I love olive oil. I like to cook with it and I use it to keep my nails strong. Yep, we are using olive oil for more than just cooking pasta. A traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, olive oil is a fruit oil obtained from the olive. Not just for cooking, it is used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps.
In cooking, olive oil has traditionally been used with vinegar to make a simple salad dressing. Now there are olive oil pie crusts, olive oil cake and pasta with lemon olive oil. Recipes abound with various ways to use olive oil to bring out the flavors in other foods. Organic extra virgin olive oil I mostly used for salad dressings and foods to be eaten cold. Used cold, its strong flavor is able to stick out while not being compromised by heat. It is also used for sautéing ingredients. It is best kept it in an olive oil bottle for freshness.
Olive oil has been researched and known to have heart protective benefits. It can also have effects on cholesterol regulation and has been shown to reduce heart attacks and strokes due to vascular stress. This makes olive oil a benefit to your overall diet. Olive oil skin care is popular with fans of natural health remedies. Olive oil can be used as an effective shaving oil to shave facial and other body hair giving results that are equivalent to expensive commercial products.
Olive oil has been used in soap making for thousand of years. Olive oil soap making was started by the ancient Egyptians who wanted to clean themselves. They realized that the olive oil stuck to the dirt, and could then be scraped away. Other civilizations in Mesopotamia learned to put soda ash in olive oil and this became the first soap. In that same vein, olive oil shampoo has been used for centuries for its moisturizing. Other olive oil hair care products are used regularly in many cultures.
Whether you are using Italian olive oil or Greek olive oil the benefits are plentiful. See how many uses you can come up with! Enjoy!
