Olive Oil

Is olive oil more healthful than other cooking
oils?

    Two recent studies from Spain and Italy explain how
olive oil may help to prevent heart attacks.   The Italian authors
showed that olive oil contains phenolic compounds that lower
fibrinogen that causes clots, that damage arteries to cause heart
attacks (Nutrition Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases,
Volume 12, Issue 6, 2002).  The Spanish report shows that olive
oil contains caffeic acid and oleuropein, potent antioxidants, at
very low concentrations (Medicina Clinica, Volume 120, Issue 4,
2003).
    These reports should not encourage you to go out and
add olive oil to everything that you eat.  All fruits and vegetables
are loaded with antioxidants that help prevent heart attacks.  You
should interpret these studies to encourage you to eat a wide
variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, seeds and
nuts, so that you will benefit from the many different antioxidants,
anti-clotting factors and cholesterol- lowering factors that are
found in all plants.   If you can afford the added calories, olive oil
is a healthful choice for salad dressings and cooking (but not for
deep-frying.)
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