You’ve heard the saying, “food is medicine?” Nothing could be truer for olive oil. It has so many benefits for our health, it’s hard to list them all (not to mention it’s tasty!).
Let’s take a deeper dive into this powerhouse ingredient:
Why It’s Important to Choose Organic
For olive oil to receive the organic label, the growers must adhere to the rules of an accredited organic certifying agency (such as the USDA). This means it is grown without the use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or other artificial agents. These chemicals have links to many short-term and long-term health issues. This includes rashes, blisters, blindness, nausea, immunotoxicity, disruption of the endocrine system, cancer, and more. If we view food as medicine, it’s important to look at how our food is grown. Subsequently, we use organic olive oil in all our hummus to ensure it is nourishing and beneficial to your health.
Why High-Quality Oil Impacts Flavor
Olive oil is like wine: it has many different flavors and aromas, and quality matters. In fact, “quality dictates taste.” Low-quality olive oil simply tastes like oil. High-quality olive oil has many notes of flavor, including fresh herbs, fruit, nuts, teas, and more. These delicate essences add an enormous amount of flavor to the olive oil, and ultimately, to our hummus. And who doesn’t want a deeper, richer, more complex flavor?
Extra Virgin Olive Oil vs Olive Oil
What is the difference between olive oil and extra virgin olive oil, you might ask? This is a common question: There are three grades of olive oil, and it has to do with how they are processed, and how the oil is extracted: Firstly – refined olive oil. Secondly – virgin olive oil, and thirdly – extra virgin olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil is “made from pure, cold-pressed olives, whereas regular olive oil is a blend, including both cold-pressed and processed oils.” This higher-quality oil has less oleic acid, resulting in better flavor, and better health benefits.
Cold, High Pressure Processing: Better Flavor and Nutrition
Much like a high-quality olive oil, we don’t heat our hummus to kill bacteria. Heat reduces nutrition content and flavor. Why have a high-quality, organic olive and ingredients only to remove a bunch of flavor and nutrition in the pasteurization process? Read more about our state-of-the-art cold, high pressure processing, and how it keeps our hummus fresh!
Olive Oil Benefits for Your Health
There are so many olive oil benefits to your health from the inside out. Let’s look at some of the extra virgin olive oil benefits:
It Reduces Inflammation
The predominant fatty acid in olive oi is monounsaturated fat – from oeic acid. To put it simply, this acid reduces inflammation, andthere have been some studies showing it has a beneficial impact on genes with links to cancer.
It Is Packed with Antioxidants
Another great benefit of olive oil is that it is packed with polyphenols. This is a natural bioactive compound that has antioxidant properties. Antioxidants are crucial at combating oxidative stress. Oxidative stress damages proteins, DNA, and lipids, leading to dementia, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and more.
It Supports a Healthy Gut
Your gut health influences everything, and the polyphenols in extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) may foster the growth of good bacteria, and reduce inflammation. These are both things that will improve your gut health, and ultimately may improve a variety of things, from your mental health to your skin. One study looked at the positive impact EVOO has on inflammatory bowel disease.
It Protects Against Heart Disease
Protecting our cardiovascular health is important, and studies show that extra virgin olive oil may help protect you from heart disease. Studies have shown over the years that heart disease is less common in Mediterranean countries. Their diet plays an enormous role in this, and EVOO is a key ingredient. EVOO lowers inflammation, improves the lining of your blood vessels, protects LDL cholesterol from oxidation, and even prevents excessive blood clotting. Additionally, it has the ability to lower blood pressure. It’s a powerhouse protector for your heart!
It May Protect Against Alzheimer’s
There needs to b more research, but EVOO may protect against Alzheimer’s. One study indicates that a diet rich in olive oil had a benefit for brain function. Another study found that EVOO benefits the brain by reducing brain inflammation, and activating autophagy (a process where cells break down and clear out toxins).
There are Too Many Benefits of Olive Oil to List!
These are just five of the many, many benefits of olive oil; we’ve only covered five, scratching the surface of how this oil benefits your health. The overall benefit of olive oil is hard to measure, because there are just so many studies!
We’re Dedicated to Nourishing, Delicious Food
Here at Hope, we are dedicate ourselves to creating food that is nourishing as well as delicious. Eating food that tastes amazing but damages your health isn’t sustainable. We weigh every ingredient we put into our hummus, ensuring it nourishes your body from the inside-out. Olive oil benefits everything from your heart to your skin, making it the perfect ingredient for our delicious and nutritious hummus. Check out our many unique and classic flavors and let us know your favorite flavor by connecting with us on Instagram!
