Is Olive Oil Less Healthy When Used for Cooking?

Cooking doesn’t destroy much of olive oil’s healthy properties, according to registered dietitian Karen Collins in a recent guest post at CalorieLab.

I’ve been wondering about this since olive oil plays such a prominent role in the Advanced Mediterranean and Ketogenic Mediterranean Diets.  I use room-temperature olive oil on my salads and vegetables, but also use it  to sauté vegetables, eggs, and meat. 

Olive oil is the major fat in the traditional Mediterranean diet.  It has heart-healthy and perhaps anti-cancer action related to monounsaturated fat and phenolic compounds that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Steve Parker, M.D.

1 Comment

Filed under Health Benefits, Mediterranean Diet

One response to “Is Olive Oil Less Healthy When Used for Cooking?

  1. I use olive oil in cooking as well, the same way you do. I tend to use the greener one for cooking and salad dressing and the lighter-colored and lighter-tasting olive oil for making my healthy butter, which spreads like margarine straight out of the refrigerator. Recipe is on my blog. My family cannot do without it.

    Good to hear it’s okay to use it this way and to hear all the other good stuff about it. Thank you.