Olive oil, the elixir of life?

The holidays are over and unfortunately it’s back to work. However, the good news is that I will be back posting on the blog again! It’s also just over 4 weeks now since I returned from my Cretan holiday and all is still well as far as my diet, health and bio-markers are concerned. 

In this post, published just after my return, I discussed how my waistline had crashed during my stay in Crete. Well, I’m glad to report that things have remained almost exactly as they were upon my return i.e. my waistline has NOT crept back up as I feared it might.  For the record, my waist, as of this morning, stands at 91 cm, well under the 94 cm limit discussed here.

So what’s changed? My “light exercise” regime remains the same so it can’t be that. Well, the main thing is the clarified butter or ghee which I have now removed completely from my diet and replaced with olive oil. Hence, all our frying is now in olive oil and our staple, home-made mayonnaise, is also made from the same stuff. This means that I am now completely dairy-free. It would appear that despite everything, ghee was ever-so-slightly inflammatory for me.

Olive Bread

The other thing that has changed, in line with what I was eating in Crete, is that I have started to incorporate some olive bread into my diet. I purchase these fresh from Lidl, in the form of small sticks, similar to those shown on the left. “But these are full of carbs!”, I hear you cry, and you’d be correct! So why am I eating bread at all??

The answer is very simple. For a start, I eat very small quantities, max one stick/day or less than 100g. Secondly, it’s olive bread so it will already contain some “olive oil”, albeit in relatively small amounts. Finally, I NEVER eat the bread by itself. I always make sure it’s soaked in fat first. For example, I will use small amounts to “mop up” any left-over fat/mayo on my plate from any/all of my meals, especially my daily fried breakfast. I will also use it as a snack by pouring some extra virgin olive oil onto a plate, adding a pinch of salt and dipping small chunks of bread in it until completely soaked. I find it very satiating. So the point is, I am using the bread as a “sponge”, in relatively small quantities, to easily mop up and get spare fat into my system, and i find it works very well indeed. There appears to be no penalty whatsoever for a slight increase in daily carb intake when it is done in this manner.

I look forward to your comments..