Benefits of Olives and Olive Oil

Could Olive Oil be the key to weight loss? Scientists discover even the SMELL of it can make us feel full & not hungry

Courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Okay, I have no clue as to the power of merely smelling olive oil making you feel full and not hungry. But when my wife and I were on the Greek island of Zakynthos, we went with a bus tour up into the mountains and stopped at the village called Agios Leon. There was a little Olive oil pressing factory there called Olive Oil Press Margaris Lamprinos & Co. Before we stopped, our lady tour guide who was from Finland and had lived there in Zakynthos for over 20 years, told us the story of the Mediterranean diet which includes generous use of Olive Oil. She said the Greeks don't cook with it so much as they pour it over food after it's been prepared. She said it is why many there are not overweight. She said it does something to improve your metabolism and make you feel  full and less hungry. Interesting note here on our tour guide lady. She was speaking Greek to the driver, but when spoke English, she sounded exactly like a friend of mine back in Anza. She even looked a bit like her. I actually thought so in the beginning of our trip, but didn't tell my wife until the lady revealed her country of origin. For those reading who know me up in Anza, I'm talking about Sirkka Rosada. How uncanny is that ? 😲 Whatever! 😎

Bus Tour to village of Agios Leon & Olive Press Co

The village where this olive oil press factory is location is mostly a mountainous terrain which offers excellent growing conditions for high quality olives and fine tasting olive oil. So we had the opportunity to tour the olive oil press company and get direct first hand look at the entire olive oil production process from the past to the present. We tasted their excellent virgin olive oil served with freshly baked homemade bread and local olives. And there were different flavours of olive oil. Some with a hint of garlic, orange or lemon. Others with different herbs. They offered two different types of whole olives and olive paste. Yesterday at 10:00 in the morning I ate some left over sweet potatoes, squash, onions and mushrooms with one hamburger patty my wife made the night before. But then I decided to pour some of the olive oil we bought over the reheated up food. But interestingly enough in the evening at about 6:00 in the evening, my wife wanted to know what I wanted for dinner and I said I really wasn't hungry and in fact I felt full. I had a small bowl of potato chips as a snack and and I didn't even like those. But then it hit me what I had done with the olive oil that morning, what it's effect was, what the tour guide said and what I found this morning in the Eureka Science Research Feed. 

There is a study by Virginia Tech researchers regarding the health benefits of olive oil. Two major things were found to improve. Diabetes and weight loss. The beauty of my own experience here is not that I read something first and decided to try it. But rather pouring the olive oil over food and not feeling hungry the rest of the day. Then remembering our road trip in Zakynthos and what was told to us, plus this article this morning. So here it is:

Virginia Tech News: "Virginia Tech biochemists dip into the health benefits of olives and olive oil"

I decided to google some other info and there is a lot in studies and articles out there. The usual problem with Scientists is that they are  generally by nature skeptical of natural methods of anything. If they can't synthesize and process something for corporate profit, then it must be no good. Anyway, here's another from Mail Online:

Mail Online: "Could olive oil be the key to weight loss? Scientists discover even the SMELL of it can make us feel full"

Anyway Enjoy! 😏