OLIVE OILS AND HEALTH 148 12.1. Introduction Over the past four decades, the global prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased dramatically, reaching pandemic proportions. It is currently estimated that more than 1.9 billion adults are overweight and over 650 million are obese. This means that approximately 40% of adults worldwide are overweight, and more than 13% are obese. These trends are not limited to adults. Data from 2016 indicated that 41 million children under the age of five and 340 million children and adolescents (ages 5–19) were affected by overweight or obesity. The alarming rise in these figures is primarily attributed to changes in diet and behaviour, highlighting the importance of prevention through lifestyle modification. Preventing overweight and obesity is critical for both individual and public health, given the strong association between excess body weight and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and premature mortality. Obesity is a multifactorial and complex condition influenced by both individual and environmental factors. At the individual level, contributors include genetic predisposition, dietary habits, physical activity or sedentary behaviour, and emerging factors such as sleep quality and the composition of the gut microbiota. At the societal level, issues such as socioeconomic status, limited access to healthy foods, and environments that discourage physical activity also play important roles. Furthermore, exposure to environmental pollutants -such as air and noise pollution- can exacerbate stress and inflammation, further increasing obesity risk. Despite growing awareness, the proliferation of unscientific and potentially harmful weight-loss diets has complicated the public’s ability to adopt effective strategies. Nutritional recommendations must be grounded in robust scientific evidence. Importantly, it is now recognised that one-size-fits-all dietary approaches are insufficient. This has led to the emergence of precision nutrition, an evolving field that integrates genetic, microbiome, and metabolic data to tailor dietary interventions to individual characteristics. Initially focused on genetic information, precision nutrition now also encompasses factors such as gut microbiota, which influence individual responses to food and dietary patterns. Among the dietary patterns with the strongest evidence for health benefits, the Mediterranean diet stands out, particularly for its cardiovascular protective effects. These benefits were demonstrated in the landmark PREDIMED trial, which showed that a Mediterranean diet enriched with extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) or nuts significantly reduced the risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, and cardiovascular mortality. In this chapter, we explore the evidence supporting the role of olive oil, especially EVOO, as a central component of the Mediterranean diet in the prevention and man-
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