There was a time when all things “fat” was considered the enemy. Entire diets were built on the notion that if a food had fat – nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, you name it – avoid it as much as possible! I’m not sure when that sentiment turned around, but finally – at long last – it has.

Now I don’t want to go through the rigmarole of what qualifies as a worthwhile fat; I think you know them all by name by now (at least you ought to). What I do want to highlight, though, is olive oil – particularly extra virgin olive oil. I do it because I really want to banish the thought, especially among women, that oils are bad for the body, the idea that things cooked in oil clog the arteries and put gobs of fat on a slimming waistline.

While there’s no doubt high calorie foods eaten in excess will do just that – and yes, vegetable oils are indeed high in calories – there’s no evidence to suggest that olive oil is a chubbiness inducer. In fact, it’s just the opposite. When the trans fats and saturated fats in snacks and steaks are replaced in the diet by the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in olive oil and almonds, weight loss results – even when exercise isn’t taken into consideration! So worry warts, take heart: olive oil contributing to weight gain is an entirely unnecessary concern.

But these ‘weighty’ concerns women tend to have is not the reason I mention “liquid gold,” as olive oil’s come to be referred to (and rightfully so). I mention it because just before the New Year, health-promoting properties of olive oil were found in breast cancer prevention – a finding that likely eluded some of the world’s most vigilant health hounds in the holiday hubbub.

Spanish researchers from one of Spain’s leading universities, the University of Grenada, reported in the journal BMC Cancer in late December that the active polyphenols in olive oil devastate some particularly virulent proteins known to wreak havoc on the breast. The proteins are called positive HER2 and negative HER2. The presence of positive HER2 almost always indicates a malignancy is present, but according to the scientists, olive oil’s polyphenol content degrades the quality of these cancerous proteins significantly.

The study was conducted by extracting the polyphenols from the olive oil and intermingling them with the HER2 genes through in vitro models.

Just as all fats aren’t built the same, neither are all olive oils. The most polyphenol-dense olive oil is extra virgin olive oil. It makes sense, too, because extra virgin olive oil is the least processed of them all, thus preserving the nutritional knack that olive oils – and virtually all other foods – lose through processing.

It’s recommended that two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil be consumed daily. This can be done in any variety of ways, of course, be it through cooking, drizzling on flavorful salad sensations or in healthy dipping recipes (for whole wheat treats like homemade flaxseed bread).

So when next debating the nutritional “nattiness” of consuming olive oil regularly – in moderation, of course – keep the following rhyme in mind mind: it adds a youthful glow to the average Jo (thanks to its richness in vitamin E), it helps refine the protruding waistline (especially when used as a substitute for saturated fat), it brings success to the above average breast (thanks to its richness in polyphenols)!

Sources:
Natural News
How Stuff Works
Science Daily
EurekAlert!