Olive Oil Benefits Your Health

Good Tasting & Good For You!

According to many sources, Olive Oil is remarkably healthy for you and can offer protection from a variety of chronic degenerative diseases such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, asthma, colon cancer, and arthritis.

Heart Healthy

Olive Oil May Protect against Heart Disease

Relying only on olive oil may cut your risk of coronary heart disease almost in half, according to results shown in the CARDIO2000 case control study¹. Also found in olive oil is a high content of monounsaturated fats and a hefty concentration of antioxidants, including chlorophyll, carotenoids and the polyphenolic compounds tyrosol, hydrotyrosol and oleuropein, all of which not only have free radical scavenging abilities, but protect the vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol).

Avoiding Atherosclerosis

Olive Oil may reduce plaque formation

By protecting LDL against oxidation, olive oil short circuits the process through which atherosclerotic plaques form.

Reducing Blood Clots

Olive Oil may help avoid formation of Blood Clots

The anti-inflammatory effects of a diet rich in virgin olive oil also results in a vascular environment in which platelets are less likely to clump together and form blood clots. Not only do olive oil's antioxidant compounds lessen the inflammation initiated by free radical damage, but olive oil is rich in inhibitors of a compound called platelet activating factor (PAF).

Low Cholesterol

Olive Oil may lowers LDL and increases HDL

The Medical Science Monitor² reported that 2 tablespoons a day of olive oil added to a person's diet resulted in a significant drop in their Cholesterol levels, greatly improving their HDL:LDL ratio, giving them higher amounts of protective HDL in relation to lower amounts of dangerous LDL cholesterol.

Better Blood Sugar Control

Studies in diabetic patients have shown that healthy meals that contained olive oil not only had better effects on blood sugar over meals that were low in fat; but also adding olive oil to a diabetic diet helps to keep triglyceride levels low.

Supports Gastrointestinal Health

While most other fats are associated with an increased risk of colon cancer, olive oil is actually associated with a reduced risk of this disease.

Helps Prevent Belly Fat and Improve Insulin Sensitivity

What you eat may affect where fat deposits on your body. Belly fat is associated with insulin resistance, which leads to further weight gain and increases risk of type 2 diabetes.

A Fat That May Help You Lose Fat

Substituting olive oil, a monounsaturated fat, for saturated fat in your diet can translate into a small but significant loss of both body weight and fat mass without changing anything else about your diet or increasing your physical activity³.

Breast Cancer Protection

Oleic acid, the main monounsaturated fatty acid contained in olive oil, can cripple a cancer gene that is responsible for 25 to 30 percent of all breast cancers, according to an article by Northwestern University researchers published in the Jan. 10 issue of the Annals of Oncology⁴.

Olive Oil Phenols' May Help Prevent Bone Loss

The bone-sparing effects of olive polyphenols revealed in studies conducted by a special team at INRA (France's National Institute for Agricultural Research) are so dramatic that a new Belgian firm, BioActor, has licensed INRA's patents to use olive polyphenols for osteoporosis prevention in food, supplements and herbal medicines.

¹ Clinical Cardiology, Kontogianni MD, Panagiotakos DB, et al., March 26, 2007, web: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/clc.20043/abstract, web: who.int/bulletin/archives/80%285%29371.pdf

² Medical Science Monitor, 2004; 10(4): PI 49 - 54, web: medscimonit.com/index.php?/archives/article/11621

³ British Journal of Nutrition, (2008), 99, 29–36

⁴ Annals of Oncology, (March 2005) 16 (3): 359-371., web: annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/3/359.abstract