.png)
The following is a list of health benefits from REAL Olive Oil (not the stuff you get at your local box store)...
Facts: Residents of Crete have the lowest rates of heart problems, cancer, and obesity in Europe because they use large amounts of virgin olive oil.
Olive oil is a monounsaturated fat.
It improves cholesterol levels.
It reduces coronary heart disease.
It lowers the bad LDL cholesterol.
It reduces the need for blood pressure medication.
Olive oil creates the sensation of fullness and improves digestion.
Olive oil inhibits gastric acid secretion
Olive oil helps decrease gallstones.
Olive oil delivers distinctive advantages over corn and sunflower oils.
Olive oil reduces insulin requirements in diabetics and improves their lipidic profile.
Higher consumption rates of olive oil deliver lower levels of colon cancer.
Increased consumption of olive oil reduces rates of arterial hypertension, obesity, and diabetes.
Olive oil protects against breast cancer, while polyunsaturated fats in vegetable oil seem to enhance the risk.
For every 10 grams of monounsaturates (olive oil), a woman consumes daily, the risk of breast cancer falls 55%. However, that risk increases by almost 70% for every five grams of polyunsaturates consumed per day.
As science continues to plumb the depths of the secrets of God’s olive oil, the benefits continue to mount and dazzle in surprising ways. The following paragraphs are from an article in the May 2007 issue of USA Weekend, written by Jean Carper:
"It’s well known that trans fats ’ commonly found in commercially fried and baked food ’ can increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes. But there’s another unexpected danger to younger women, finds a new Harvard study.
Eating too many trans fats could dramatically increase a woman’s odds of being infertile. Researchers determined that getting only 2% more calories from trans fats than monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil, more than doubled the risk of infertility. And getting 2% more calories from trans fats than from carbohydrates increased a woman’s risk by 73%. New research suggests that by incorporating healthful virgin olive oil into your daily diet, you may protect yourself against cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. While many olive oils crowd supermarket shelves, studies suggest that unrefined virgin olive oil may confer the most significant health-promoting benefits due to its high content of beneficial polyphenols.
Abundant evidence supports the role of virgin olive oil in protecting against cardiovascular disease. While it has long been known that olive oil helps decrease total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels, new research is shedding light on its additional cardiovascular benefits.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, “Eating about 2 tablespoons of olive oil daily may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. To achieve this possible benefit, olive oil is to replace a similar amount of saturated fat and increase the total number of calories you eat in a day.”
Recently, oncology researchers were excited to discover that oleic acid, the primary monounsaturated fatty acid in olive oil, may fight cancer by interacting with the human genome. Oleic acid suppresses the over-expression of a well-characterized oncogene that plays a vital role in the etiology, invasive progression, and metastasis of several human cancers. This remarkable finding could lead to novel olive oil-based cancer therapeutics. Increased olive oil consumption has been linked with a decreased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation and pain, particularly in the joints. A clinical trial revealed that rheumatoid arthritis patients who were supplemented with olive oil and fish oil experienced more significant improvements in clinical measurements of the disease than patients who were supplemented with fish oil alone.
These exciting observations suggest that olive oil alone could help prevent rheumatoid arthritis and restore mobility and function in those already affected by the disease. Scientists have discovered that olive oil contains an anti-inflammatory substance called oleocanthal. During preliminary studies, they noted that oleocanthal displayed a similar anti-inflammatory potency and profile to ibuprofen (AdvilTM), frequently used to relieve aches and pains. These promising findings suggest that consuming olive oil might lessen the need for common pain relievers.
Preliminary research showed that virgin olive oil contains compounds that exert “strong bactericidal activity against eight strains of Helicobacter pylori, three of which are resistant to some antibiotics. These results open the possibility of considering olive oil a chemopreventive agent for peptic ulcer or gastric cancer,” reported the researchers."