Is olive oil healthy?

Mediterrenean diet, science claims to be good for you. It was not cause of the olive oil:

 

Fakts:

to produce 1litre of olive oil you need 22kg or 44 pounds of olives. That means 1 Tbsp equals 0,33 kg or 0,66 pounds of olives! :-O actually i´ve never thought about that. It´s much easier to eat one Tbsp of oil than the amount of olives their made of. With the olive pulp goes away a lot of nutrients and fiber what´s left ist the fat with some vitamins. When you heat olive oil these vitamins get destroyed easely by frying and dangerous trans-fats are formed.  All plant oils are stable to a certain temperature.Olive oil is stable the longest but not the "virgine extra" kind.

WHAT THE HECK ARE TRANS FATS?

Trans- fats are dangerous because there not common in nature. The cis conformation  of an unsaturated fat is the normal condition (see picture).


The lipids (fats) in your membrane concists of saturated and CIS unsaturated fats, there is no meant use for trans- fats.When their highly build into your membranes they change the permeability of them. So the cells don´t funktion the way they should.

Trans fats in general rises your risks of:

• coronary heart disease because trans fats rises the BAD LDL cholesterol
• alzheimer´s disease
• cancer 
• diabetes
• obesity
• liver disfunktion
•  and others

SO PLEASE KEEP AWAY OF THEM.
 

BUT WHERE CAN I FIND THESE FATS ANYWAY?

Trans fats are everywhere where:
 a) unsaturated fats (liquid at room temperature) are chemicaly hydrogened into unsaturated fats (trans fats are the byprodukts of this reaction). --> keep away hydrogened fats
b) when  plant oils are heated (espacially where plant oils are kept on high temperature for a log time) they´re formes. Trans fats decreases by the temperature and time of the heated PLANT oil. Best example deep fried stuff like fries. EVERY SINGLE DEEP FRIED PRODUKT as well as baked goods (they use plant oils a lot becaus it´s cheap) contains trans fats. --> keep away of deep fried (!) things and at least decrease industrialiezed baked goods

OK BUT SATURATED FATS ARE STABLE RIGHT? SO I CAN USE THEM INSTEAD! RIGHT?!

not exactly. Your right saturated fats are much more stable than unsaturated fats.

Saturated fats; solid at room temperature: coconut oil, all animal oils, palmoil,etc
Unsaturated fats;oils; liquid at room temperature: olive oil, grape seed oil, conola oil, etc

(now´s the big but...) BUT most saturated fats aren´t good for your health either espacially when their from animal.

OK, CAN´T I EVERY EAT ANY KIND OF OILS AGAIN?

It´s not optimum to cook with oil but there´s one phrase we have in germany "there´s one death you gotta die" it means you can´t possibly do everything right, So do the best you can.

So my attemp do do as healthy as possible with this matter are these steps:
1. throw away EVRY oil except olive oil and coconut oil. There the best mong all.
2. use as little oil as possible by spraying your pans with oil
3. use oil sparingly, try out new ways of cooking like frying in liquids (water, broth, wine,...), simply steam your vegetable or use your oven.
4. use whole fats like avocados, olives and most importantly: nuts and nut purees(without added, salt, sugar or oil) as a source of healthy fats, there whole and delicous ;). BUT most nuts contain a lot of omega 6 fats. Therefore you have to keep the balance by adding flaxseed or chia seeds to your diet. BUT DON`T HEAT THEM. (exception is an vegan egg where you use those as a component, but the healthy fats get "lost" that way). You should one to three serving omega 6 rich nuts (all nuts and seeds with the exception of flaxseeds and chia seeds) and one serving of omega 3 rich seeds (flax, chia) daily. One serving equals 1 tablespoon.


This last information is the most important of all, some plant based dietition lack these information or they don´t emphasize on it so much. But it is really important to have a daily omega 3 source, because it´s vital for our bodies.


I hope it was an informative post