by Editor on May 26, 2010
I know that many of my readers love good cooking! Actually I would say that half of my readers are interested to the benefits of olive oils and the other half to olive oil products and in particular to olive oil to use in their diet! I wrote in a post about using olive oil in the kitchen and in particular about the good and bad ways to use it. However, a certainly good way to use it is to cook great dishes! I haven’t published any recipe on my blog about how to use olive oil to cook some very tasty dish and maybe one day I will share some of my recipes and certainly invite my readers to share their experiences!
In the meantime, one of my readers has suggested me a cooking school directory which I am sure some of my readers may find interesting therefore I decided to write this quick post about it!
by Editor on March 24, 2010
Do you feel your hair are getting dry and are suffering for the dry heating of our houses, or because the cold winter has forced you to wear hats or bonnets when going out, or just because your work is stressing you out? Then give them a treat based
Olive oil benefits to dry hair
on olive oil (of course!) and you will see the benefits coming!
As you should now know from my previous posts, one of the main benefits of olive oil is its nourishing property. Used on hair, olive oil can nourish, condition, and improve the strength and elasticity. Moreover, being olive oil a completely natural product, treating yourself with it will help reducing the stress caused by chemical products and therefore improve the health of your hair overall.
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by Editor on March 24, 2010
After more than a month from my last post I want to apologise to my readers…and say thanks to Luca and Mary who have emailed me asking if it was all ok! I have been a little busier than usual on a number of things, some of them about olive oil of course!
However, now I am back with a few news! Soon I am going to introduce some small changes to my website by organising better some of the old posts in three categories: olive oil benefits, reviews of types of commercial olive oils and suggestions on where to buy online the best olive oil products. This is in line with the several requests I have received lately from readers who found the content of this blog very trust worthy and instructive and wanted me to suggest them some places where they could buy olive oil or related products to experience at best its benefits.
To start with, I am going to increase the reviews of olive oils you can find online. To this end, if you are a producer of olive oil and want to talk about your olive oil on this blog, please get in touch with me here.
Second, I am going to have a look around the web about other types of olive oil products which I know can really bring some benefits and will include a section where you can find the best selection I can come with! Of course this will be subjective given that I am not doing this a my job but just because I love olive oil and love talking about the benefits of olive oil…and being Italian, I also love to share with people the things I like most.
In the meantime, I am going to post my next blog about another, often neglected, possible use of olive oil, for the health of your hair!
by Editor on December 16, 2009
Olive oil is one of the cornerstones of Italian cuisine and Olive Oil Benefits are central in the Mediterranean diet. Having talked extensively the health benefits of olive oil, by now everyone should know its strengths and weaknesses. However, how many people know that 10 g of oil are equivalent to 90 kcal or the equivalent to 150 g of whole yogurt?
Olive Oil production and types of olive oil
Let’s summarize the main characteristics of olive oil. It is obtained from olives by pressing either using modern techniques that crushers olives by centrifugation or using traditional granite millstones. The separation of oil from the pulp and water is obtained by hydraulic presses. If the process of crushing does not exceed 30 ° C, the best quality of olive oil is produced, that is the cold pressed olive oil. Such olive oil is left to mature in earthenware jars or containers made of steel. Different types of olive oil are produced by the same process. Depending on the content of free oleic acid may be extra virgin olive oil (<1%), extra fine virgin olive oil (<1.5%), and fine virgin olive oil until (<3%) and normal olive oil (> 3%).
The world’s largest producer is Spain with one million tons, followed by Italy with 450,000 and Greece with 360,000. I have discussed about the difference between Italian olive oil and Spanish olive oil and Greek olive oil in a previous post. Italy exports about 40% of production (to the United States, Germany, Japan). The country that consumes more oil is Greece (24 kg per capita per year), followed by Italy 12kg and Spain 10kg .
Of the Italian varieties the most well known are Taggiasca and Lavagnina (Liguria), Frantoio (Tuscany), Casaliva (Lake Garda), Carboncella e Canino (Lazio), Moraiolo (Umbria), Gentile (Abruzzi), Rotondella (Campania), Ogliarola, Cellina , and Coratina e Cima (Puglia or Apulia), Carolea (Calabria), Nocellara of Belize and Bosana (Sicily and Sardinia).
How and when Italians use olive oil to cook
Olive oil is nutritionally interesting because it is a source of safe lipids. If the olive oil quality is good or even excellent, it is a product that during the processing has not been modified and contains very few (or no) chemical residues. As such it should be considered the preferred source of lipids. However, as all the fats it brings many calories, so you should not abuse of it. Olive oil health benefits are excellent when used in salads, sauces and any cold dish but it’s use should be limited in hot food such as meat, fish or fried vegetables (the classic French fries). During the cooking process, foods tend to absorb olive oil greedily, with the result that even low-calorie foods like fish or meat becomes much more caloric. Clearly this does not work well with most diets.
Should you use olive oil to fry food?
An article appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2003) establishes once again that the use of low-smoke oils for frying (such as cold-pressed sunflower oil) increases the risk of hypertension.
Fried oils should never be reused
An interesting bit of the research (from the Spanish Soriguet and others, Malaga) is that the risk of hypertension increases as the oil (both olive oil and other oils) is reused. Indeed reusing oil (think to the French fries in fast food restaurants: many restaurateurs say they use olive oil, but how many could say that they do not reuse it indefinitely?) increases the amount of harmful substances derived from the thermal treatment of oil, substances that bind to food and are ingested. Although the quantity of unhealthy substances depends on the type of oil used it is also true that a degradation of oil is always present and the study shows that there is no healthy oil af far as frying oil is concerned. As a rule of thumb, the amount of harmful substances is inversely proportional to the oil smoking point: when you smoke coming out from the oil, you have exceeded the critical level! The results of this study were so evident that Soriguet concludes: “I made the fryer disappear from my house”.
Suggestion
We must remember ourselves that cooking at low temperatures is the healthiest way to cook and the health benefits of olive oil can be enjoyed if we use high quality and fresh olive oil, if we do not reuse fried oil and have it rough to dress and make our food tastier.
by Editor on October 18, 2009
Extra Virgin Olive Oil brings more benefits than any other vegetable oil because the way it is produced. In fact, traditionally produced extra virgin olive oil is produced by just pressing olives using special presses. There are different ways to produce olive oil and these are summarised in the article cold pressed olive oil
However, it is well know as well that with time the olive oil benefits will decrease. Moreover, its taste will change and, for those who haven’t tried novel olive oil, the difference is massive. Therefore the best olive oil is fresh olive oil! Try to taste it on a slice of bread (ideally freshly backed and Italian bread!) and you will have tried one of the most fantastic and simple foods ever…Have a look to the picture on the right hand side…can you imagine how it will taste? If you haven’t tried it you cannot fugure out, pure olive juice.
Fresh olive oil is the best olive oil to drink
In Italy there is a famous saying which says: “Old wine and fresh oil” which reinforces what I have just told you. The best olive oil is the one consumed within one year from production and it is better to consume it within 18 months. To best preserve olive oil, it should be kept away from direct sunlight, heath sources and in a bottle with no or very little air inside.
In this article I am going to ask to one of my Italian friends (olive oil producer of course!) about why you should consume new olive oil (or “Olio di Oliva Novello” as Italians would call it).
Here it is a photo of an Italian Frantoio (oil mill) and below the questions I am going to ask him about fresh olive oil!
Find out more about this olive oil producer on:
Flickr photos abot Italian olive oil
Website of Frantoio Sant’Anna
Italian Olive oil production: Frantoio Sant'Anna
Tell to our readers something about your olive oil mill (Frantoio)
Why people should drink fresh olive oil?
What is the difference between fresh olive oil and olive oil you can buy at the supermarket?
What’s special about your olive oil