Is Olive Oil Good For Your Heart?

Gone are the days when people did not have to worry about their heart health at a younger age. It was believed that the average age for men to be hit with heart diseases was 66 and for women it was somewhere in their 70s.

Today, no matter what age, you have every risk of getting attacked with a heart disease. In the United States, studies have proven that the leading cause for deaths in men and women is heart disease.

Also Read: 10 Things You Should Never Do After A Heart Attack

Thereby, most of the doctors advise every adult to do a heart screening every year, including a check of blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood sugar levels, height and weight.

So, what is the reason behind the frequently occurring heart diseases these days? Yes, the major reason is the food that we consume.

Our eating habits have completely changed these days, which is the vital reason for many people suffering from heart diseases.

If your heart is not healthy, you might suffer from coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol or a stroke.

Also Read: How To Prevent Heart Attack: Tips

A Perfect Way To Keep Your Heart Healthy
One easy way to have a healthy heart is to use olive oil for your cooking purposes. We all know that olive oil is good for heart health, skin and hair.

As compared to other oils, olive oil has monounsaturated fats, thereby it is a great oil to be consumed on a daily basis. It is a heart-friendly oil.

However, there is a myth that olive oil is not suitable for everyday cooking. It is very essential to know how healthy olive oil is for cooking, what are the health benefits, etc, only then will we be able to break the myth.

Many people have a misconception that olive oil is only good for salad dressings, steamed food or for soups and breads. They think that olive oil is not ideal for deep frying or foods that require excessive cooking.

It is misunderstood that due to the lower smoke point of olive oil, it makes it lose the beneficial properties and form harmful compounds that are hazardous to the health, thereby leading to the myth that it is unsuitable for deep cooking. However, this is not true.

Composition Of Olive Oil
Olive oil is mostly composed of monounsaturated fatty acids that are resistant to heating. The polyunsaturated fats constitute to about 11% in olive oil.

Also, the powerful antioxidants and vitamin E in olive oil protect the oil from getting damaged due to high heat from cooking.

Always use a good quality extra virgin olive oil, which has healthy fats and can retain all its beneficial properties while cooking.

How Olive Oil Benefits You
Blood pressure and blood cholesterol are the major reasons behind heart diseases. Hence, cooking with olive oil is found to lower the risk of both cholesterol and blood pressure, thereby reducing the risk of heart diseases and heart attacks.

People who regularly consume olive oil are much less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke and hyperlipidaemia (high blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels).

Olive oil can keep you feeling full for a longer period of time, hence keeping those hunger pangs at bay. This reduces the risk of obesity, which in turn is good for heart health.

Therefore, researchers have proved that people who regularly eat foods fried in olive oil do not have a higher risk of heart disease and that it is good for your heart.