The Correct Way to Use Olive Oil

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.  

What to do when you have high LDL?

When people have high LDL cholesterol, the knee jerk response is to reduce their intake of cholesterol rich foods such as eggs and seafood.

Sadly, what they really should be doing is to reduce their intake of saturated fat.

Here are some quick tips:

1. Eat Less Saturated Fat (Butter, full cream diary, red meats)
2. Replace saturated fat with unsaturated fats (e.g. olive oil, salmon, nuts)

My First Health Talk

 

I had the honour of speaking at Rapid7 on 28 Oct 2014 on the topic healthy and easy weight loss. 

 

If you would like to book a health talk, please kindly drop me an email at denise_thong@yahoo.com. 

Small, Sustainable & Specific

Have some extra weight to lose? Make small and sustainable changes to your exercise regime.

Examples include:

• 10 minutes walk after dinner
• Take two flights of stairs 
• Walk out for dinner instead of drive

Be specific:

• 10 minutes walk after dinner - 3 times a week
• Take two flights of stairs - 4 times a week
• Walk out for dinner instead of drive - 2 times a week 

To track your progress, use a calendar. Do not be ambitious. Start with one item on your action plan per week. 

*This advice is suitable for the general population and people with extra weight to lose. If you are obese, stairs climbing may result in too much impact on your joints, opt for daily walks until sufficient weight is lost. 

GO BROWN!

Try replacing white rice with BROWN RICE and white bread with WHOLEMEAL BREAD. This does wonders for your blood sugar and keeps you full longer.

*This tip is suitable for the general population, diabetics, pre-diabetes and people with some extra weight to lose. 

Welcome to EZ Nutrition

A warm welcome to all of you. This is a blog dedicated to the sharing of easy nutritional and exercise advice.

Eating well and living an active lifestyle  do not have to be difficult. In this blog, I will share some simple tips to help you and your loved ones achieve your nutritional goals.  Topics will include 'Healthy Weight Loss' and 'Eating to Prevent Chronic Diseases".

First of all, here's a quick introduction of myself:

• Nutritional training - BASc in Food Science and Technology at NUS; Current post-grad student at Deakin University's Masters of Human Nutrition program

Stay tuned for more EZ Nutrition advice.