Are You Using Fake Olive Oil?
Olive oil is one of the healthier oils around, because it’s full of nutrients and antioxidants. Using high quality ‘extra virgin’ olive oil is pretty standard on a Paleo diet. But just how good is the olive oil in your kitchen?
Apparently some olive oils are not all they seem…
Olive oil comes in different categories: ‘Extra virgin’, ‘virgin’, ‘fine virgin’, (normal) ‘olive oil’ and ‘pomace’. ‘Extra virgin’ is the label put on an oil containing less than 1% acid.
Recent research from the Olive Institute (University of California in Davis) revealed that more than half of the olive oils presently on the market are bad quality. Often, despite what they label says, it is not always ‘extra virgin’ olive oil and is sometimes mixed with cheaper oils like hazelnut oils or even soybean oil! Sometimes the oil can be made from overripe and rotting olives. This olive oil does not have any nutritional or health benefits and can even be harmful…
Olives are fruits, making it a very unique oil. Olives are drupaceous (stone fruits), like prunes and cherries. The oil is made with a simple hydraulic press, much like the one we use for fruit juices. This in contrast to the “vegetable” oils, which are made in a refinery with the use of solvents, heat and high pressure – not very natural!
Olive oil is made gently which is why it keeps the ‘extra virgin’ quality, full of antioxidants in the forms of polyphenols and sterols, and vitamins E and K. Olive oil contains large quantities of CoQ10, an antioxidant which is very effective in protecting our heart and fighting chronic inflammations.
Choosing a Good Quality Olive Oil
It’s really important to make sure the olive oil you use is good quality – and really is what it says it is only the label. There are a few ways you can get more certainty about the olive oil you buy:
- Develop a taste for olive oil. There are course and tasting session run, which will help you get a feel for what it should taste like. This will help you identify if the oil you purchase is a good one.
- Buy only brands that are certified by trustworthy organisations.
- If possible, buy directly from the olive growers and producers.
- You might have heard about the refrigerator test: when you put olive oil in the fridge, it should solidify. If it doesn’t solidify, you could be dealing with a mixture of oils. BUT! This test is not 100% trustworthy, as some very high quality olive oils will not solidify.
If you’re not happy with some olive oil that you’ve purchased – return it – and try another brand.
How do you choose a good olive oil and what do you use it for? Do you have any brands, which you’d recommend? Please share your olive oil hints and tips in the comments below!
Share this:
25 Reasons You Should Get More Herbs In Your Diet
Instead of using herbs just to add flavour and colour to your cooking, do you ever add them for their medicinal benefits? Since ancient times herbs have been used as medicine in cultures all around the world. Many modern medicines use active ingredients which come directly from plants – so there’s clearly a lot to be gained from plant medicine.
Here are 25 herbs that you probably have in your kitchen – and what they are claimed to be beneficial for.
- Basil: full of minerals and a natural antioxidant
- Black pepper: anti bacterial, antioxidant and helps to stimulates digestion
- Cardamom: fresh breath
- Cayenne pepper: antibacterial, rich in beta carotene (pre cursor to vitamin A), reduces pain and helps stimulates metabolism
- Celery: stimulates the appetite, diuretic, detoxifing, helps with constipation, relieves rheumatism, helps with kidney stones and eases arthritis symptoms
- Chili pepper: rich in vitamin C, anti-inflammatory and natural antioxidant
- Cinnamon: regulates blood sugar levels, powerful antioxidant, regulates cholesterol metabolism and promotes good circulation
- Clove: powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and mildly anesthetic
- Coriander: rich in iron and magnesium, prevents gas, prevents urinary infections, regulates blood sugar level and a natural detoxifier of heavy metals
- Dill: anti bacterial, antioxidant and contains a lot of iron
- Fenugreek: relieves constipation and said to stimulate muscle growth
- Ginger: antiseptic, calms the stomach, anti-inflammatory and an effective natural remedy for motion sickness
- Ginkgo biloba: stimulates the circulation, anti-aging and improves memory
- Garlic: anti bacterial, anti-viral, lowers blood pressure and has natural antibiotic properties
- Mint: rich in vitamin C, calms the stomach and intestines and relieves headaches naturally
- Mustard seed: rich in selenium, omega-3, phosphorus, vitamin B3 and zinc, helps against cancer and is a natural anti-inflammatory
- Nutmeg: anti-inflammatory and helps to regulates sleep
- Oregano: anti bacterial, strong antioxidant and useful as preservative
- Paprika powder: anti-inflammatory and a natural antioxidant
- Parsley: detoxifies, helps with kidney stones and a natural antispasmodic
- Pepper: contains a lot of capsaicin (the ingredient that ensure the ‘heat’), clears stuffy noses, relieves pain and said to be beneficial for prostate cancer
- Rosemary: keeps the genes young, strengthens the immune system, improves the circulation and stimulates digestion
- Sage: improves the memory, anti-inflammatory and a strong natural antioxidant
- Thyme: antiseptic and a natural anti bacterial
- Turmeric: often called Curcuma, yellow root or curcumine. Very strong antioxidant, is said have a role in cancer prevention, help with skin infections, anti-inflammatory and relieves arthritis symptoms.
Which herbs do you use in your cooking? Have you ever used plants and herbs for health reasons? Was it successful? I’d love to hear your experiences and thoughts in the comments below! And please remember – seek medical advice before using herbs for medicinal purposes!
Share this:
How to Make South Indian Pepper Chicken
Share this:
How to Make Guacamole in 3 Easy Steps
Share this:
CLA & The Paleo Diet
Concluding my focus on common deficiencies, this week turns to CLA.
CLA stands for Conjugated Linoleic Acid and is the good trans-fat that occurs naturally in dairy and meat products – especially when animals have been grass-fed, another plus for the Paleo diet. In the stomach of animals such as the goat, sheep or cows millions and millions of tiny pieces of bacteria help the animal to digest its food. They also help to covert dietary linoleic fatty acids into saturated fatty acids. While this conversion takes time and several steps, one of those steps is to create CLA, some of this never actually gets fully saturated and will show up instead in the animals milk fat and body.
28 different CLA isomers – or structural arrangements of the molecules show in CLA rich animal fat. This is very complex and different from the trans-fats created by partially hydrogenating vegetable oils. It is those lab created trans-fats that have a negative metabolic and health effect, while the CLA isomers you get from grass fed dairy and meat is more beneficial.
CLA has been touted as the “belly busting” trans fat with research in 2007 showing that in rats, supplementing their diets with CLA did not cause them to lose whole body fat, but it was found they became more insulin sensitive. When it came to supplementing CLA in mice diets it did cause rapid weight loss, but the increase in hepatic fat accumulation left the mice insulin resistant.
Many people have taken CLA as a supplement and it did seem to work for weight loss, but while the weight loss was good, at the moment we are not really sure what else it does to the body. Research into this further on different animals may help us better understand if there are any additional effects on humans. Are we more like mice or rats?
The one thing that these studies did show was that hepatic fat accumulation or loss and body fat accumulation or loss is not always in the same direction. We are seeing hepatic fat loss but no weight loss and hepatic fat gain with rapid weight loss. Those who follow low carb diets insisting that this metabolic advantage allows them to eat thousands of calories and lose weight will love the little mouse’s result! While the study on the mouse is quite well known amongst those in the carb circle with the mouse eating as much as it wants without losing or gaining weight, this metabolism does come at a price – profound liver damage.
Tests were carried out to see what effect dietary supplements of CLA would have on the body mass index, and body fat distribution. 40 volunteers participated in a 12 week double blind study some received a CLA while other received olive oil. Body fat and abdominal and hepatic fat content was assessed with an overall finding that showed CLA supplements did not show any significant change in the volunteers BMI index or in their total body fat.
Have you considered supplementing with CLA? If you have, did it have good results for you? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments, below.
Share this:
