Olive Oil can save your life

Every day that I worked in the ER I saw patients with heart attack and strokes. I started working in the medical field in 1984. My main work was as an RN in the hospital emergency department. I also taught a course to doctors and nurses called ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support), which is the protocol used in the US to revive someone who is having a heart attack or similar cardiac emergency. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world (it kills more people than Cancer, AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis combined). It is an equal opportunity killer: taking the lives of men and woman from all races and socioeconomic backgrounds. One day a co-worker of mine had a heart attack at work. She was a funny, vivacious, smart, hardworking mother in her 40s. She had her first heat attack in a well equipped ER in one of the largest hospital groups in America. But we were not able to save her.

I have decided not to wait until the last minute to try to stop the waste of life caused by heart attacks and strokes. One third of the risk factors for heart & vascular disease are related to the excessive consumption of unhealthy fats (trans fats, saturated fats). The USDA has approved health labeling on olive oil because research has shown that replacing “bad fats” with olive oil helps to heal damaged arteries, raise LDH (good cholesterol), increased the elasticity of arteries and helps to clear clogged arteries. That’s why I say “Olive oil is the world’s oldest natural remedy for the world’s biggest killer.” Extra virgin olive oil is literally “fruit juice.” It is made without any chemical processing. All other major edible oils (including Canola oil) go through a complex process of chemical refining, heating, bleaching and filtering before they can be eaten. They say, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” In this case it is literally true. The USDA recommended intake of oils and fats is one ounce. If you dump the “bad fats” from your diet and replace them with an ounce of olive oil (6 teaspoons, 30ml) you can reduce your risk of heart attack by 1/3. In terms of reducing your risk of death from a heart attack or stroke, changing your oil is just about as important as quitting cigarette smoking.

OK I admit it. I’m an idealist. In 1997 we moved 10 times zones from where I was born in sunny California to live in the original home of the olive oil tree on the Mediterranean Sea. We found out that if we wanted to get real extra virgin olive oil to in the consumers in US at a price that more people could afford we could not only buy olive oil from Italy. The US imports some 75% of its bottled olive oil from Italy. I leaned that the beautiful bottles lining the shelves of US supermarkets that say, “bottled in Italy” usually contain a mixture of olive oil from a number of other nations including olive oil from Spain, Greece, Portugal, Turkey and Tunisia. Turkey, (Anatolia) where the olive tree originated, seems to me to be the ideal source. The climate, soil and growing conditions are perfect for the olive trees. I have visited olive groves in Turkey that we bearing fruit long before Columbus came to America and the ancient ruins of an olive oil factory that was pressing olives into golden olive oil 500 years before Christ. Half a million people in Turkey make a living off of the fruit of the olive tree. “Fair trade” has been a model of all of our business practices. We are probably the first to offer “fair trade” olive oil from Turkey. We desire to be an example and to give hope to the next generation of men and woman supply olive oil to meet the increasing world demand.

Health, Peace,

Dennis McGee

web (at) oliveoilonly (dot) org
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