Even if you live a healthy lifestyle, physical pain often becomes an inseparable part of life after the age of forty. A Spanish epidemiological study suggests that this doesn't happen if you consume four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil daily.

Study
Researchers from the University of Granada in Spain recruited 180 healthy people over 40 for a cross-sectional epidemiological study published in the European Journal of Nutrition in 2026. All 180 study participants were free of chronic diseases, ate a healthy diet (in this case, they followed a classic Mediterranean diet), and exercised sufficiently.

The researchers had an idea of ​​their study participants' olive oil intake. They divided the participants into two groups—one group consuming less than four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil daily and one group consuming four or more tablespoons daily.

The two groups differed little from each other. They had roughly the same lifestyle, BMI, and weight.

The study participants completed a standardized questionnaire regarding physical health. The questions asked about [1] how well the study participants could perform physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs, and lifting; [2] whether they could work, cook, and keep their house tidy; [3] whether they experienced pain; and [4] whether they felt healthy.

Results
In the group with the lower extra virgin olive oil [EVOO] intake, the total [Comp-P] score decreased as the study participants got older. This association was not observed in the group with the higher intake. Aging did not appear to correlate with decreased subjective physical health.

This is shown in the figure below. Click on it for a larger version.

The difference between the two groups lay entirely in the perception of pain. In the group with the lower olive oil intake, older age correlated with more pain. In the other group, this correlation was absent.

Conclusion
"Promoting regular extra virgin olive oil consumption within the Mediterranean diet could represent a simple and sustainable public health strategy to support healthy aging, aligning with current efforts to extend both life expectancy and years lived in good health and functional independence", the Spanish write.

The researchers, incidentally, were not funded by the olive oil industry or the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, but by the Ministry of Sport and their university.