This week, it’s olive health benefits from Kat’s Kitchen.
Firstly, let’s put some olive myths to bed. Olives are technically a fruit due to their stone rather than a vegetable. Also, green and black olives are the same fruit but they are at different stages of ripeness. The green is the least ripe and the black is the ripest. Olives are often cured or pickled during their preparation by being immersed in oil, water or brine.
Olive oil is made from the crushing and then pressing of the olives and is available in a variety of grades. These grades reflect the degree to which it has been processed.
Whilst I’ve always loved olive oil, my taste for olives didn’t develop until later in life. Now I prefer the big fat juicy green olives – I find the black ones a bit bitter for me.
The Mediterranean diet is famed for its high levels of olive oil where they consume the very healthy olive oil which reduces problems associated with high-fat diets. These problems include diabetes, colon cancer, and atherosclerosis which is a precursor to heart disease. Here are a few health reasons to include olives in your diet to protect yourself from such diseases.
Olive Health Benefits
- Olives and their oil are excellent sources of oleic acid, which is an omega 9 monounsaturated fatty acid. Research has shown that when LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) is made up of monosaturated fats of olive oil it is less likely to become oxidised than other less healthy types of fat. This is important as it is only the oxidised cholesterol that adheres to vessel walls that can ultimately cause heart attacks.
- Olive oil helps maintain better blood sugar controls which is beneficial to controlling diabetes
- Olive oil promotes lower levels of triglycerides. Triglycerides are compounds of fat and sugar that increase the risk of heart disease if they are found in high amounts.