Here’s one reason olive oil gets all the glory

Olive oil is like the Mount Olympus of ‘good’ fat, most nutritionists agree. But exactly why is that the case? So much of nutrition science is still in its infancy that I often am skeptical when anything is touted as a ‘healthy’ food.

But a new study may give some insight into why olive oil can help us. Apparently it helps your good cholesterol, the HDL kind, work more effectively, according to an article in Cooking Light magazine.

“Our hypothesis is that all the antioxidant compounds in olive oil bind to the HDL particle and preserve [it] from oxidative stress, and that maintains the HDL in better quality,” said Montserrat Fito, a scientist at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute in Barcelona, which did a study on people eating or not eating olive oil.

Being Italian-American, I grew up with olive oil always on our table and still use it on salads and in cooking. It hasn’t prevented me from needing two stents in six years, however, so it’s no magic exlixir regardless of what it may be doing to my HDL.