The growing awareness of diluted extra virgin olive oil is leaving consumers confused — not just about where to find authentic extra virgin olive oil, but how to make sense of the competing claims of health benefits from a growing profusion of oil producers, from avocado and coconut to canola, peanut and corn.
“Variety is always key, especially when it comes to dietary fats because the research isn’t conclusive enough to say there is one fat that is the best,” said Melissa Wdowik, a registered dietician who is director of the Kendall Anderson Nutrition Center at Colorado State University.
She says monounsaturated fats — such as olive oil, avocado oil, canola oil and nut oils such as peanut — are the healthiest because studies show they lower the “bad” LDL cholesterol and raise the “good” HDL cholesterol.
Next are polyunsaturated fats — such oils as sunflower, safflower and corn — which are “also considered to be good for the heart because they lower LDL.”
Other polyunsaturated fats include omega-3 fatty acids, found in seeds such as flax, which lower blood pressure, heart rate and inflammation, she said.
Coconut oil, which is often touted by marketers for healthy benefits, is a saturated fat that most registered dieticians are “on the fence” about, she said, because the claims are not yet proven by science.
She points out that the federal dietary guidelines recommend limiting saturated fats, “so if you choose to consume them, keep them at less than one-third of your total fat intake with the other two-thirds made up of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.”
To get the most health benefits from extra virgin olive oil, she said, it “absolutely as fresh and unrefined as possible.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083, coconnor@denverpost.com or @coconnordp
