At times, when I go to high-end restaurants to reward myself for working hard, I noticed that the chefs at these restaurants tend to have a bias for olive oil, which happens to be extremely expensive as compared to other kinds of oil. This makes me wonder. What is it in olive oil that makes it expensive?
As we all know, olive oil has been around for thousands of years already and had become popular due to the Mediterranean Diet. It is curious to know that obesity among regions in Mediterranean are quite small, as compared to their American counterparts.
While olive oil is still oil, with fats and all, it is important to note that olive oil has been tried and tested to be good for the health, particularly for the heart. Olive oil is proven to contain high amounts of monounsaturated fatty acids and antioxidant substances. No other natural oil has as much monounsaturated fats as oilve oil.
Furthermore, studies have shown that olive oil helps control the amount of bad cholesterol in the body while increasing the amount of good cholesterol. It is also proven to be more effective in activating the secretion of bile and other pancreatic hormones than most prescription drugs, while it has also been shown to reduce the risk of colon cancer.
Clearly, olive oil has a lot of health benefits, quite contrary to other kinds of cooking oil in the market. There are claims that canola oil is far more superior than olive oil, but don't easily fall for this. Olive oil still is the king of monounsaturated fat in cooking oils. At least this one is tried and tested through time.
Just remember that, when buying olive oil, always go for the extra virgin type. Extra virgin olive oil is unprocessed and taken out of the first squeeze of the olive fruit. This means there are more antioxidants and healthy fats that are in this kind of oil.
