Reduce Free Radicals: Antioxidants and Olive Oil
April 27, 2011
“If I’d known I was going to live so long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” — Leon Eldred
We live in an age where we are beginning to see an awareness developing between eating habits and good health. Several buzz phrases like low carb, high protein, and Hoodia are mentioned as a means to gaining a better life while honing a better physique.
Another phrase that is repeated often is ”antioxidants”.
What exactly is an antioxidant and why is it important?
Everyone has what is called ‘free radicals’ that roam throughout the body. These free radicals have the potential to attack the body, primarily in the form of cancer. Antioxidants fight back. A nutrition plan that includes antioxidants can assist in staving off the potential for acute illness due to free radicals.
Drinks such as coffee and tea often have a certain amount of antioxidants, but it is fresh fruit that is especially rich in antioxidants. Fruit, of course, remains high on the list of recommended foods by the U.S.D.A., but it may surprise you to know that extra virgin olive oil as part of a balanced diet can provide as much antioxidant as a piece of fruit.
The Health Benefits Of Olive Oil remain a delightful discovery for many. It’s not often something that adds significant good taste to a gourmet meal and can also be an extremely healthy choice.
A diet that is lean in saturated fats (red meat) balanced with a healthy dose of fatty acids has pointed to a number of health benefits. Most of the fatty acids that your body may need can be found in extra virgin olive oil.
The health benefits of olive oil extend to the reduction of LDL (bad cholesterol) while increasing the amount of HDL (good cholesterol).
Case Study
The University of Barcelona conducted a controlled study that followed 16 individuals that were advised to refrain from certain foods that contained phenols (an antioxidant designed to attack free radicals). After abstaining for four days the test group was given extra virgin olive oil to determine if this alone could increase the levels of phenol in the body.
50ml of olive oil was provided to test subjects while they refrained from things like butter, nuts, eggs and margarine. After the first day the total intake of olive oil was cut in half. One week later, blood samples indicated elevated amounts of the antioxidants vitamin E and phenols. Oleic acid and monounsaturated fatty acids were also seen at higher levels – both acids are indicative of lower LDL (bad cholesterol) oxidation.
Some researchers believe that the health benefits of olive oil may still be untapped, and many have indicated regular ingestion of olive oil may be one of the best kept health secrets available.
Beyond its antioxidant properties, extra virgin olive oil has provided significant data to indicate it may also lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart disease and aid in the fight against colon cancer specifically.
Isn’t it time to discover the virtues of olive oil for yourself?
| James Zeller writes for gourmet gift related websites and blogs. Here is a selection of oil and vinegar that he found, and a creative collection of culinary gourmet gifts.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Zeller |
Olive Oil – Why This is the World’s Oldest Miracle Food
April 18, 2011
Olive oil is the pure juice pressed from the fruit of the olive tree. It has been cultivated for over 5000 years around the Mediterranean and has been used variously as a fuel, food, medicine and cosmetic.
Greece is one of the top 3 producers of olive oil in the world — and Cretan olive oil is the finest of them all.
Recently, olive oil (and particularly Extra Virgin Olive Oil) has been recognised as one of the healthiest foods you can get, promoting long life and improving resistance to many of the life threatening diseases that are the curse of the western World.
Isn’t Olive Oil Fat?
You can’t compare olive oil with other oils and fats. It’s best to look at it as fruit juice. It does contain fat of course, but this is the best “fat” you can eat, and is actually good for you.
Olive oil is the only oil or fat that is produced without refining or any chemical or unnatural processes. Thus it retains all its (considerable) vitamin and mineral goodness.
Olive oil:
- reduces cholesterol
- is free from saturated fats and high in monounsaturated fats
- has a naturally occurring chemical which is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent which helps reduce the severity and occurrence of arthritis and asthma.
- contains a high percentage of phenols, vitamin E and other anti-oxidizing substances protecting the body from the negative effects of free radicals and thus helping prevent cancer and delaying the ageing process.
Which Olive Oil is best?
There are a few grade of oil you can choose from:
Extra Virgin Olive oil is pressed from the olive without help from heat treatments or other processing, and produces the purest and best oil. This is the most expensive and you should use this for dressings, especially.
Virgin Olive Oil comes from the second pressing and is still a quality tasty oil. Use this for infusing herbs (and salad dressings too).
Pure Olive Oil is produced using some filtering or processing. This oil is less expensive and can be used for frying. You should do all your frying in this type of oil. It is so robust, you can use it many times without any reduction in its flavour or quality.
Which Olive Oil Should I Buy?
Olive oil is in great demand because people are now aware of its health benefits, particularly when compared to other fats and oils. But who produces the best olive oil?
Because of this demand, producers all over the world are resorting to more mechanical and unnatural method of production. Even oils labeled Extra Virgin can sometimes be simply less quality oils that have had their acidity reduced, as this is a criterion for the Extra Virgin mark.
Demand for the oil has encouraged more cost-reducing methods of production through increased automation and concentrating production in ever larger factories. These methods result in a less nutritious product.
On the Greek Island of Crete, the production of olive oil is almost wholly by smallholdings. Small communities will grow olive trees and produce the oil for themselves, their own restaurants, and their own community in the same way they have for centuries.
Walk through olive groves on Crete in November through to February and you will see the families gathered for the harvest, shawls and headscarves wrapped close to keep out the morning chills. Occasionally you’ll hear the low drone of little mechanical flailing machines to gently beat the branches laden with the olives — a Cretan concession to the mechanical age.
Because of this tradition, many people say that you can guarantee the authentic and unprocessed nature of organic Cretan Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Take into account the Cretan soil, the stuff from which the olives acquire all their goodness, and you get the reason why the olive oil from Crete is the best tasting. For millions of years, the rains have washed minerals and nutrients from the mountainsides and hillsides of this mountainous island, and deposited them on the plains and valleys around the coasts — the very place where you will find rows and rows of olive trees, about 30 million of them!
Cretan Olive Oil — the best in the world for health and long life!
| Graham Yates wrote this article. To learn more about Cretan Olive Oil visit http://www.completely-crete.com/olive-oil.html
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Graham_Yates |
Which Olive Oil is Healthiest?
April 12, 2011
By now, everyone knows that olive oil is healthy. We may not know why or in what way, but we know that if we’re going to be eating it for our health, we want to choose the one that is healthiest. Here’s what you need to know about the potential health benefits and which oil is healthiest.
All oil from olives is composed of monounsaturated fat, which is the best kind of fat to eat. If your only criteria for the relative ‘healthiness’ is monounsaturated fat composition, then any grade will do. From the lowest grade (pomace) to the highest (extra virgin), all contain monounsaturated fat and will serve your needs.
But if we don’t stop there, if we seek to exploit the oil’s potential to increase health in several ways, then the differences become apparent. As far as relative ‘healthiness’ is concerned, one cannot judge by grade. An extra virgin oil is not necessarily healthier than plain virgin. The ‘virginity’ is based on basically one criterion: the acid level. The lower oleic acid, the higher grading the oil attains, with extra virgin oils having lower than 1%. But the acid content is irrelevant to the health benefits. Aside from being composed of monounsaturated fats, it can also contain phytochemicals which contribute health benefits.
Phytochemical is a catch-all term meaning non-nutritive plant chemicals that have protective or disease preventive properties. Non-nutritive means they are not carbohydrates, fats, or proteins. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have a powerful effect on our health. One phytochemical in fresh oils that has proven health benefits is oleocanthol.
Oleocanthol has been shown to have a mild painkilling effect, and also acts as an anti-inflammatory. While one cannot replace their painkillers with olive oil, daily intake of oil containing oleocanthol can, over time, limit damage caused by chronic inflammation. Therefore, the answer to the question ‘which olive oil is healthiest’ is this: the healthiest one has the highest level of oleocanthol.
Unfortunately, oleocanthol levels are not listed on labels. But we can tell whether an oil contains oleocanthol by tasting. Oleocanthol is the component responsible for the peppery bite, and produces a stinging sensation in the throat. This bite is why it combines so well with bread or cheese, because they produce a nice contrast of sensations.
Those same phytochemicals are suspected to be responsible for the oil’s known effect to reduce blood pressure and increase HDL (high density lipoprotein) cholesterol. HDL is the good cholesterol and raising HDL levels reduces risk of heart attack and stroke.
In addition to all of that, blood vessels in people who consume oil with high polyphenol (a group of phytochemicals) levels are shown to have more ‘elastic’ blood vessels, which is good for overall heart health and circulation.
Lastly, consumption of this natural oil together with tomatoes has been shown to protect against sunburn and decrease wrinkles. The exact action is unknown, but researchers suspect that the phytochemicals in fresh oil from olives are responsible. Long term consumption reduced sunburn tendency by 30% and increases ‘pro-collagen’ in the skin. Loss of collagen is responsible for the development of wrinkles.
So, what’s the downside? All oils are made of fat and highly calorie dense. While fat is part of a healthy diet, a high fat diet can make it difficult to maintain a healthy weight. So, one must replace the unhealthy fats with healthy fats rather than just adding more fat to the diet to really gain all the benefits. Some good suggestions are to reduce meat intake, eat vegetables and bread with oil instead of butter, and reduce use of dairy products.
If you’re looking for maximum benefit from your food, choosing the EVOO that is healthiest is a great step.
| After several episodes of being served tasteless oils in ‘high end’ restaurants, Christine Ellis was surprised to learn that olive oil can have distinctive flavor. She spent 2 years touring and toiling in the olive groves and presses of Crete, and came away with the desire to educate the palates of others who’ve never had a decent olive oil in their lives. She’s the author of Olive Oil Reviews, where she tastes and dishes on olive oils available in the US.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christine_Ellis |
Cook With Olive Oil For Flavor and Health
April 5, 2011
Olive oil is a great oil to use for cooking because of its amazing health benefits and distinctive flavor.
Olive oil has been used for centuries, but has become extremely popular recently due to studies which have proven just how healthy this oil is. Olive oil is a monounsaturated fat which has been shown to lower your bad cholesterol and blood pressure, while raising the good cholesterol and helps protect against strokes.
There are a few things you should know about olive oil to make sure you cook with it properly and everything turns out as delicious as planned.
The main thing to keep in mind is that olive oil has a low smoke point. This means the oil will start to smoke at high temperatures. If you have ever over-heated olive oil in a pan, you know how it can fill your kitchen with smoke and will destroy the flavor of your food.
Here are some tips for cooking with olive oil:
Some Types Of Olive Oil are not the best choice for high heat cooking or frying because they cannot handle the high enough temperatures needed for this type of cooking; however, it is possible to saute with olive oil if you are careful and do not use high heat.
One way to compensate for the low smoke point is to combine olive oil with a high heat oil such as ghee (clarified butter) or canola oil for a healthier choice. This raises the smoke point while still allowing you to enjoy the health benefits and flavor of cooking with olive oil – extra virgin or virgin varieties.
Since olive oil has become popular lately, and is available in every grocery store, you may have noticed quite a variety to choose from. The flavor of the oil can vary depending upon where the olives were grown, so if you find you don’t like the flavor of a particular brand, simply switch to another.
Each type of olive oil has its place in cooking and it’s important to use the best oil for a particular dish.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil needs to be cooked with very carefully because it can easily lose its flavor with heat. Save your most expensive, high quality extra virgin olive oil for drizzling over cooked dishes just before serving. These oils are also great in salad dressings, marinades, or added to sauces when finished. As a healthy alternative to butter, drizzle it over slices of Italian bread or on baked or mashed potatoes. A little can also be drizzled onto cooked vegetables, fish or other meats right before serving.
Virgin Olive Oil is less expensive yet still has a great flavor and aroma, making it a better choice for cooking. Use it straight or blend it with canola or clarified butter (ghee) for high-heat cooking methods such as pan-frying, or broiling.
Olive Oil or Pure Olive Oil refers to the fact that no other types of oils are blended with the olive oil. Unlike extra virgin and virgin grades, this oil is obtained through a refining process, which eliminates most of the flavor. It can be more cost effective to use this oil for cooking rather than more expensive virgin or extra virgin varieties. The refining process also increases the smoke point to about 410ºF making this olive oil more suitable for high heat cooking and frying. Just don’t expect this oil to have the flavor of the extra-virgin variety.
Extra Light Olive oil is not a calorie reduced food and the “light” only refers to the color of the oil. The light or mild varieties are very popular with consumers who want the Health Benefits Of Olive Oil without a strong olive taste.
As you can see there is an olive oil for everyone and no reason everyone can’t enjoy the wonderful flavor and health benefits of this popular oil. If you haven’t tried cooking with olive oil yet, be sure to pick up a bottle on your next trip to the grocery store. Your heart will thank you and your food will taste great!
| Joy Harrison is an experienced home cook, cooking instructor and the owner of http://italian-cooking-made-easy.com – She loves to find easy ways to prepare great home cooked meals in today’s busy world. Learn more about Cooking with Olive Oil.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joy_Harrison |
