The Effects of Olive Oil  

by Patricia Meira

Introduction

Presently there is much confusion among health professionals and the general public on the benefits of having olive or vegetable oil as part of a healthy disease free diet. Much of the confusion comes from olive oil being associated with a healthy Mediterranean diet and heavy marketing of olive oil as a healthy option. The aim of this article is to clear up any misconceptions on the use of vegetable and olive oils for health.

Vegetable Oils

Vegetable oils are part of a refined foods group because they contain no fibre and they are devoid of nutrients and are 100% fat. Putting two tablespoons of oil in your salad is equal to two scoops of ice cream. Vegetable oils contain a high level of fat, which stimulates your liver to produce more cholesterol than it needs and ends up clogging the arteries. Adding any oil to your food will raise cholesterol levels even more than eating cholesterol itself. Olive oil is one of the most concentrated forms of fat on the planet and it is ironic that health authorities are now advising an overweight nation to consume it as if it is safe and healthy to do so.

However, olive oil is healthier than butter and margarine but it still has no nutritional value. Joel Fuhrman, M.D. states that olive oil and other oils are so nutritionally bankrupt that he gives oils a score of 1 out of 100 just above refined sweets which scores a zero. Olive oil is 100% fat, contains high concentrations of saturated fat while the fibre, anti oxidants, vitamins and minerals of the olive have been stripped away.

In clinical studies on humans, olive oil has been shown to be as bad for the heart as eating roast beef (JAMA, 2004). Additionally omega 3s in vegetable oils are high unstable and tend to decompose and unleash free radicals that cause damage to the cells. Vegetable oils have also been implicated in several different studies with cancers and polyunsaturated fat turn out to be the strongest promoter of skin cancers of all foodstuffs eaten (Harris, et al. 2005).

Vegetable oils also suppress the immune system and actually promote the spread of cancers (Young, 1989., Coulombe, 1997). Olive oils and other vegetable oils are bankrupt foods that have very little nutritional value, a very high caloric cost and actually do harm to your body. However, some studies (Lyon Diet Heart Study) claim to show a slower progression of heart disease when people consume olive oil.

Other studies have shown it is not the olive oil at all, but the high fibre content in a traditional Mediterranean-type diet that accounts for lower rates of heart disease (EJCN, 2002). A diet is not heart-healthy unless it arrests and reverses heart disease and only a whole, plant based diet-which specifically excludes all oils - has been proven to do that.

The model for the Mediterranean diet harks back to the 1950s and before when people, especially in the island of Crete, were virtually free from heart disease despite their indulgence in olive oil. This was not because of the olive oil, but because they ate primarily vegetables and whole grains, a little fish and carried out lots of exercise.

Today, their consumption of olive oil has increased and their consumption of whole plant foods has plummeted, as has their exercise. As a result, heart disease and obesity has sky rocketed. Olive oil has nothing to do with preventing heart disease and clinical studies have shown that it promotes arterial lesions (JAMA, 1990). Unfortunately, the olive oil industry is determined to get high levels of fat into the diet through misleading advertising.

The leading health authorities in the US including Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Joel Fuhrmann, Dr. John McDougall and Dr. Dean Ornish all agree that vegetable oils should be excluded from a heart healthy diet.

Conclusion

Vegetable Oils have been shown to unleash dangerous free radicals and promote the spread of cancer cells, whereas the good fat in natural, whole foods is stable and does not display this behaviour. Fat should be released into the blood stream slowly and you can only get that slow release by eating natural plant foods in their natural packages that still contain the fibre.

The argument against oils: All dietary fats, be they animal or plant fats of all kinds - at levels above 20 percent of total calories cause heart disease. This has been demonstrated in numerous clinical trials (Blankenhorn, 1990., Null, 1998., Lawrence et al. 1998., Sdringola et al 2003., Kwiterovich et al. 2003) In order to prevent heart disease; you have to reduce the overall fat intake.

Oils should be put in vehicles and machinery, not the human body. The original use of Canola oil was to lubricate machinery. (Cars are now being converted to run on vegetable oil). Flaxseed oil is commonly used as a thinner in paints and varnishes and when consumed in high quantities can hamper the bloods ability to clot.

Lastly, a misconception that cholesterol can be worked off is false. The average person can only get rid of 100mg of cholesterol per day. A single egg contains 213 mg and that excess ends up clogging the arteries. The only way to get rid of excess cholesterol is to stop eating it. The bodys extremely fined tuned to rid cholesterol but it cannot function correctly when its overwhelmed.

by Patricia Meira

Source: http://www.MeiraFitness.com

Back to top