Healthy as Olive Oil

"She's my goil, dat Olive Oil."

Well, Popeye may have known a good thing when he saw it and so do I. The words olive oil always bring us full blown into the topic of fat - saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. Everyone knows that saturated fats raise cholesterol and triglyceride levels so it is best to stay away from this kind of fat. It is wise to reduce your intake of saturated fat to less than 10 per cent. There are two kinds of unsaturated fats, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. Research shows that cholesterol levels can be reduced by eating foods high in polyunsaturated fats. However, these fats reduce the level of the good - HDL - cholesterol as well. Monounsaturated fat on the other hand reduces total cholesterol while leaving the good HDL cholesterol intact. So monounsaturated fat definitely has my vote and guess what oil has the highest concentration of monounsaturated fat? You guessed it! Olive oil!

There are two oils that are high in monounsaturated fat, canola and olive oil. Olive oil has 77% mono, 12% poly and 11% saturated fat. Canola has 58% mono, 35% poly and 7% saturated. Both have 0mg of cholesterol. I do not know of any other oils that have a monounsaturated fat content higher than 58%. The smoke point of high end extra virgin olive oil is at 375F degrees whereas for canola it is 400F degrees. A friend of mine whom I trust told me that one of the little known secrets about olive oil is that it goes rancid at about 140F degrees. So I keep both kinds of oil around the house. I may use olive oil in a stir fry but I try to use canola oil for frying or anything that requires heat above 140F.

So if you are as crazy about olive oil as Popeye then how do you integrate it into your diet? I like to use it for breakfast on toast but it doesn't spread too good with a knife. Also, I am not wild about drinking a tablespoon of it. However at one of the super markets I discovered an oil sprayer and that works like a charm. I am guessing that I am spraying at least a teaspoon of it on each slice of toast for breakfast. And does it ever work good for camping. Butter drips out of every opening possible in the heat but the sprayer doesn't leak at all!


For More Uses Of Olive Oil Click HERE!