Olive oil is a present of nature

There is a food whose importance we are not fully aware of as it is habitually included in nearly every dish we cook; it is the product that we get from olives: olive oil.
Without olive oil it would be difficult to enjoy many dishes, and many others, such as stir-fried food, allioli* or tomato-rubbed bread would disappear from our tables. Cuisine without olive oil would be rather boring.
Its virtues are not only organoleptic: oil also has a relevant place as far as health is concerned.

Oil is a great ally of the heart

Oil helps us keep our arteries clear and makes it possible that the bood pumped by the heart reaches every single corner of the body without problems.
This cardiovascular propriety is due to the fact that olive oil prevents the fat in blood from oxidation and, thus, arteries do not stick together. Since all of us have a heart (although it is difficult to believe it in certain people), it will be very useful for all of us to have some olive oil daily.
Another virtue it has is the one derivated from its high contents in vitamin E.
It is considered to be an anti-ageing product thanks to this vitamin, which also improves the body defense and the mobility of patients suffering from arthrosis.
And to end, some advice concerning olive oil:
• Select virgin olive oil. It is one of the best when it comes to health, but any of the varieties, if they come from our country, are a guarantee.
• Besides, only because we add it to some vegetables, it helps the absorption of some lip soluble vitamins in the food. For this reason, products like tomato,   by being merely dressed with olive oil, increases its beneficial characteristics within organism (remember that it is thought to prevent from prostate cancer).
Olive oil is a present of nature, both because its organoleptic characteristics and because it ‘adds’ health to any dish.

Dr. Pilar Senpau
Has a Medicine and Surgery Degree, she is a specialist in dietetics
Quotation from her book Fruits de la Vida (Fruits of Life), published by Proa.