Find High-Quality Olive Oil

For centuries, olive oil has been used for medicinal purposes, skin care, and much more. It’s packed full of vitamin E, polyphenols, antioxidants, Omega-3, and many more anti-inflammatory compounds. These nutrients can help with immune conditions, high blood pressure, bad cholesterol, and gut health issues.

When you start incorporating Omega-3 in your diet, especially from sources such as avocado and olive oil, many of those symptoms that have been bothering you for a long time can go away. People often start to feel better, have less pain, and less inflammation. However, how much olive oil to take a day is very personal and dependent on what works best for you. Brandi includes it in all her homemade salad dressings, marinades, and for all kinds of cooking.

Cooking with Olive Oil

If you have high-quality, fresh olive oil, extra virgin especially, you can use it to cook at high temperatures. It doesn’t degrade or oxidize. It stays very stable, maintains nutrition, and is delicious.

Unfortunately, in the US, much of the olive oils on the grocery store shelves are not necessarily high-quality because there’s not a lot of regulation around olive oil in this country. It’s often spliced with things like canola oil and other seed oils. So, even though the label says “olive oil,” it can actually be a mix with lesser-grade, inflammatory, oils which can’t be used to cook on high heat because they’re not fresh and stable.

You also want to get the most current-season olive oil possible. A 24-month period from the date that it was harvested is about the time frame that you want to stay within. That’s when it’s most stable and all the nutrients are there. Unfortunately, when you go to a regular grocery store for olive oil, you don’t know how long it’s been sitting on the shelf.

In addition, oxygen and light are the enemies of olive oil. Plastic and clear containers let light in, and plastic allows air circulation to get through, which degrades it and makes it unstable, which means it will burn when cooked at high heat. Not to mention the toxins from plastic containers.

High-Quality Olive Oil

A great way to know if you have high-quality olive oil is when you heat it up to a higher temperature. If it starts to burn and smoke a lot, it’s not high quality. Brandi fries and bakes with hers. She does everything you possibly could do with any oil with her olive oil and it never burns or goes rancid.

The key is to read the labels for the source of origin. Even if the front says Italy, the small print on the back might list different places. That oil has been spliced together with different low-grade regional oils to make a cheaper product to sell on the shelves in the US. There’s not a lot of regulation around it, so it may say “extra virgin olive oil” even if it’s not. As long as there’s 1% olive oil in there, they can call it olive oil.

How to Store Olive Oil

You should store olive oil in a cool, dark place, like a pantry or cabinet, away from heat. If you’re storing it above your stove or oven, heat could collect in that area and start degrading it. You can definitely not leave it out on the counter for long periods of time, but if you have it in a clear dispenser bottle out for show, plan on using it quickly.

If you’re buying glass-bottled olive oil, make sure that it’s tinted and kept out of any source of light. It’s often green-tinted because green reflects the light away from the olive oil and helps protect it. In addition, glass helps preserve its wonderful nutrients, as opposed to plastic.

Where to Buy

There are always specialty importers that sell through specialty stores. For example, Brandi started importing olive oil from partners in Italy. She only sells current season to ensure it is as fresh as possible. There are other importers in the States, too, that have very high standards for sustainability and quality controls. You can always order from companies like Brandi’s online to get high-quality olive oil sent to your house, as well.

It’s always worth the extra effort to know that you’re getting great nutritional content and high-quality value because otherwise, you risk wasting money on something you either won’t use or will burn when you cook with it.

Listen now and use the healthiest olive oil you can find!

Guest Bio

Brandi is a registered respiratory therapist, a certified integrative nutritional health coach, a functional nutrition doctoral candidate, author, podcast host, speaker, and entrepreneur. She is the founder of Functionally Autoimmune where she helps women around the world heal their guts and improve their autoimmunity.

Links

https://www.instagram.com/cesira_olio_doliva
www.Cesiraoliodoliva.com

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