Mediterranean diet: all you need to know about olives and olive oil (calories, benefits and recommended intakes) - [MEMBER ZONE]

Introduction

Among the virtuous foods of the Mediterranean dietand, more generally, the characteristic diet of Blue ZonesIn those parts of the world where life expectancy in good health is at an all-time high, we find the oilseedswhich brings together three food families:

• visit oleaginous dried fruit (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, etc.), which we discussed earlier;
• visit oilseeds (pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, linseeds, etc.), which we also covered just before this chapter;
• and finally, fresh oleaginous fruits (avocado, olives and coconut)which we'll be looking at in depth here and in the chapters to come.

As a reminder, oilseeds play a central role in diets. Mediterranean, low-carb and ketogenicbecause they are a healthy source of fatty acids, micronutrients and vitamins. proteinsand what's more very dense in terms of energy and nutrition.

To top it all off, they come in the form of food that's easy to transport and eatparticularly during snacks, allowing you to avoid cravings for processed foodsoften very sweet and sometimes rich in unhealthy fats.

Nevertheless, not all oilseeds are created equalAnd that's exactly what we've covered in depth in the previous two chapters.

In this chapter - whose 100% premium content is reserved for Blooness members - we'll be looking in particular at olives, and we'll be looking at that this food is a nutritional treasure that is unfortunately poorly understood in the modern diet.

As a reminder, oilseeds include plants from which oil can be extracted. Here we find olives, which yield olive oil, so emblematic of the Mediterranean dietBut also avocados, a fruit with a unique nutritional profile, low in sugar and rich in monounsaturated fats, which can be used to make avocado oil, and coconuts, which can be eaten as is, in juice or as coconut oil.

While the olive is the quintessential Mediterranean food, it will not have escaped your notice that avocados and coconuts have more distant origins, and can be traced back to the Blue Zones. Nevertheless, for the sake of simplicity, as we saw in the introductory content on the Mediterranean diet, we can easily group theMediterranean diet with the Blue Zones diet, because the Blue Zones, wherever they are in the world, have a lot in common with the Mediterranean diet.

Let's move on to the subject at hand, olives, after which we'll move on to avocados and coconuts.

What are the characteristics of olives that make them so unique and so virtuous for health, in what specific cases can they be consumed, at what key times, in what proportions and in what way can they be beneficial for both health and weight loss?

When we talk about weight loss, you'll have understood that in this guide we're mainly talking about loss of body fat - only if you have to lose some, because the body knows how to rebalance its proportions if it is given the right diet - and we also talk about maintaining muscle and bone massIt's one of the major factors in good health. We'll see that in terms of muscle anabolism, fat loss, maintaining a healthy hormonal system, maintaining a good libido and maintaining a good cardiovascular system, olives and olive oil are two of our most important allies.

Reminder of the importance of formalizing things in terms of nutrition

There is a reason why it's important to formalize the various virtues that a particular healthy food can representand in particular a superfood like olives. Indeed, when we understand a concept and visualize what it can lead to as a consequence, we leave much less room for the unexpectedto improvisation and carelessness.

In concrete terms, this means formalize, point by point, the various health benefits of olives is ideal when you're looking to nibble on something, or to spice up a recipe, not to get carried away by an irrelevant temptationexcluding, of course, separate meals.

For example, when you feel like snackingand we revisit all the good things olives can do for the bodyIt's also good for the hormonal system, libido and maintaining a healthy figure, it's much more fun to choose this food as a snackRather than seeing it as a constraint before indulging in sweet cookies, for example.

That's what this guide is all about: on the one hand learn things we didn't know, and the other, formalize things we suspected, but of which we were not necessarily certain.

Here, we will learn why olives are a superfoodwhich will help us to "crack" this food with pleasure and delight in priority - or for another in the same vein - while learning in what quantities to consume it, and what type of olive or olive oil to choose.

Ready to go? Let's get started!