Olive oil consumption, plasma metabolites, and risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease

Olive oil consumption has been inversely associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the impact of olive oil consumption on plasma metabolites remains poorly understood. This study aims to identify plasma metabolites related to total and specific types of olive oil consumption, and to assess the prospective associations of the identified multi-metabolite profiles with the risk of T2D and CVD.

The discovery population included 1837 participants at high cardiovascular risk from the PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea (PREDIMED) trial with available metabolomics data at baseline. Olive oil consumption was determined through food-frequency questionnaires (FFQ) and adjusted for total energy. A total of 1522 participants also had available metabolomics data at year 1 and were used as the internal validation sample. Plasma metabolomics analyses were performed using LC–MS. Cross-sectional associations between 385 known candidate metabolites and olive oil consumption were assessed using elastic net regression analysis. A 10-cross-validation (CV) procedure was used, and Pearson correlation coefficients were assessed between metabolite-weighted models and FFQ-derived olive oil consumption in each pair of training–validation data sets within the discovery sample. We further estimated the prospective associations of the identified plasma multi-metabolite profile with incident T2D and CVD using multivariable Cox regression models.

We identified a metabolomic signature for the consumption of total olive oil (with 74 metabolites), VOO (with 78 metabolites), and COO (with 17 metabolites), including several lipids, acylcarnitines, and amino acids. 10-CV Pearson correlation coefficients between total olive oil consumption derived from FFQs and the multi-metabolite profile were 0.40 (95% CI 0.37, 0.44) and 0.27 (95% CI 0.22, 0.31) for the discovery and validation sample, respectively. We identified several overlapping and distinct metabolites according to the type of olive oil consumed. The baseline metabolite profiles of total and extra virgin olive oil were inversely associated with CVD incidence (HR per 1SD: 0.79; 95% CI 0.67, 0.92 for total olive oil and 0.70; 0.59, 0.83 for extra virgin olive oil) after adjustment for confounders. However, no significant associations were observed between these metabolite profiles and T2D incidence.

This study reveals a panel of plasma metabolites linked to the consumption of total and specific types of olive oil. The metabolite profiles of total olive oil consumption and extra virgin olive oil were associated with a decreased risk of incident CVD in a high cardiovascular-risk Mediterranean population, though no associations were observed with T2D incidence.

Trial registration: The PREDIMED trial was registered at ISRCTN (http://​www.​isrctn.​com/​, ISRCTN35739639).