Optimal olive oil diet is not the newest weight-loss craze, promising that you'll shed pounds if you'll eat only olive oil for three days. Rather, it's a reflection of what modern nutrition science has learned about how some oils affect your health. Contrary to what was believed during the '80s, olive oil is actually beneficial for your health, even the circulatory health it was once thought to harm.
Fats and Health
According to Food Network host Alton Brown, modern nutrition science identifies a difference between saturated and unsaturated fats. Saturated fats are bad for you --- they stimulate your body to produce LDL cholesterol that can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease. Unsaturated fats, by contrast, stimulate production of HDL cholesterol. HDL actively cleans the harmful LDL from your system, thus improving your circulatory health.
Plant Oils
Harmful saturated fats come from animal fats. Plant oils, including olive oil, are rich in the beneficial unsaturated fats while containing no saturated fats of any kind. This is why Harvard nutritionist Walter Willett recommends eating a serving of olive oil or other plant oils with every meal.
Superfood
Dr. Steven Pratt, founder of the "Superfoods" movement, lists olive oil, especially extra virgin olive oil, among the foods that are as unusually good for you as a fast-food hamburger is bad. In addition to its benefits for circulatory health, Pratt also reports that olive oil can help reduce incidence of colorectal, breast, prostate, pancreatic and endometrial cancers.
Grades of Olive Oil
There are three grades of olive oil: extra virgin, virgin and regular, graded according to how the oil is extracted. Extra virgin is the purest and most free from contaminants, with regular containing the most contaminants. Although not even regular is in any way harmful, Pratt and Willett agree that extra virgin grade olive oil provides the most benefits by volume.
Eating Olive Oil
Although it's demonstrably good for you, you shouldn't go drinking olive oil by the tablespoon. Willett advises that you can get all the olive oil you need each day simply by using it in recipes that call for oil already. If you trade the butter on your skillet and the canola oil in your stir fry for olive oil, you'll get all you need for the optimal olive oil diet.
References
- "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy"; Dr. Walter Willett, et al; 2006
- "Superfoods Rx"; Steven Pratt & Kathy Matthews; 2005
- Superfoods Website: Olive Oil
- Grades of Olive Oil
- "There Will Be Oil"; Alton Brown; "Good Eats: Season 12, Episode 5"
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