Olive Oil?!?!

jessvaughn74

Been reading some weight loss blogs. Love the inspiration. One common theme it seems among some of the ones I read was olive oil. No explanation...usually just a statement like.."I stirred my daily dose of olive oil into my oatmeal."...or "I saved my daily dose of olive oil for this dish".

So what's the deal? Is there a certain dose of olive oil that should be eaten a day? And how much? And is it really good in oatmeal?!?!

ajhugz

Its good to have "healthy" fats in your diet, but I didn't know people were treating it like a supplement. I wanna what the deal is also!

jessvaughn74

One thing I should note is that all these blogs I have been reading were all on Weight Watchers. So maybe it has something to do with that?

neanderthin

No, it's just people have heard that olive oil is healthy, that it appears they need to emphasis how they consume it, and coconut oil is now getting popular and people are taking it as a supplement........ minimal information, maximum execution.

thefewsteps

to get their healthy unsaturated fat in. I personally don't understand it, I could never just put a tbsp of oil in something (look up bulletproof coffee) that im not going to be baking but that's just me. Olive oil is said to be great for fat loss as well.

PennStateChick

Weight watchers recommends 2 tsps of healthy oils every day.

melibee11

I love olive oil in my oatmeal! I buy the California Olive brand, if you want a reliably pure olive oil and don’t want a strong flavor be sure to get single origin, in this case California, and look on the labels for the one with mild flavor. It also needs to be extra virgin first cold pressed. Drizzled over a bowl of oatmeal (I use One Degree sprouted rolled oats from Costco), with fresh berries & banana, freshly roasted pecans or almonds, and a little honey - so good!

paperpudding

this thread is 11 years old

not sure if olive oil in cereals is still a thing (wasn't ever a thing for me) but I guess you can do it if you want to.

Sett2023

I thnik the sense is: olive oil is way more healthy than butter/margarine (obv mayo etc etc), so better that than other things. BUT also olive oil is fattening, and also olive oil is un-healthy if you exaggerate with it, so okay using it, but in right quantitities, not drowning your meal in it: 2 tbsp is your right (because some fats are useful to fix nutrients of vegetables, for instance) but it's also your maximum dose (that is, this is the daily doses you have at disposition, then decide where to use it). In the real mediterranean diet (not the "revisited" many use today) olive oil is not only allowed, but also recommended, but watching the quantity. Too many times you see people eating (for instance) lettuce/tomatoes "because its's healthy and not fattening" and then drown it in oil... in med diet you would never do it. Ditto for olive oil on pasta etc etc.

paperpudding

I thnik the sense is: olive oil is way more healthy than butter/margarine (obv mayo etc etc), so better that than other things.

well, yes - but you wouldn't have butter or marg or mayo on cereal either , would you? - so no need to replace such with olive oil

AnnPT77

paperpudding wrote: »

I thnik the sense is: olive oil is way more healthy than butter/margarine (obv mayo etc etc), so better that than other things.

well, yes - but you wouldn't have butter or marg or mayo on cereal either , would you? - so no need to replace such with olive oil

Actually, through my youth (talking 1950s-1960s), it was common here to put a pat of butter on oatmeal or other hot cereal. IIRC, a lot of advertising/packaging would've shown that butter pat. It's not my jam, personally. But it's not some new weird thing to add fats to "porridge" (a word we don't use here), at least not in my culture.

I think it's kind of ick, personally . . . but I don't eat like my upbringing in a lot of ways. If I did add actual fats plain to my oatmeal, it wouldn't be olive oil. The olive oil taste doesn't mix well with other things I like in my oatmeal. (Butter would. Still don't want it.)

I do add fats to my oatmeal, but prefer walnuts, hemp hearts, ground flax seed. (Moar micros, fiber, Omega-3s, crunch!) But that's just me. If PP likes olive oil, that's fine . . . for PP.

Sett2023

paperpudding wrote: »

I thnik the sense is: olive oil is way more healthy than butter/margarine (obv mayo etc etc), so better that than other things.

well, yes - but you wouldn't have butter or marg or mayo on cereal either , would you? - so no need to replace such with olive oil

No, I don't, but we here (Italy) use to eat very "simple", very rarely add toppings and similar (for instance, here it would be unconceivable adding ice cream to cake: they are two desserts, eaten in two different meals; we don't use mayo or ketchup etc; we use butter only in "risotto", but very very little, the doses I see in US plates we don't use even in a month - for instance, I've bought the piece of butter - 250 g - I'm using now more than three months ago, and I cook two complete meals every day for 5 persons, and it's still way more than half...; we don't conceive "sprizzling" nothing on cheese, they are good by themselves; ditto for the most of vegetables, where we use olive oil but, as said, very little in the whole day; and there we use herbs, instead, a very lot of them - basil, sage, rosmaryn, parsley, fennel, oregan etc etc; or the habit of using hummus or tofu creams etc "upon" other foods? For us, tofu is a meal in itself, and ditto for hummus).
In other words, I thought, well, me personally wouldn't add nor butter nor oil in porridge, but in many other countries they use to top everything with everything, maybe they also top porridge..
PS: anecdocte: me and hubby still remember our first travel in England, and the question of a bartender: "do you want butter on it?". the "it" was a croissant, and we didn't understand, because here no way someone add butter to a croissant, it's... unconceinvable, as I said. So we thought we were not understanding him! Then arrived another person who in fact wanted that butter, so we saw what he meant and oh, we had understood, only didn't believe it!

claireychn074

Sett2023 wrote: »

paperpudding wrote: »

I thnik the sense is: olive oil is way more healthy than butter/margarine (obv mayo etc etc), so better that than other things.

well, yes - but you wouldn't have butter or marg or mayo on cereal either , would you? - so no need to replace such with olive oil

No, I don't, but we here (Italy) use to eat very "simple", very rarely add toppings and similar (for instance, here it would be unconceivable adding ice cream to cake: they are two desserts, eaten in two different meals; we don't use mayo or ketchup etc; we use butter only in "risotto", but very very little, the doses I see in US plates we don't use even in a month - for instance, I've bought the piece of butter - 250 g - I'm using now more than three months ago, and I cook two complete meals every day for 5 persons, and it's still way more than half...; we don't conceive "sprizzling" nothing on cheese, they are good by themselves; ditto for the most of vegetables, where we use olive oil but, as said, very little in the whole day; and there we use herbs, instead, a very lot of them - basil, sage, rosmaryn, parsley, fennel, oregan etc etc; or the habit of using hummus or tofu creams etc "upon" other foods? For us, tofu is a meal in itself, and ditto for hummus).
In other words, I thought, well, me personally wouldn't add nor butter nor oil in porridge, but in many other countries they use to top everything with everything, maybe they also top porridge..
PS: anecdocte: me and hubby still remember our first travel in England, and the question of a bartender: "do you want butter on it?". the "it" was a croissant, and we didn't understand, because here no way someone add butter to a croissant, it's... unconceinvable, as I said. So we thought we were not understanding him! Then arrived another person who in fact wanted that butter, so we saw what he meant and oh, we had understood, only didn't believe it!

Do I use more butter than olive oil? Yes. Because butter is locally produced and is TONNES cheaper than olive oil imported from other parts of Europe. So it might not be taste preference or lack of education about how much one should use, it could actually be price point .

I would also add that Italy has amazing produce owing to your climate. The reason I add all sorts of stuff to my veg in England is because there are only a couple of months every year when our tomatoes actually taste of anything. We just don’t get enough consistent sun here to produce the same tasty salad for several months 🤷‍♂️

I agree that butter on croissants is weird, but again, supermarket croissants in the UK are like cardboard. Sometimes you need something on them to be able to chew them 🤣

Sett2023

claireychn074 wrote: »

Sett2023 wrote: »

paperpudding wrote: »

I thnik the sense is: olive oil is way more healthy than butter/margarine (obv mayo etc etc), so better that than other things.

Do I use more butter than olive oil? Yes. Because butter is locally produced and is TONNES cheaper than olive oil imported from other parts of Europe. So it might not be taste preference or lack of education about how much one should use, it could actually be price point .

I would also add that Italy has amazing produce owing to your climate. The reason I add all sorts of stuff to my veg in England is because there are only a couple of months every year when our tomatoes actually taste of anything. We just don’t get enough consistent sun here to produce the same tasty salad for several months 🤷‍♂️

I agree that butter on croissants is weird, but again, supermarket croissants in the UK are like cardboard. Sometimes you need something on them to be able to chew them 🤣

Oh, I know, I know, I wasn't insinuating anything of similar, really (writing in another language lets out too much nuances). I always say that I'm way lucky to be born here (and I'm in the worst part of Italy, Po Plain, so..). For instance, I have a similar problem not with produce (even if in South is way more good, and also way less expensive), but with fish: I had to educate myself to fish because yes, for almost all Italians it's a must, but if you live in the only part of the whole country that doesn't have sea... yes, it costs a lot and it's not so savoury (in fact, here there are the only Italians who eat frozen fish, I suppose And obv it's not so good etc). About croissant, yeah, here also those of super are bleah: sadly, the super foods are the same everywhere, I'm afraid.

paperpudding

Ok i stand corrected, clearly some people do add these things to cereal. I havent experienced it but clearly there are things in the world beyond my experience

and yes, PP and anyone, can of course do whatever combination of foods they like.

So we thought we were not understanding him! Then arrived another person who in fact wanted that butter, so we saw what he meant and oh, we had understood, only didn't believe it!

this reminds me of an experience I had with my husband who was born in UK

I had an iced finger bun and I called out to him in another room - got a bun for you, would you like butter on it?
He replies how about tomato,ham, lettuce?

I'm there What?? on a bun??

took it in to show him - Oh you mean a finger bun I thought you meant a bread bun - which we in Australia would call a bread roll.

SafariGalNYC

I’ve put dairy in hot cereal - farina before. clotted cream, a pat of unsalted sweet cream butter..: kinda similar when in melts?

I use olive oil when sautéing or a drizzle on veg or salad. I grew up with butter, I only really use it now when making a French omelette because I like the taste. My in laws in Italy use olive oil on everything.

By the way… Olive oil gelato.. if you haven’t tried it.. it’s awesome!

lynn_glenmont

paperpudding wrote: »

I thnik the sense is: olive oil is way more healthy than butter/margarine (obv mayo etc etc), so better that than other things.

well, yes - but you wouldn't have butter or marg or mayo on cereal either , would you? - so no need to replace such with olive oil

Lots of people put butter on grits, and would think it was weird yuck to put sugar on it. Same deal in certain areas/cultures for oatmeal. I eat both mildly sweet and savory oatmeal. I've tried butter on it and didn't find anything wrong with it, but it didn't make much difference in the taste at the amount of calories I was willing to "spend" on butter for my oatmeal.