Properties of olive oil
The olive oil is a food that may already include in your diet and use it to make chips, salad dressings or other culinary purposes. The olive oil comes, as its name suggests, the juice of the olives or olives extracted from the olive tree. Therefore, it is a vegetable oil and, contrary to what many people think, is one of the healthiest foods that exist.
Healthy fats
Normally all fats that come from products and vegetable oils are healthy fats, i.e., which are good for our body despite being fat and have a high caloric content. And it is necessary to differentiate between healthy unsaturated fats or those that are not, saturated, contained in bakery products such as red meat.
Most fats, up to 75%, of olive oil, are represented in the form of oleic acid, a substance that has numerous health benefits, among which the control of cholesterol.
Types of olive oil
The first thing you should know is that not all vegetable oils are the same, and even within the branch of olive oils, of much higher quality than for example of sunflower, there are different types of oil:
- The extra virgin olive oil is the highest quality and that if you can afford it should always take. Obviously it is also more expensive, but still obtaining quality procedures more stringent than others.
- Below this is the virgin olive oil, with less quality control than the extra but still with excellent properties.
- And below this there are several other types, but you must take at least try to take advantage of the best properties of olive oil, which is a virgin.
Properties of olive oil
The extra virgin olive oil has many beneficial properties for our health, among which are:
- It contains vitamin E, which help to which the bad cholesterol or also called LDL does not calcify in our circulatory system and can be removed by other processes.
- It contains a healthy dose of antioxidants that will help us look better and keep our skin young.
- As we discussed, it is rich in unsaturated fats, which besides being an excellent source of energy, help eliminate cholesterol.
- It is the oil that you use for frying, as in addition to their nutritional properties you’ll benefit from the texture that leaves in the food, thanks to which makes you not discard in the skillet or griddle.
- It helps to control blood sugar levels.