Keto Or Mediterranean? Extra Virgin Olive Oil Is A Vital Part Of Both
Examines how extra virgin olive oil rich in monosaturated fats is an essential part of your healthy diet.
Updated February 2nd 2023
SUMMARY:
- Extra virgin olive oil is a must for both the Keto Diet or Mediterranean Diet
- The monounsaturated fats in extra virgin olive oil provide the necessary and nutritious fats for satiety and energy production in the Keto Diet
- Similarly, in Mediterranean-style eating, extra virgin olive oil helps to reduce inflammation and supply essential antioxidants for overall health and well-being.
CONTENTS:
- A Key Component For Both Keto & Mediterranean Diets : Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- The Best Olive Oil Is Your Top Keto Kitchen Workhorse
- Not All Fats Are Equal: Why choose Extra Virgin Olive Oil For Ketosis
- What Is In 1 Tablespoon Of Extra Virgin Olive Oil?
- Planning Your Keto Diet
- How To Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil As Part Of Your Keto Diet
A Key Component For Both Keto & Mediterranean Diets : Extra Virgin Olive Oil
If you’re trying to choose between the keto diet and the Mediterranean diet, there’s one thing both agree upon: extra virgin olive oil is a must. Rich in monounsaturated fats, this ‘liquid gold’ has been hailed as a miracle food and a crucial component of a healthy diet for centuries.
This magical elixir is enriched with monounsaturated fats that can help lower cholesterol levels, reduce inflammation in the body, decrease risk of heart disease, and even help keep your waistline trim. Upping your intake of extra virgin olive oil could be one of the easiest choices you make towards a healthier lifestyle.
Whether you take a keto approach or opt for the Mediterranean way, it’s important that you make extra virgin olive oil part of your menu. Drizzle it on top of salads, vegetables and fish to bring out amazing flavours while getting all of the excellent health benefits.
When it comes to choosing the right diet, keto or Mediterranean, extra virgin olive oil is a clear winner. The healthy fats in this staple of both diets offer numerous benefits, particularly when it comes to monounsaturated fats. In keto, where carbohydrates are especially restricted, extra virgin olive oil plays a vital role in providing necessary and nutritious fats for satiety and energy production. Similarly, in Mediterranean-style eating, extra virgin olive oil helps to reduce inflammation and supply essential antioxidants for overall health and well-being.
Whatever dietary road you choose, make sure that extra virgin olive oil is part of your journey.
The Best Olive Oil Is Your Top Keto Kitchen Workhorse
Whether you have already tried the Keto diet or are considering it for the first time today, it’s well worth doing your research first and stocking up your kitchen with the best ingredients you can find. When it comes to olive oil, selecting a high quality cold pressed olive oil like Morocco Gold is worth its weight in gold – or ‘liquid gold’ as this original superfood is known.
A Keto diet is a very low-carb, high-fat diet. By replacing carbohydrates with fat, your body enters a state called ketosis. Ketosis burns fat and produces ketones, which can be used for fuel. As well as helping you to lose weight, ketosis can make you feel less hungry and help you keep muscle.
Risk Factors For Diabetes Can Be Reduced With Keto Diet
According to The Olive Oil Times, the ketogenic diet has been surging in popularity in recent years and is associated with many health benefits including weight loss and mitigating the effects of Type 2 diabetes.
Inclusion of healthy fats is essential when following a Keto diet and there is no better choice than a high-quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil like Morocco Gold.
Extra virgin olive oil is high in monosaturated fats which are an important part of your diet and fits well within the keto diet.
Morocco Gold is a superior quality, single estate extra virgin olive oil from olives grown in the foothills of the Atlas mountains. When you purchase Morocco Gold extra virgin olive oil, you are guaranteed a wonderful tasting, health enhancing culinary experience.
Our latest and freshest harvest is now available for purchase, bursting with its unique taste from our wonderful Moroccan source.
Why choose Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil For The Keto Diet?
Although adherence to the Keto diet is largely all about the fat, it’s important to note that you should avoid excessive amounts of unhealthy fats too.
According to Kendra Whitemire, a nutritionist and dietician with Sunshine Nutrition and Wellness in Laguna Beach, California: “Many people boil it down too simply and think they just need to eat a lot of fat and avoid carbs, but you can quickly eat an excessive amount of unhealthy fat on the keto diet.”
Fats are made up of fatty acids and glycerol. A fatty acid consists of a chain of carbon atoms, where each carbon atom in the chain is attached to hydrogen atoms. The number of hydrogen atoms per carbon atom determines whether the fatty acid is saturated or unsaturated.
Saturated Fats
If a fatty acid has all of the hydrogen atoms it can hold (2 per carbon atom in the chain) and all of the carbon atoms in the chain are linked by single bonds, it is described as saturated.
Saturated fats are usually solid or semi-solid at room temperature and are strongly associated with raised blood cholesterol which is why nutritionists recommend eating them as little as possible. Lard, butter, hard cheeses, whole milk, animal fats and palm and coconut oils – plus products containing them – all contain high levels of saturated fat.
Monounsaturated Fats : The Key Constituent Of Olive Oil
If a pair of carbon atoms in the fatty acid chain is linked by a double bond instead of a single bond, the fatty acid is described as monounsaturated. Monounsaturated fats tend to be liquid at room temperature. Extra virgin olive oil like Morocco Gold is one of the richest sources of monounsaturated fatty acids.
Monounsaturated fats, omega-6s in the case of olive oil, are important because they help boost heart health. This is important for helping prevent health issues such as cardiovascular disease or stroke.
Polyunsaturated Fats
These contain more than one double bond and are liquid at room temperature. The main sources are vegetable oils, such as sunflower oil, corn oil and rapeseed, but not tropical oils such as coconut, palm and palm kernel oils.
Trans Fats
Trans fats are created when a hydrogenation process is applied to solidify oil for use in margarines or to improve a product’s shelf life. This processing causes trans fats to act like saturated fats.
What Is In 1 Tablespoon Of Extra Virgin Olive Oil?
One serving or 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil contains the following:
- 120 calories
- 10 grams of monounsaturated fat
- 2 grams of saturated fat
- 2 grams of polyunsaturated fat
- 1.9 milligrams of vitamin E (10 percent of Daily Value)
- 8.1 micrograms of vitamin K (10 percent of DV)
Planning Your Keto Diet
We already know that extra virgin olive oil comes with its own impressive list of health benefits. In addition to providing essential antioxidants, serving as an anti-bacterial, preventing gallstones and serving your skin, extra virgin olive oil is also high in monounsaturated fats. These fats are an important part of your diet and rightly fits well within the keto diet.
While there are several types of the keto diet, including cyclical and targeted, the standard diet breaks down your food intake into about 75% fat, 20% protein and just 5% of your diet for carbohydrates. Variations flex those numbers slightly but still are founded on high fat and protein with low carbohydrates. While a keto diet isn’t right for everyone, it does come with great health benefits like weight loss and helping diabetes. It has also been linked to reducing symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, improving acne, improve risk factors for heart disease and even reduce the effects of epilepsy.
When pursuing a keto diet lifestyle, for either short long term, there are key foods that you avoid in order to follow the 75% fat, 20% protein and 5% carbs. Most obviously, sugary foods like sodas, cakes, ice cream, candy and others are to be cut out or limited. With a low level of carbohydrates, grains and starches like pasta, rice, cereals and more are limited.
An interesting feature of the keto diet includes the limitation of most fruits and root vegetables, as these are high in healthy carbohydrates. While these food groups are obviously important to keep in your diet in order to get the necessary vitamins and nutrients, a keto diet puts a limit on such carbohydrates. Be sure you are careful to still get all those important vitamins and nutrients you need to live well.
This type of diet also highlights healthy fats, such as monounsaturated. Therefore, it’s important to limit your intake of unhealthy fats. Additionally, products that are low-fat and sugar-free are highly processed and should be limited or excluded when following a ketogenic diet.
Although the percentages of food intake may seem tricky, there are some great and easy ways you can make it happen, especially in using oils and vinegars in your dishes. In fact, we’ve even hosted a cooking class highlighting this latest health craze.
How To Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil As Part Of Your Keto Diet
Perhaps one of the easiest ways to incorporate extra virgin olive oil into your keto diet is through a vinaigrette. This combination of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar comes with endless possibilities and be catered to exactly what you like.
In addition to using your extra virgin olive oil in a vinaigrette for your low-carb salads, you can incorporate it into so many more of your favourite keto dishes. Roast asparagus, zucchini or broccoli drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Sauté your chicken in extra virgin olive oil. Incorporating more extra virgin olive oil into your keto diet can add both flavour and elevated health benefits.
If you are thinking about the Keto diet be sure to talk with your doctor before starting the plan. But once you do, discover how you can add increased health benefits by incorporating extra virgin olive oil into your regular routine.
