Olive Oil & the Mediterranean Diet

Tags: Olive Oil, Food, Mediterranean Diet, Health Benefits

For centuries the various health benefits of Olive Oil have been recognized by the people of the Mediterranean. It has been a staple of the Italian & Mediterranean diet for many years and is a true, essential ingredient of a variety of our dishes at Toscani's.

Studies conducted into the health benefits of olive oil have found it can potentially:

• Reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease through reducing blood cholesterol levels when choosing olive oil as your main source of dietary fat
• Can reduce excess body fat when combined with a healthy diet. Research suggests that it may be more difficult to put on weight from mono-unsaturated fats (olive oil is a mono-unsaturated fat)
• Can possibly reduce the risk of some cancers such as breast cancer
• Reduce the risk of diabetes & possibly delay onset of complications in established diabetes
  

Making Olive Oil:

We all know that olive oil comes from olives, and olives come from olive trees; but do you know how olive oil is actually made?

For over 2500 years people have been harvesting olive trees and pressing the fruit to make oil. The olives are picked at harvest time and are cleaned ridding them of any twigs, dirt, rocks etc. They are then taken to a mill where they are pressed and ground into a paste mixture. The paste is mixed until the oil can gently be extracted from the olive paste. The extracted oil is then processed further ready for bottling and storage.

The difference between regular olive oil and extra virgin olive oil is that to qualify as extra virgin, the oil must be cold pressed and must have no chemicals or water added during the distraction process; acidity levels of the oil must also be lower than one percent.