THE OLIVE OIL DEBATE

Olive Oil

Scientists have said that the monounsaturates in the olive oil, can help you to lower blood cholesterol in the same way that polyunsaturates do.

In Spain, Italy and Greece where a lot of olive oil is used and little saturated fat is eaten, the rate of heart disease is very low.  Even though – as in Britain – around  40% of calories in the diet come from fat and cconsequently many people are over weight.

Olive oil producers might argue that this is due to the monounsaturates, like polyunsaturates do help lower levels of harmful blood cholesterol – but only as part of a low saturated diet.

However, the low rate of heart disease where traditional Mediterranean diets are eaten could equally be due to the combination of all healthy attributes of a diet that is rich in fruit and vegetables – high in complex carbohydrate food in which fish replaces meat two or three times per week and only small amounts of meat and diary fats are eaten.

The most important way of reducing blood cholesterol levels are thereby the risk of heart attack is still to eat less fat, and not to consume vast quantities of olive oil or sunflower oil.

Tags: Fat, olive oil, saturated, sunflower oil

Category: Nutrition, Nutrition (weightloss)