As anyone who has been alive for the last 15 minutes probably knows, Extra Virgin Olive Oil gets rave reviews from scientists and dieticians for how healthy it is for our bodies. But have you ever wondered why? What do our bodies use fat for anyway? What makes one kind of fat different from another?
Those are excellent questions. We’re going to answer them right now!
How Our Bodies Use Fat
Fat is a necessary component to some surprising aspects of our body’s health. Here are a few things that fats do in the body:
- Transport and help digest fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) to where they are needed.
- Ensure proper function of nerve. Ever heard of your myelin or medullary sheath? It’s the fatty layer that surrounds and protects your nerve cells and helps them send electrical signals.
- Make your brain…well, your brain. That grey matter between your ears is 60% fat and takes up 20% of your body’s metabolic energy. Fat is brain substance and brain food.
- Maintain quality cell walls that screen what is allowed in and out of our cells.
- Provide energy. You need that!
- Build hormones. You need those too!
- Provide satiation. Quite simply, when you eat a meal with fat in it, you feel full and satisfied longer.
See? Where would you be without fats in your diet?
What Makes One Kind of Fat Different From Another?
Essentially, the difference comes from how well your body breaks the fat down. From your mouth all the way to…er, the…other end of your GI tract, digestive enzymes are breaking down your food and extracting what your body needs from it, leaving the rest as waste. When your body digests fats, some fats are able to be penetrated and broken down into useful components by digestive enzymes (unsaturated fats) and some are not (saturated fats).
You need some of each, but you mostly need unsaturated fats that your body can reduce to smaller, elemental particles and use.
What Does All that Have to do with Olive Oil?
Keep in mind we’re talking about the good stuff here – Extra Virgin Olive Oil. EVOO is made up of a small amount of saturated fat, and primarily monounsaturated fat, just what your body needs! It has a good amount of Omega-6 fatty acids, a small amount of Omega-3, and a nice dose of both vitamins E and K.
All that is great and healthy for you, but EVOO’s shining gold star of achievement is the huge healthy dollop of antioxidants it carries. Antioxidants protect body tissues from the oxidation process that ages us, as well as reducing inflammation. Inflammation is suspect in a lot of nasty diseases like heart disease, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, diabetes, and others, so you can see why eating anti-inflammatory foods is a good thing.
Plus, need we mention that Olive Oil is delicious? That exotic fruity taste is incomparable. It single-handedly provides many healthy elements that your body requires while tasting phenomenal.
Here at Old Town Olive we celebrate both the taste and health benefits of Olive Oil every day. Here’s to your taste buds. And here’s to your health!