More good news for those who have replaced saturated fat with monounsaturated fats like olive oil in their diets to combat heart disease. A report from the FASEB Journal, a publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology found that olive oil consumption lowered the presence of 8oxodG, a marker of oxidative damage to cells’ DNA, by an average of 13%.

Even more significant was the discovery that phenols found in olive oil, widely touted as powerful antioxidants, did not seem to be responsible for the cancer fighting effect of olive oil. Rather it was the monounsaturated fats in olive oil that are behind the effect.