Dealing With Diabetes

Health & Beauty, Olive Oil Facts
Dealing With Diabetes

According to the American Diabetes Association, heart disease is, “…one of the most common complications of diabetes—having diabetes doubles your risk for heart attack or stroke.” Fortunately, there are considerable similarities between eating a diabetes-healthy diet and a heart-healthy diet such as the Mediterranean diet.

Olive oil is emphasized in both, but special attention must be paid to carbohydrate intake. A recent study showed for the first time, “…that the type of fat eaten significantly affects blood glucose levels after a high-GI meal in patients with type 1 diabetes. Avoiding foods rich in butter and using extra-virgin olive oil could help improve your postprandial (after-a-meal) blood glucose levels.

Big Olive Oil Flap

Olive Oil Facts
Big Olive Oil Flap

Over the years since Joëlle Olive Oil began there have been rumblings about the quality of the big name olive oil brands that are imported from Europe. It has been said that up to 70% of the oil sold in US Markets from abroad is cut with cheap oils like canola and almond oil. Because of these questions UC Davis studied over one hundred imported oils and found that the 70% mark was basically true.

To test the oil you have at home you can put your bottle in the refrigerator for a while and if it congeals to a more solid state, it is good olive oil and has monounsaturated fats. If it stays in its liquid state it has been adulterated with lesser oils.

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History of Olive Oil

Olive Oil Facts
History of Olive Oil

Olive oil has an illustrious past, being used for medicinal as well as for epicurean purposes since before recorded history. It has long been part of Mediterranean civilization and was a highly valuable trade commodity for ancient Semitic peoples.

In the early 1700s the Jesuits from Spain brought olives when they began their northern trek, founding missions first in Mexico, then Baja California. Later Franciscan padres founded the first of their California missions in San Diego.

Olives were among the few fruits grown in these early mission settlements. The trees live to be hundreds of years old, so some of the trees seen at these mission sites today may well have been planted in the 1700s.