Olive Oil - a lesson to learn!!

Yes use the spray, its so much better. All of the weight watchers recipes calls for a three second spray to the pan. I havent used oil in a long time, always just a spray. I feel quite grossed out at the thought of cooking in oil these days, guess i have just got used to the spray, or even just a non stick pan on its own. (Depending on the food you are cooking of course)

Great information though, thanks for sharing !

I think too many people are terrified of the wrong kinds of fats....olive oil is one of the healthiest fat you can get! It is loaded with good things for your body (good for heart, bones, hair, etc). If you cut out all the good fat from your diet, your weight loss will suffer. Educate yourself on what the good fats are vs. the bad fats.

Instead of cooking with the fake "spray oil" (loaded with chemicals!), why not put 1/2 teaspoon in your pan and them smear it around with a paper towel, wiping off the excess. You will only be using a very small amount of oil (I allow 5 ml, approx 40 calories).

Please do not give olive oil a bad name. Mediterranean diets are loaded with olive oil and they are among the healthiest diets on the planet.

Its always good to watch what oils you are placing into your body, and there are so many that are not only good for you, but essential.

A word of advice, as soon as you heat healthy oils (olive oil in particular), it becomes a saturated fat. The health benefits of olive oil are lost as soon as it is heated. But, as with everything, used in moderation as part of a health eating plan and regular exercise there is no reason why this oil cant be used to give your meals that delicious mediterranean flavour.

I couldn't live without olive oil. (Or pasta for that matter . . . . .)

In order to make olive oil saturated, you have to repeatedly heat it, like if you were to reuse your oil for frying multiple things. Personally, I use just a spoonful of oil to sauté veggies and never re-use it. That is how most people use it in the home, which won't saturate much if any of the fats in the oil. All oils can be saturated through repeated heating, but olive oil seems to be the oil that is the most resistant to this process because of its high smoke point.

As for the original post, I totally understand. I measure everything but am constantly seeing clients who don't measure oils or seasonings or gum or whatever finding that they are secretly sabotaging their eating plans. I have a client who use to go through 3 packs of gum a day for example. (She was quitting smoking.) She didn't think about it as having 5 calories per piece and she was chewing 50-60 of them a day. That's an additional 250-300 calories from gum! While the gum is highly preferable to the smoking, it still has to count. Another client didn't understand why her high blood pressure wasn't responding to her low sodium eating, until she finally told me that when she cooked chicken or veggies or basically anything, she seasoned it with Seasoned Salt. Her low sodium habits of cooking her own veggies instead of eating canned were negated by the salt in the seasoning, which is calorie free so she didn't think she had to log it. My point is that there is no such thing as a free food. They all have something in them to track.

Olive oil is a great thing to use to cook with, but measure how much you use and remember that you use it for the whole recipe not all in your one serving. Track it to make sure you are good on your calories. And enjoy the healthy fats that your body needs for proper cell function.

I count my Altoids!!

And I try to incorporate a tbsp of EV Olive Oil into my daily meals (yes I log it). Just one, however. For other such needs, I use 'I can't believe it's not butter' or Organic Pam. Very sparingly.

Also...did you notice the olive oil has 14g of fat per tablespoon?? Good thing it's healthy fat!