A Peek into the OLIVE OIL Book
2nd Edition
Foreword
IN
THE LAND OF OLIVE OIL
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| Available at online and physical bookstores everywhere |
She
looked like she was about 68 to 72-ish (and I know how this game works), so I
guessed low. “Oh gosh, no more than 65,” I responded.
She
straightened up just a little bit taller and said, “I’m 88 years old.”
This
woman was stunning. Her skin was perfect and she just radiated health. I said,
“Okay, WHAT? What are you doing?”
She
told me that she was a first-generation Italian, her family consumed olive oil
every day, and her mother even put it right on her skin. Every day!
THE
HEALTHIEST DIET ON EARTH
We
look at cases like this, as does author Cal Orey, and wonder how in the
world they knew to do that? But the
knowledge to know that the rich delicious oil of the olive will keep them
younger and more vibrant for more of their days doesn’t come from some
laboratory. They don’t do it because some science study told them to.
The
knowledge they rely upon, like the rich multi-layered complexity of olive oil
itself, comes from the ancient cultural traditions of these thin, healthy
people. There is a depth to that cultural understanding, which also forms the
centerpiece to what many deem the healthiest diet on earth: the olive oil-based
Mediterranean diet.
Could
you imagine someone from Spain or Greece exclaiming how they suddenly weren’t
going to eat olive oil because some study came out about low fat foods? That
would be ridiculous. Or perhaps they’d turn to a low fat dressing because they
read that the ratio of hydrogens saturating its fatty acid chain didn’t fit
some theory about what should or shouldn’t constitute a healthy oil? Absurd.
The
thin healthy people consumed olive oil when we recommended against it, and
continue this delicious habit after we’ve embraced it. Their dietary
prescriptions haven’t changed precisely because the decision to eat olive oil
is an expression of who they are as a people.
There
is a steady depth to this form of cultural knowledge, embedded in the steady
passage of time across ages. It’s an expression of who they are, who their
parents are, extending across time like an outstretched hand to us today,
directly from their history, culture, and tradition.
Because
of this solid foundation, you can count on it to work for your good health,
just as well as it has worked for theirs.
After
all, it has done so since before history was written down, and won’t change in
the next five years either. The impact on your health will be the same as has
been felt for millennia. And when you look at the results over this expanse of
time, you see that olive oil consumption is clearly associated with low weight,
healthy hearts and longer lives.
The
people of Crete, for example, as I know and Orey pointed out in the first
edition of The Healing Powers of Olive
Oil, have some of the highest longevity rates on Earth, some of the
lowest cardiac mortality rates, cancer rates, and all with the highest per
capita consumption of olive oil. Ask them about their amazing heart healthy
diet and they’ll shrug because they’re not on a diet. They’re just living their
lives as they always have.
It’s
funny, too, that the remarkable health benefits of olive oil have been known to
people in the Mediterranean region for millennia, but the rest of the world is
just now catching up with them. With each month, it seems, new scientific
research continually re-confirms the many ways in which it benefits our bodies.
OLIVE
OIL, THE VERSATILE FAT
Orey,
once again, in The Healing Powers of
Olive Oil, Revised and Updated, with
the greatest of ease discusses in detail, the fats in olive oil that we
feared for so long turn out to be the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated
variety, which today’s science confirms can help reduce your risk of heart
disease.
The
antioxidants found within the deep green oil also work inside your body to
fight the harmful free radicals. On your salad, in your sauté, or simply
drizzled over your fish, this helps to prevent cellular damage and, ultimately,
the development of cancer itself.
Not
only are these amazing fats good for you on their own, but they can also help
your body absorb the other healthful nutrients in your food, such as the fat
soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. In other words, if you include olive oil on
any of your foods, you get one health enhancement from the olive oil, and then
a turbo boost from the added nutrients you absorb from your salad.
And
the cultural habit of applying olive oil both inside and out, for softer,
smoother, less desiccated skin has been known and practiced for thousands of
years. Now our western science confirms that the dermal application of olive
oil leaves your skin less dry, less wrinkled, and less susceptible to DNA
damage caused by exposure to UV light.
THE
SUPERFOOD THAT’S GOOD AS GOLD
So
whether you are a person who needs science to quantify and verify what you see
in order to believe it, or someone who trusts what healthy cultures are doing
and can apply those habits to their own lives, the jury is pretty much in on
olive oil. It’s great for you!
And
the good news is that Cal Orey’s “The
Healing Powers of Olive Oil: A Complete Guide to Nature's Liquid Gold, Revised
and Updated” clearly lays out more research and more reasons why
olive oil (also paired with other healing oils) is healthy, how you
can use it, which kind is the best, where you can find it, and many delicious
ways you can incorporate it into your daily life, for added flavor, better
health, and even beauty! Orey gives credit to olive oil--and people will
benefit from her words of wisdom.
--Dr. Will Clower, CEO Mediterranean Wellness and award
winning author of The Fat Fallacy, and
Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight
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