OLIVE OIL
In ancient times the olive oil was appreciated not only for his gastronomical characteristics but also for his healthy and nutritional properties that, in recent times in the medical science have found confirmations and certainties more and more concrete.
The biomedical research together with the epidemical studies made in the last 50 years all over the world, have highlighted that the intuitions of our forefathers were well-grounded and truthful, that means that the olive oil consumption is good for the health and helps in a diet of some illnesses.
As shortly described was highlighted in the years 50ies from the professor Ancel Keys, an American researcher that in the Piceno territory and precisely in the municipal district of Montegiorgio put the basis of the Mediterranean diet.
In fact as first he has associated the diet of the Mediterranean populations with a lower incidence of cardiovascular illnesses with difference of his American compatriots where those disfunctions were well known and evident.
The higher consumption of bread, pasta, vegetables, pulses, fruit and a lower quantity of meat and dairy products, a good glass of wine during the meal and as dressing the olive oil that as well as to be the main source of greases is the product which contains a high quantity of oleic acid, much less detrimental to the heart in comparison with those of animal origin.
The hypothesis of the professor Keys have afterwards found validity in other studies made in other countries which have confirmed that the olive oil and the Mediterranean diet have an important role in the prevention of the cardio-vascular illnesses. The high content of oleic acid helps to keep low the cholesterol reducing the levels of the bad on (LDL).
This last one is one of the causes of the atherosclerosis develop; at the same time the oleic acid keeps the level of the good cholesterol (HDL) stable that has the task to take away the detrimental particles in order to prevent the formation of the atherosclerotic plaques.
THE BENEFITS: VITAMIN E
The presence in particular in the extra virgin olive oil of components as polyphenols, vitamin E and anti oxidant properties, can contribute to block the activity of the free radicals, compounded, implicated in the onset of cardiovascular illnesses. tumor and responsible in the degenerative processes bounded to the cellular ageing.
As last one to be indicated (of lower importance) is the squalen which has an inhibitory action towards the cholesterol in synergy with the oleic acid.
THE BENEFITS: THE ACIDS
As well as an important protective action of the skin from the solar radiations (having a filter function). Olive oil also presents an optimal requirements for essential fatty acids such as linoleic acid , respectively, with 2 or 3 unsaturations , not synthesized by the human body it is essential to their dietary intake , especially in childhood for better development of brain activity.
Recent studies have highlighted that the linoleic acid present in the olive oil is also present in the mother’s milk (the extra virgin olive oil is the first food after the weaning of the newborn).
The extra virgin olive oil contains the following vitamins: A, E, D and K.
The extra virgin olive oil is the most digestible oil and the oil which has a lower deterioration during the cooking.
The extra virgin olive oil as all the vegetables and animal greases produces for each gramm 9 Kcal.
