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Health Benefits of Olive Oil

Detailed Health Benefits of Olive Oil

Countless articles have been written about the advantages of adopting a “Mediterranean Diet” rich in vegetables, whole grains, fish and most essentially olive oil. More and more people are adding olive oil to their daily diet for its great taste and heart healthy benefits. Recent studies have shown over and over again that eating olive oil in any form is a nutritious choice. One of the main factors that make olive oil so healthy is that it is one of the purest cooking oils you can get. Most cooking oil needs to be processed in order to make it useable for cooking. Olive oil is the only oil that can be pressed directly from the fruit and then immediately served, without heating or processing. All the natural goodness of the olive is kept intact and passed directly into the oil. This lack of processing is one of the main health benefits of olive oil.

Olive oil is heart healthy because it is a monounsaturated fat. This means that the fatty acids in olive oil work to raise the HDL or “good” cholesterol levels in the bloodstream. At the same time, these fatty acids help to break down and lower the LDL or “bad” cholesterol levels. Olive oil has the greatest amount of the strongest fatty acid, oleic acid, of any other cooking oil. Olive oil also contains many other vital nutrients, including vitamin E, phenols, and omega fatty acids.

Taking at least a spoonful of extra virgin olive oil every day has been shown to help prevent different health problems. As mentioned above, the oil tends to scrub the body of the bad cholesterol that causes heart disease, making olive oil a powerful tool in keeping your heart at its healthiest. It has also been shown in various research studies to have ain impact in preventing certain kinds of cancer, including colon cancer. Researchers in Spain found that rats who regularly ate olive oil had a much lower incidence of cancer than rats fed a similar diet with other “good fats” like safflower and fish oil. Because it is healthy, and also delicious, olive oil is a nearly perfect choice for anyone who wants a healthier lifestyle. The health benefits of olive oil greatly outweigh the tastes of other oils.