Part of living a healthy and active life-style is eating good
fats. Olive oil is high in monounsaturated fat and a good source of
antioxidants. Olive oil is central to Mediterranean diet that is one of the healthiest in the world. It appears that various
levels of total fat (where the fat was mostly olive oil) can be associated with
the excellent health as seen in the low mortality rates and low levels of
obesity and other diseases in the Mediterranean region.
Good Fats Extend Longevity
Evidence suggests that the traditional diets of southern Italy and
many other parts of the Mediterranean region in the 1960's had 30 percent or
less of total energy from fat. Data from Greece in the 1960's, however,
indicate that the lifestyles prevailing in those years (see below) an intake of
over 35 percent of total daily energy from fat was also compatible with good
health. Saturated fat was very low and most of the balance of fat in the
Mediterranean diet came from monounsaturated fat in olive oil.
In the early 1960's, heart disease rates in the Greek population
were found to be nearly 90 percent lower than those measured among U.S. cohorts
(Greece had 48 deaths per 100,000 population from ischemic heart disease in men
aged 50 to 54, while the United States had 466). At this same time, rates of
other chronic diseases were similarly low throughout Greece (breast cancer
rates, for example, were one-fourth as low as those of Japan), and Greek male
adult life expectancy was the highest in the world. Further, rates of most
diet-related chronic diseases were lower in Greece than in other Mediterranean
countries.
In the 1960's, researchers believed that olive oil with its high
level of monounsaturated fat was neutral with respect to efforts on serum
cholesterol and consequently they did not further explore its possible
health-promoting potential. Current research reveals that olive oil is very
protective.
The Role of Olive Oil in Health
When it comes to incorporating olive oil into your diet keep in
mind that
olive oil should always replace - and not be added to - other
sources of fat, especially butter and margarine. Butter is rarely featured in
the traditional diets of Crete, southern Italy and much of the rest of the
Mediterranean. Margarine was completely unknown in the area until recently.
Olive oil is high in linoleic acid, the main polyunsaturated fat
in many vegetable oils without negative consequences. Some research has
indicated that diets high in monounsaturated fat are less likely to lead to LDL
oxidation, and this may reduce atherosclerosis as well as obesity
Mediterranean people have been using olive oil as their major
dietary fat for thousands of years. Polyunsaturated fats have been set at
higher levels on a wide scale for only a short time and the diets of the
Western World have the sad health statistics to prove the damage that
polyunsaturated fats have done as a whole to society
Olive oil contains several substances other than monounsaturated
fatty acids, such as vitamin E and this also contributes to its status as a
healthy food and its qualification to be part of a healthy and active lifestyle
program.
For more information about The Pinewood Institute for the
Advancement of Natural Medicine courses including course outlines, detailed
descriptions of courses and information about upcoming training sessions,
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