The health benefits of olive oil has been well documented. The US Food and Drug Administration says consuming 2 tablespoons of olive oil each day may reduce your risk of coronary heart disease. However, the time your olive oil sits on the shelf may reduce it’s health benefit potential. Researchers at the University of Foggia in Italy analyzed a variety of olive oils and found that after 6 months of shelf life, almost all of the oils had a 40% reduction in antioxidant activity level. That certainly doesn’t mean the bottle should go into the trash. The benefits of olive oil is attributed to its high content of monounsaturated fats, in addition to antioxidants.
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Tags: antioxidant, cooking, coronary heart disease, fat, health, heart disease, monounsaturated, olive oil, university of foggia
Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
March 19th, 2009 at 5:54 am
I wander how many calories in two tsp of olive oil?
March 19th, 2009 at 9:56 am
May I add that canned rather than bottled olive oil is preferred because the daylight affects it. Bottled oil should be stored away from light. I purchase small containers so that they are used up more rapidly and replaced instead of sitting around for longer periods of time.