An exercise which applies understanding of the scientific method and how research studies are designed to study nutrition.

Before attempting this assignment, you might want to revisit the Scientific Method Tutorial in the Science Learning Center under the Course Content area.

Process:

1. Read the article summary below.
2. Review the questions below.
3. Retrieve the full article (hyperlink provided right below the summary).
4. Answer listed questions in a short paper format.
5. Submit for grading by the due date (see Syllabus “Course Schedule”).

Extra virgin olive oil use is associated with improved post-prandial blood glucose and LDL cholesterol in healthy subjects.

A Mediterranean diet is associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular events.  This diet consists of high intake of fruits, vegetables and grains and low intake of red meat.  The health benefits may also be due to extra virgin olive oil (EVOO).  Researchers looked at blood glucose and LDL cholesterol after a meal in subjects who were given diets with or without extra virgin olive oil to evaluate whether EVOO had a role in post-prandial glycemic control and had any effect on lipid profile.

For the following questions, please refer to the original paper.  The link to the paper is:

http://www.nature.com/nutd/journal/v5/n7/pdf/nutd201523a.pdf

1. What is the overall hypothesis of this experiment?
2. Why did the researchers speculate that EVOO could improve post-prandial glycemic control via an oxidative stress-related mechanism?
3. Did the paper explain what the control subjects received in lieu of olive oil in the first study?
4. From the first experiment, what was the post-prandial blood glucose levels of subjects who received EVOO vs. subjects who did not receive EVOO?  What about LDL and HDL levels.  Please include units in your answer.
5. What are the limitations of this study?
6. Did the results support the hypothesis?  Did the researchers follow the scientific method in their experimental design?

Violi et al. (2015). Extra virgin olive oil use is associated with improved post-prandial blood glucose and LDL cholesterol in healthy subjects.  Nutrition & Diabetes (2015) 5, e172; doi:10.1038/nutd.2015.23.  Published online 20 July 2015