Interesting facts about olive oil
After countless studies over decades, it seems that we all already understand the many health benefits of olive oil. Among the oils in the major marketing chains, olive oil is the only one on the shelves that was produced by cold pressing - that is, its production did not involve processes involving high heat.
Oil produced by processes involving heat or chemicals is called "refined" oil (and yes, this includes soybean oil, corn oil, and others). Why don't you want it in your kitchen? Simply because such oil has no health benefits, only unnecessary calories - and a lot of them.
But what prevents many from using only olive oil, is the price. Recently the expensive price of olive oil has soared even more, and as of today it is almost impossible to find a bottle of quality olive oil for less than NIS 50 in stores. This led to the importation of much lower quality olive oils, whose price was probably cheaper.
How will you know how to choose quality olive oil? The full guide:
calories
The amount of calories in all oils is similar to the same, and it is about 880 calories in 100 grams of oil. What it means? Half a cup of oil has almost 900 calories, one teaspoon of oil (a teaspoon!) has 50 calories, and it doesn't matter which oil it is. It can be carrot oil, sesame oil, avocado oil or olive oil. Oil is oil and in terms of calories there is no difference here.
So my first tip to you - there is no need to check the nutritional ingredients table on the package, it is unnecessary and similar in all types of oil.
polished or unpolished
Refined oil, as mentioned, was produced at high temperatures that destroyed the benefits it contained. It does not contain essential fatty acids or vitamins, and is completely unnecessary for the body.
The oil we want will be one that says "unrefined" or "cold pressed" in large letters. Only oils with these markings will be of high quality and contain high nutritional values that are beneficial to the body.
Each cold-pressed oil has a different nutritional value - cold-pressed walnut oil, for example, will contain the largest amount of omega-3, in cold-pressed avocado oil you will find a huge amount of vitamin E, and in cold-pressed olive oil there is the largest amount of omega-9 .
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Expensive, but still cheaper than all the healthy oils. Olive oil/oak extract
Benefits of olive oil
Why is olive oil considered one of the healthiest oils? It is an integral part of the Mediterranean diet, which is considered the most recommended diet, prolongs life and reduces the risk of heart disease.
Olive oil is rich in oleic acid (from the word olive, olive) also called omega-9, which is an essential fatty acid that reduces the risk of heart disease, reduces blood clots, repairs the walls of blood vessels, increases the levels of good cholesterol and reduces the levels of bad cholesterol, and has even been found to Strong anti-cancer activity in studies.
In addition to this, olive oil has polyphenols - antioxidants that help the body deal with harmful substances, that help the immune system against bacteria, including Helicobacter, in addition to anti-inflammatory activity in general.
Olive oil also has vitamin E, which is important for preventing wrinkles, reducing the risk of cancer, and inhibiting arteriosclerosis.
What to check on the olive oil packaging?
In light of the increase in olive oil prices, counterfeit olive oil products have entered the market, which contain olive oil that is not cold-pressed, or mixtures of olive oil with other low-quality oils. This is what you need to check on the packaging to be sure that it is high-quality olive oil:
1. Excellent grade:
This means that it was produced by cold pressing at the highest quality level.
2. Degree of acidity 0.8% or less:
the lower the degree of acidity, it means that the olive oil contains less free fatty acids, which means it will be more resistant to short frying (like an omelette) or other heating, and it will taste better.
3. The quality sticker:
to be sure that it is high-quality olive oil, you can look for a sticker (in the form of an oil drop) on the package of the quality mark of Israeli olive oil under the supervision of the olive branch. Other oils can be high quality, but also fake, and since we have no way of knowing that, you can check the packaging.
Price: still olive oil is better than the other healthy oils
It is not fair to compare high-quality cold-pressed olive oil to simple refined oils with no nutritional value that stand next to it in the marketing chains. There is no comparison at all between such an oil and refined canola oil, or refined soybean oil or any other refined oil.
You can check and compare prices between one quality oil and another - and in that case you can find out that olive oil is still not the most expensive among them. For example, cold-pressed sesame oil costs almost NIS 50 for a small 500 ml bottle, cold-pressed avocado oil costs NIS 80 for the same amount. So yes, in my opinion, olive oil is definitely worth the investment and you shouldn't look for cheaper alternatives.
More on the same topic:
Olive oil
Avocado oil
Sesame oil