14th–15th centuries), an Andalusian scientist, was the author of an important “Treatise on Foods”, in which he emphasised the crucial role of diet in the preservation of health. In Chapter VI, concerning “The qualities of pickles, spices, sauces, and oils”, he stated that “olive oil is the most suitable fat for the human body, owing to its great affinity with it. It is an excellent food and lacks the heaviness of other fats”. Paracelsus (Einsiedeln, Switzerland, 1493 – Salzburg, 1541), a Swiss alchemist, physician, and astrologer of the Renaissance, kept his distance from the formal teaching of his time and challenged the authority of the classical texts in favour of a more “experimental” approach. He considered the harmful action of foods to be one of the five possible causes of illness. He maintained that an infusion of olive leaves and bark was excellent for washing all kinds of sores, and that drinking one cup daily expelled intestinal worms. He also affirmed that pure olive oil was an extraordinary laxative and a relief for hepatic and renal colic, and that, when mixed with egg yolk, it soothed the pain of burns. With the passing of time and the advance of science, research, and technology, scientific evidence has gradually emerged: some of the assumptions of the ancient physicians have been confirmed, others set aside, and the importance of food, particularly olive oil, for health has been reaffirmed. The relationship between diet and health is, even today, more important than in antiquity. Although the impact of dietary factors on the body is weaker than that of other agents, such as drugs, toxins, or carcinogens, in countries like Spain, where life expectancy has increased considerably, these less intense factors, such as nutrients, have the time to exert their influence. Among other factors, a good diet helps to preserve health, while a poor one leads it towards disease. The classical Mediterranean lifestyle is healthy not only because of the in-
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