True story: There is a man who believes that olive oil is good for his heart. Before he sleeps every night, he drinks a small cap of olive oil believing earnestly that it will help keep him from having heart attacks.
The real truth?
While olive oil is heart healthy, it only works when it is used to replace the saturated fat in your diet.
In simple words, you have to reduce the use of saturated fat (i.e. butter, full cream milk, fatty red meats) while increasing the use of olive oil (i.e. As a salad dressing, to drizzle on your pasta) in order to attain the full benefits of olive oil.
Low Smoking Point
Sadly, in many cases, olive oil cannot be used to directly replace butter as a heating agent. This is because olive oil has a low smoking point and cannot be heated to as high a temperature as butter or other forms of vegetable oils. The best use of olive oil is in its raw, unheated form - to drizzle on salads or pasta.
Olive oil may also be used for low temperature quick stir fries.
When Butter/Coconut Oil is Actually Better
If you ever need to deep fry some food, butter and coconut oil is the way to go. This is because albeit heart healthy, olive oil is filled with monounsaturated oliec acid (a type of fatty acid), which gets converted to trans fat when heated beyond a certain temperature. Trans fats - BAD!!
Therefore, if you wish to deep fry food, use a form of oil that is predominantly saturated fat - e.g. butter or coconut oil.
Conclusion
While olive oil is good, incorporating it in a diet requires quite a massive overhaul of your current dietary habits - especially if you are one who loves deep fried food and baking. It is really not the case of one-for-one replacement as so many wrongly believe. And of course, like the beginning illustration, it is not a medical supplement to be taken on top of your current diet.
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