The health benefits of Olive oil

The health benefits of Olive oil are inumerable...

Always enhanced the diets and the flavour of foods!!! Long recognized for its beneficial effect on human health, now many scientific studies suggest that olive oil is one of the reasons for the lower rate of cancer among people of the Mediterranean.

Olive oil is a natural juice which preserves the taste, aroma, vitamins and properties of the olive fruit. Olive oil is the only vegetable oil that can be consumed as it is, freshly pressed from the fruit.

The beneficial health effects of olive oil are due to both its high content of monounsaturated fatty acids and its high content of antioxidative substances. Studies have shown that olive oil offers protection against heart disease by controlling LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels while raising HDL (the "good" cholesterol) levels.

No other naturally produced oil has as large an amount of monounsaturated as olive oil, mainly oleic acid. Olive oil is very well tolerated by the stomach. In fact, olive oil's protective function has a beneficial effect on ulcers and gastritis. Olive oil activates the secretion of bile and pancreatic hormones much more naturally than prescribed drugs. Consequently, it lowers the incidence of gallstone formation.

SO THESE ARE SOME BENEFITS OF OLIVE OIL

Studies have shown that people who consumed 25 milliliters (ml, about 2 tablespoons of virgin olive oil daily for 1 week showed less oxidation of LDL cholesterol and higher levels of antioxidant compounds in the blood.

But while all types of olive oil are sources of monounsaturated fat, EXTRA VIRGIN olive oil, from the first pressing of the olives, contains higher levels of antioxidants, particularly vitamin E and phenols, because it is less processed.

Olive oil is clearly one of the good oils, one of the healing fats. Most people do quite well with it since it does not upset the critical omega 6 to omega 3 ratio and most of the fatty acids in olive oil are actually an omega-9 oil which is monounsaturated.

More Benefits of olive oil...

Spanish researchers suggest that including olive oil in your diet may also offer benefits in terms of colon cancer prevention. Their study results showed that rats fed diet supplemented with olive oil had a lower risk of colon cancer than those fed safflower oil-supplemented diets.

In fact, the rats that received olive oil had colon cancer rates almost as low as those fed fish oil, which several studies have already linked to a reduction in colon cancer risk.

New studies have also demonstrated that the Mediterranean diet, which includes olive oil, fish and red wine, reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease by 40% .

Saturated fat diets are associated with higher blood pressure but there have been few good studies on whether the reverse is true; can unsaturated fats lower blood pressure? And are some unsaturated fats better than others?.

Well here you have more benefits of olive oil. Cholesterol and triglyceride levels are slightly lower while on the olive oil diet. There are as many as 5 mg of antioxidant polyphenols (absent in sunflower oil) in every 10 grams of olive oil. Polyphenols have been shown to reduce coronary artery disease and may be the substance lowering blood pressure. Antioxidants reduce nitric acid levels, a substance in the body known to raise blood pressure.

In order to enhance a healthy diet and start getting the benefits of olive oil, consider to substitute the daily ingest of butter of margarine.

This is an interesting Margarine/Butter to Oil Conversion Chart

THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF OLIVE OIL