Live Holistically is a multi-author site.
This post was written by: Pat Kennelly
My next 5 posts will be about of one my favorite Mediterranean foods. The olive. It’s not surprising that the olive is featured prominently in my favorite cuisines. What’s not to love?
- An extra large olive has only 7 heart-healthy calories.
- Olives are cholesterol-free.
- The good fat (monounsaturated ) in olives helps lower the bad cholesterol.
- Olives on their own are an instant appetizer, find different varieties at the Olive Pit. Or try my marinated olive recipe.
- Olives are one of the world’s oldest foods, Horace 65 BC-8 BC (the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus) touts olives, smooth mallows and endive as providing sustenance to his diet.
- Pitted olives make fun finger food for toddlers.
- Giving cool olive bowls as hostess gifts means you care about your friend’s health. As does a nice bottle of red wine.
- Learning olive trivia now will make you a better host/hostess at your next dinner party. Wow! over 800 varieties of olives.
My soon to be famous tapenade recipe will be featured in my next post.
Tags: -heart healthy Mediterranean diet olives
2 comments ↓
I always knew the Mediterranean diet was one of the best for you, but I had no idea that olives played such a big part. This is great, I’m going to get some olives on my next shopping trip and feel really good about eating them.
I’ve always been told to get cold pressed olive oil, so I buy organic cold pressed. What exactly is cold pressed and why is it better for you?
The term “cold pressed” is an unregulated term but it usually refers to the first pressing of the olive paste to make olive oil, heat or hot water was applied to the second pressing to obtain even more olive oil so the first pressing was called cold. Now the EU calls any pressing of olive paste that doesn’t raise the temperature above 78 degrees F. cold pressed. Is it better? My opinion yes, it’s the purest, the first pressing. How much better, I’d have to defer to a food scientist for that one.
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