I watched a Documentary "Trust me I am a Doctor"
They did an experiment with people having Olive Oil on a regular basis.
Olive Oil is one of the mainstays of the mediterranean diet.
People in Greece, Spain, Italy etc eat food covered by Olive Oil.
The Experiment showed that people over only 3 WEEKS. had better Heart health, than people who didn't have Olive Oil.
Since watching the Documentary, I now have 1 bottle of Olive oil for cooking & one bottle of Olive oil for Drinking.
I take a Swig/ Gulp of Olive Oil each day now.
see the results:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/arti...ly-good-for-me
The experiment
Drs Bill Mullen and Emilie Combet Aspray recruited 70 volunteers, who all donated a sample of urine.
They were then split into two groups – one group were given a supply of extra virgin olive oil, and one group ‘normal’ olive oil. Neither they, nor the research team, knew which oil they were being given. Each person had to take 20ml of olive oil a day (about 2 dessert spoons full) raw.
It is very important that the oil was taken uncooked. Cooking with oils changes their composition dramatically. Firstly, the polyphenols and other plant chemicals break down when they are heated, along with some of the ‘free fatty acids’. This point is called the ‘smoke point’ of an oil (and for extra virgin olive oil it is low, because of all the polyphenols and other plant chemicals). However, heating also breaks down the fatty acids that make up the oil itself, forming harmful chemicals. See Which oils are best to cook with? for full details.
After both 3 and 6 weeks of taking the oil, all the volunteers gave more urine samples. Each urine sample was analysed for its protein ‘fingerprint’, getting a ‘score’ for the degree of heart disease that it indicated.
That allowed the team to get an average ‘heart disease score’ for each group (those taking the extra virgin olive oil and those taking the normal olive oil) at baseline, 3 weeks and 6 weeks.
The results
The average measure of coronary artery disease for both groups fell significantly at both 3 weeks, and again at 6 weeks after taking the olive oil.
The fall in heart disease markers seen in volunteers taking extra virgin olive oil (red) and ‘normal’ olive oil (green) over 6 weeks. (The CAD score is a score of coronary artery disease where -1 is completely healthy and 1 is symptomatic disease)
Conclusions
In this experiment, it seems that taking 20ml of raw olive oil – either extra virgin or ‘normal’ – can have a positive effect on our hearts.
Because both extra virgin and ‘normal’ olive oil appeared to have exactly the effect, it seems that it is not the extra plant chemicals in extra virgin that are having the beneficial effect – instead it seems to be something about the oil itself – either the balance of monounsaturates, polyunsaturates and saturates, or perhaps its omega 3 and omega 6 oil content.
Because oil is very calorific, it’s best if this can be used as a replacement for another fat that you would normally have – for example dipping bread in olive oil rather than having butter on it.
Other suggestions for how to incorporate it into your meals is adding it to cooked pasta, using it on salad, or even mixing it into porridge!