Olive Oil and Cholesterol

Cholesterol is substance that cannot soluble in the water. It attachés itself to proteins and the two formed lipoproteins. Three types of Lipoproteins are formed:

1. Low Density Lipoproteins also known as LDL Cholesterol (read: Bad Cholesterol because they can stick in the arteries walls and make it clogged)

2. High Density Lipoproteins also known as HDL Cholesterol (read: Good Cholesterol because they free the artery from clogged)

3. Very Low Density Lipoproteins also known as VLDL Cholesterol

The levels of these cholesterols produced by the liver are affected by the types and how much of fat that we take in our diet every day.

It takes approximately 6 to 12 hours after we ate fatty meals, that the liver extracting the fat from the blood and transform them into LDL, VLDL and HDL cholesterol.

There are three types of fat that we eat: saturated, poly-unsaturated and mono-unsaturated.

1. Saturated fats

Primarily come from animal meats. They are considered as the greatest damage to our health as they make the liver to increase the production of Bad Cholesterol that can lead to clogged artery

2. Poly-unsaturated

Primarily come from grains, nuts vegetables and seeds. They can lower the bad Cholesterol which is good; unfortunately they also lower the Good Cholesterol which is not good.

3. Monounsaturated fats

They are can be found in varying amounts in all fats. They can lower the bad Cholesterol which is good; on the other hand it also increases the good Cholesterol which is better.

Therefore, the best oil to lower our cholesterol level that we should include in our diet, should has structure with a lot of monounsaturated oil with little or no saturated and polyunsaturated at all. And we can only find that structure in olive oil.

In olive oil we will find:

· Saturated fat averaging about 10 to 15%

· Polyunsaturated fats averaging about 8 to 9%

· Monounsaturated fat averaging about 75% to 80%.

The good news is that in olive oil, both the saturated fat and the polyunsaturated fat are the lowest among other oil, while the monounsaturated is the highest among any other oil.

More to that, Extra Virgin Olive Oil contains approximately 40 antioxidant phytochemicals. These Antioxidants have the important part in reducing the capacity of Bad Cholesterol to oxidated (clogged arteries formation).

Therefore, it is advisable in our diet to lower our cholesterol level that we include olive oil for at least two tablespoons every day.