Saturday, January 03, 2015


2. Simple or MONO Unsaturated Fats

Olives the Liquid Gold from the Mediterranean

A Greek uses 20 l of olive oil a year, a German maybe half a liter…

Since thousands of years, olive oil is the main fat and oil source in the Mediterranean. Olive trees are seen as symbols of long life and health. To kill an olive tree is like stealing a horse in the States.
Olive oil is considered the healthiest fat source in the world. First cold pressed olive oil is the best and has found its way to many gastronomical restaurants instead of butter.
In the Mediterranean there are 5 times less heart attacks then in Northern Europe.

Mediterranean Eating Habits
Only a fifth of heart and artery diseases and half as much cancer which only a study in the years 70ies pointed out; this study went on for 25 years with 13000 men. Responsible for these figures are a high intake of vegetables and fruits which lower the risk for cancer and the intake of lots of unsaturated fats form olive oil and less intake of saturated fats from meat and sausages. Even-though in certain Mediterranean regions the intake of fat is 10% more then in North Europe still the heart attack rates are still lower.

Olive Oil and a Healthy Heart
Olives are healthy because:
-          Olive oil holds different kinds of anti-oxidants and vitamin E.
-          Olive oil has only simple unsaturated fats that in contrast to the multiple unsaturated fats are more stable and oxidize more difficultly
-          Olive oil can bring down the levels of cholesterol in the blood, specially the bad LDL cholesterol

Natural Olive Oil Holds Many Natural Substances
Olive oil is the only 100% natural oil that is mass produced and comes only and 100% from plants.
The olive can be pressed cold, the chemical products to get the oils out of the fruits are not necessary.
Other oily seeds need often more pressure (heat) and chemicals to get the oils out of the fruit.
The heat that is caused by the pressing of these seeds makes that some of the natural products disappear and that the unsaturated fats oxidize. Therefore is it necessary for these oils to be refined afterwards to get rid of the oxidized materials and the bad tastes. The best olive oil and the most natural oil in the world is Native Extra Virgin Olive Oil that is won by cold pressing only, it is won 100% without heat or chemicals.
In unrefined olive oil there is an extra wealth of natural substances about 50, of which some PHENOLS and Vitamin E, which are both very strong anti oxidants and that protect the oil naturally of oxidizing.

Like This the Anti Oxidants Protect the Blood Fats from Oxidizing

Oxygen is the catalyst of oxidation. Free radicals attack everywhere in our body where oxygen is available, like it the veins and there where oxygen is used for energy production (muscles). It is therefore that anti oxidants like vitamin C and E patrol there where the free radicals are in order to protect the body form damage. The anti-oxidants vitamin E and Phenol from olive oil are very active in the neutralizing of the free radicals in our bodies. This is the case not only for the veins and arteries but also the whole body; nervous system, brain, cell membranes, where the anti oxidants protect the unsaturated fats from oxidizing. There are more then 50 different anti oxidants in olive oil and they all contribute in the protection of the unsaturated fats in the body.

Special: How to Buy Olive Oil:
Olive oil has got, similarly as wine the typical taste of the region where it is coming from.
There are strong European rules on olive oil production and quality:
-          Native Olive Oil Extra (Extra Virgin Olive Oil): the best quality where only 1 gram free-fatty acids per liter is allowed. Like with wine the fruits are taken very well care of.
-          Native Olive Oil: can hold up to 2 grams of free-fatty acids, native means that the oil has not been mixed or further processed.
-          Olive oil: Are refined olive oils, its lesser in quality as lot of natural elements get lost in the refining process.
-          Olive oil from rests (Pomace): is won out the rests from the first pressings through the aid of chemicals and heat. This is the lowest quality and has nothing left from the good olive oil anymore it contains chemical rests and has virtually no natural elements anymore.

When buying olive oil look for Extra Virgin Olive Oil from a first cold pressing.
Olive oil can be won without adding heat during the pressing process, that’s why we are talking about cold pressing, it’s important to know this as other oils from pulses and grains need heat to get the oils out of them. Important is that heat will always deteriorate the quality of the oil no matter what the producers says. The color of olive oil depends only on the ripeness of the olives, which are green in the beginning and dark violet to black when they are ripe.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil is expensive due to the amount of labor that goes in the process of growing, keeping the trees, collecting and harvesting the olives, selecting and pressing the fruits, up to 80% of the labor is by hand. A mature tree will give only between 3,5 and 5 liters of oil. Olives need to be harvested by hand in sometimes difficult circumstances. Like with wine, the aroma and quality often comes from where the tree was standing, how much sun it got and how much the farmer cared about the trees and its fruits. All extra Virgin Olive Oils are similar in the amounts of anti oxidants they contain and the amounts of unsaturated fats they have.
To know where the oil comes from should be checked from bottle to bottle. Similar to wine production for olive oil are also DOC and ADC, this means that the oils come from a certain region only and this region is protected by law. The oil needs to come and be produced in the same area. They are more typical in taste as each region has its own characteristics and kinds of olives. These oils can be even more expensive as normal Extra Virgin Olive Oil as the production is a lot smaller then the other olive oils.

How to Keep the Arteries Healthy?
Only OXIDATED fats clog the arteries!
Olive oil is very stable and ideal for baking and pan frying. Mono unsaturated fats oxidize less in the bloodstream then poly unsaturated fats.
Olive oil stays good for years if placed in a cool, dry and dark place, and closed bottle with a good cork or cap. Olive oils stay stable even under high temperatures. It will hardly ever smoke or start stinking or becomes brown like the poly unsaturated fats or the saturated fats.
Mono unsaturated fats oxidize less easy under heat and light then poly unsaturated fats. Many poly unsaturated fats oxidize already by little heating or under the influence of light, like sunflower oil.
This makes mono unsaturated fats healthier for your arteries then poly unsaturated fats as only oxidized fats will clog up in the arteries and stick to the sides and eventually block them.
In our body through our normal metabolism a lot of free radicals are released in the bloodstream that causes the poly unsaturated fats to oxidize rapidly, whereas the mono unsaturated fats from olive oil don’t.

How Come these Fats in Our Arteries?
The blood fats are transported through 240000km of veins and arteries. For this it needs fat transport ships like LDL. An LDL holds about 3800 small fatty acids. Whilst in transport these fatty acids are oxidized in the bloodstream through the free radicals. To protect for this the LDL holds a lot of vitamin E. A lot of vitamin E in the LDL helps to protect for oxidation.
If some of the fatty acids of the LDL are oxidized and are dumped in the bloodstream the eating-cells come into action and eat them away (they are keeping the bloodstream clean) and this is the best scenario, however when there is not enough vitamin E there is too much oxidation and there will be too much oxidized fat particles in the blood, couple this to the fact that the eating-cells can get saturated and deposit themselves on the arteries.  
The result; the first fat deposits set themselves on the arteries. On these deposits more and more substances stay glued. This is the first step for arteriosclerosis.

Mono Unsaturated Fats are good for the Arteries
We can decide ourselves how the LDL and its 3800 fatty acids are composed, by what kinds of fat we eat; poly unsaturated fats are easily oxidized, mono unsaturated fats are not and olive oil holds on top of that many anti oxidants.

Tip; How does Vitamin E protect for Oxidizing in the Blood?
Poly unsaturated fats (sunflower oil, corn oil…) are healthy as they keep the blood liquid and less sticky; however they tend to oxidize easier. Oxidized poly unsaturated fats are then bad for the arteries. To avoid too much oxidation the intake of vitamin E can reduce the oxidizing process. A daily intake of 100 to 400 mg of vitamin E will reduce the possibility of a heart attack with 35%.
Mono unsaturated fats (olive oil…) also keep the blood flowing and less sticky, these fats also oxidize less easy. Saturated fats without having been oxidized stick by themselves on the arteries, they also make the blood cells sticky and the blood less flowing.

How Does Arterioscleroses Happen?
1. Fat deposits from saturated fats and oxidized fats
2. Only fat-particles (LDL) with the protection of vitamin E are protected from oxidation
3. Fat particles (LDL) without vitamin E oxidizes and deteriorates
4. Eating (cleaning) cells eat the oxidized fat
5. Eating cells get saturated and deposit themselves to the arteries

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