Olive Oil And Another Regionals Contestant!

Olive oil. God Bless it. It has made my life so much better! But like many things out there in the health world, there is always a recent study or rumor that "this is better than that" or "hey, did you know......". I love it when these type of questions come up. When it comes to our health we should never just accept what a bunch of "experts" tell us and blindly follow. Recently I had one of our Fire Fighters mention to me that he had heard that cooking olive oil over 200 degrees sorta canceled out the nutritional value of it (if you are unaware, it provides incredibly healthy fats). Well, I love this type of input. So, I got to researching. So far, from numerous different places, I have concluded with the following. First, SOME do agree that cooking your olive oil (or any oil for that matter) does start to slightly decrease the health benefits from it. Note that I said it slightly decreases, not eliminates. Second, assuming that this is true, soaking your food in the olive oil prior to cooking rather than getting the oil hot first, will help it retain its healthy qualities.

What does this mean to me? Well, since I have began eating a Paleo/Zone type of diet, olive oil has become my close friend. I go through a bottle of it at a cyclic rate. Why? Because it has those healthy fats, it provides great flavor, and it is a great substitute for coating your cooking pans with as apposed to those aerosol type, fat-free, ozone-destroying canisters of death. There is no question that these points will improve your health. Not to mention the numerous things you can do with olive oil without cooking it (mix it with some balsamic vinegar and mustard and you have a great salad dressing! You will have to experiment with the proportions to fit your needs, but it will have no HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP:).

Biggest thing to understand is that olive oil IS healthy for you in moderation as long as it's combined with a proper diet and fitness program. Even if cooking it to those temperatures does start to take away some of its healthy qualities, remember this....it's still healthy for you and WAYYYYYYY better than any other type of oil out there by far.

Also, I just found out this week that Owen, another member of CrossFit Spokane, has signed up for the Regional Qualifiers on May 16th. Since the military has him bouncing around over the next couple of weeks till the competition, he will be a great example that anyone can train with CrossFit ANYWHERE, ANY TIME! Awesome! The hour is approaching and I can't wait for our members to compete against the regions best of the best! Good luck to all of you!