Is Olive Oil Good For You Or Bad For You? Should you take it as a dietary supplement?
Lead Dietitian Wandana T. says:
Olive oil is a healthy source of fat. When it is part of a healthy and balanced diet, olive oil can be good for you.
Olive oil is often associated with good heart health due to its role in the Mediterranean diet and may contain compounds associated with health benefits.
Instead of taking olive oil as a dietary supplement, consider adding it to meals, for example as a salad dressing. About 70g of fat per day is the maximum recommended amount for an adult. This includes the fats in foods (cakes, cookies, chips and pastries, as well as nuts, seeds, oily fish and dairy products) and also the fats we eat in the form of spreads, butter and oil.
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Switching from saturated to unsaturated fats
The concern associated with eating too much fat is that it contains a lot of calories and therefore we can gain weight if we eat too much of it. However, national surveys of our diet show that, on average, the amount of fat in our diet is okay. The problem is where the fat is coming from. Many of us eat too many saturated fats — like butter, ghee, coconut and palm oils, and the fat in meat, chocolate, and cookies. This can lead to high cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart and circulatory disease.
- Learn about the different types of fats
Most of the fat we eat should be unsaturated — this includes olive oil and other unsaturated oils like sunflower and canola oil, as well as nuts, seeds, and oily fish. Switching from saturated to unsaturated fats is the most important thing to consider when it comes to fat and heart health.
