by Renzo Ceccacci
Surgeon, President OLEA
A balanced diet must include the daily intake of 1 g of fat for each kg of our ideal body weightOur body is capable of using and metabolising perfectly the fats contained in breast milk, consisting of approximately 13% polyunsaturated, approximately 73% monounsaturated, the remaining 14% saturated. This is approximately the composition of olive oil: almost all the other vegetable fats used for human nutrition often have a much greater amount of polyunsaturated fats (maize, sunflower, etc.) or an excessive amount of saturated fats (palm, coconut , etc.).
“Essential” Fats
We define polyunsaturated fats as "essential", since we have to take them with the diet, failing to produce them with our metabolism, taking into account that our desaturase enzyme is unable to make double bonds before carbon 9 starting from the methyl group of the fatty acid molecule. we call omega 3 those that have the first double bond after carbon 3, while omega 6 those where it is after carbon 6. These polyunsaturated fats are indispensable as structural components of our cell walls and as components of lipoproteins essential for our life, such as LDL and HDL. The amount needed is about 13% of the total fat intake with diet: their deficiency can cause serious problems, even lethal, but we must know that this is the amount that we are able to use correctly.
Consume regularly vegetable fats very rich in polyunsaturated fats, sometimes having percentages higher than 50%, forces our organism to transform the excess into peroxides, oxidising substances capable of stimulating the ageing of our cells and unfortunately also of promoting theonset of tumor diseases.
Excessive and prolonged intake of saturated fats on the other hand, it can favor the initiation and rapid evolution of atherosclerosis, to the point of determining severe obstructions which can lead tomyocardial infarction, or to carotid stenosis with possible brain damage even very serious.
That 1% that really counts
Olive oil, in the vast panorama of vegetable fats used in human nutrition, today represents only 3%, but it is the only one that has the ideal composition for the needs of our body and is the only one to have, in addition to the correct content of fatty acids, a component that is defined as "unsaponifiable" as it cannot be transformed into soap. This component, just over 1% of the weight of the olive oil, is made up of squalene, triterpenic and aliphatic alcohols which supply perfumes and aromas, enzymes, fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, fat-soluble pigments such as chlorophylls and carotenes which color the oil green or yellow, for a total of over 200 elements among which they stand out polyphenols, very powerful natural antioxidantsadding them to the oil the bitter taste and the spicy sensation.
Extra virgin olive oil contains all these highly beneficial substances because it is obtained exclusively with physical methods such as pressure-centrifugation, which allow what is present in the fruit to be transferred to the oil. All the other vegetable oils are instead obtained by extraction using solvents and then always subjected to refining: beneficial substances such as those described in quality extra virgin oils, even if initially present in the seeds, are washed out and lost in these vegetable oils during processing. But there is more.
Watch out for TRANS fatty acids
During solvent extraction and refining, TRANS fatty acids are formed in vegetable oils: in these the 60° bend present in the double bond site is cancelled and the molecule becomes straight, losing the "curl" that is the basis of its correct functioning especially in the structure of the cell wall. Our body is not able to recognize TRANS fats and therefore uses them as if they were normal, with the imaginable consequences. Then the EFSA published a study a few years ago that demonstrated how the refining, causing the alteration of glycerol (the trivalent alcohol that binds three fatty acids to form the triglyceride, a normal constituent of vegetable fats, like ours), and its binding with acids, can lead to the formation of glycidyl esters (3-monochloropropanediol and 2-monochloropropanediol) which are genotoxic and carcinogenicWe do not have a safe threshold for the intake of these substances and therefore EFSA recommends absolutely avoiding them in children's diets!
Rancid fats
All fats over time tend to become rancid: the action of oxygen, which binds especially at the site of the double bond, determines the lysis of fatty acids until they transform into shorter-chain elements, which give the oil its typical odor similar to that of linen varnish. We are unable to metabolize these fat fragments correctly and, as with excess polyunsaturated fats, we transform them into peroxides, oxidizing, pro-inflammatory and potentially carcinogenic substances. Let's avoid consuming rancid oils, and above all, let's never give them to children!
Saturated fats have a rancidity factor of 1, monounsaturated fats 10, polyunsaturated fats with two double bonds 100, and 1.000 those with three. To avoid rancidity, the enemy of the long-term conservation of pre-packaged foods, about 150 years ago the food industry, by heating oils to about 180°C and using nickel as a catalyst, discovered that it was easy to bind a hydrogen at the point of the double bond where oxygen binds: here is the “hydrogenated fat”. Margarine never goes rancid! Even hydrogenated fats lose the 60° bends of the double bonds, making those that had the correct shape become straight. “curly”.
It should be remembered that almost all snacks and many foods, including sweets and chocolates, are packaged with the most diverse low-cost vegetable fats, including hydrogenated ones.
On the other hand, it is important to know that extra virgin olive oil is the best fat for high temperature cooking such as frying, since it is the most stable and with the highest "smoke point", therefore the least subject to the formation of acrolein and acrylamide, irritating substances for the respiratory mucous membranes and potentially carcinogenic.
Health benefits
Quality extra virgin olive oil is the fat richest in antioxidants and fat-soluble vitamins, it is the most digestible and can bring significant benefits to our health, such as on:
- Cardiovascular system: can reduce LDL lipoproteins (harmful action) and increase HDL (protective action), can reduce the onset of atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction and cerebral vascular damage;
- Nervous system: it can improve neuronal maturation in children and reduce the incidence of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's by more than 13%;
- Skeletal system: the extra virgin olive oil contains Vitamin D, facilitates the intake of that contained in other foods and improves liver function and calcium metabolism, so it can reduce the incidence of arthritic processes, osteoporosis and fractures;
- Endocrine system: may reduce the occurrence of type 1 diabetes and reduce the severity of type 2 diabetes;
- Tumor diseases: especially thanks to the presence of Oleocanthal, the substance that gives it its spiciness, a very powerful anti-inflammatory inhibitor of cyclooxygenase chemically similar to ibuprofen, it can help reduce the onset of colon tumors by 63%, breast by 39%, lungs 36%, prostate 39%, esophagus 73%, stomach 62%, ovaries 47%.
How much to consume
An dose varies between 20 and 40 ml per day, depending on your body weight, added raw to various dishes may already be sufficient, as long as it has a good presence of bitterness and spiciness.
Since high quality extra virgin olive oils can add extraordinary herbaceous, tomato or red fruit aromas to dishes, using a good oil every day can give us goodness and health.
Happy oil everyone!
