I really love the subtle, smooth flavor and texture of a good organically made, extra virgin olive oil. I especially love it in a salad, tossing it with some lemon juice, garlic, a little sea salt and maybe even some additional seasonings, depending on whether I’m going for more of an Italian flavor, or more of a Greek flavor.  And according to several things I’ve been reading lately, this is really the best way to enjoy olive oil and all of it’s health benefits.  Not in the frying pan or the sautee pan as previously thought and always practiced, unfortunately.

This is how I always used to use my olive oil, and I thought I was getting those same health benefits from it by doing this. However, you actually get better health benefits by cooking with different oils instead, because olive oil is not stable enough to cook with, and loses it’s health benefits when you cook it at high temperatures.

It actually does something called oxidate, and this means that it becomes more like the unhealthy fats that you should steer clear of, in a nutshell, when you cook with it. The longer it’s cooked, and at higher temperatures, the less healthy it becomes, unfortunately, and the more adulterated you make it.

One of the recommendations is to cook with one of my favorite oils, fortunately, which is coconut oil. Coconut oil offers a distinct flavor, and it may not be ideal for every dish, but it really can add some amazing flavor to your foods. You may think of coconut oil as highly fattening, because that’s what I thought too, but it’s coming to light that it really is better for you than olive oil when cooked because it does not really act on the blood sugar when cooked.

It is also much more stable and resistant to oxidation, much more so than olive oil, when cooked. Therefore, it retains it’s numerous health benefits when it is cooked.  The health benefits are actually similar to that of raw olive oil when uncooked, so it’s worth looking into trying out this oil. It’s interesting to note that coconut oil is actually solid at room temperature.

I use it on my skin as a moisturizer, and it’s a great natural moisturizer, and it also smells great, but one thing that’s a bit annoying is that you have to scoop it out with some sort of hard tool because it does become solid, but it immediately liquefies as soon as you rub it between your fingers. It’s just interesting, because olive oil is liquid at room temperature, but does become hard when refrigerated.

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