Benefits of cooking with olive oil and vinegar this holiday season
Everything tastes better with butter, especially in winter. But cutting out that animal fat and working instead with olive oil and vinegar could improve your health this season.
Not only does cooking with olive oil and vinegar separately enhance any meal, but mixing olive oil and vinegar together can be great as well. A mixture of olive oil and vinegar can be a healthier substitute for salad dressings and sandwich spreads, and can be used in marinades and other food preparations.
Aside from the amazing taste, olive oil and vinegar have some amazing health benefits, both separately and combined. Choosing healthful varieties of oil and vinegar — such as olive oil and apple cider or red wine vinegar — can provide optimal health benefits.
So, what are some of the health benefits for we food-loving queers?
Olive oil lowers cholesterol and helps prevent clogged arteries.
Using olive oil instead of oils that are loaded with saturated fat in your cooking might protect you from heart disease. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, the monounsaturated fat in olive oil will help lower LDL cholesterol and raise protective HDL cholesterol.
Too much LDL cholesterol is what is responsible for clogged arteries, because it forms plaque on the arterial walls and slows blood flow to and from the heart. This eventually leads to heart disease. Healthy HDL cholesterol levels brought on by olive oil picks up excess cholesterol in the bloodstream and brings it to the liver for disposal.
Apple Cider Vinegar helps improve digestion and provides various other remedies.
Vinegar contains many beneficial ingredients, including potassium and calcium. The acetic acid contained in different varieties of vinegar, such as Apple Cider Vinegar, can help balance the acid levels in your stomach to improve digestion.
Speaking of Apple Cider Vinegar, it has also been used for a variety of home remedies, such as improving joint pain and stiffness in arthritis sufferers, and removing toxins from the body. Although many of these home remedies have not been proven scientifically, numerous medical journals suggest that vinegar might have antimicrobial properties and recommends two teaspoons of Apple Cider Vinegar in a cup of warm water several times a day as a remedy for food poisoning.
Vinegar helps improve blood sugar levels for diabetics.
According to researchers at Arizona State University, vinegar also helps improve glucose levels, or blood sugar levels, in people with Type 2 diabetes. They examined eleven diabetics who had taken vinegar at bedtime for several days, and it favorably improved their waking glucose concentrations.
The acetic acid in vinegar might benefit diabetics with metabolic disturbances that contribute to a morning rise in fasting glucose, the researchers reported in the November 2007 issue of “Diabetes Care,” an American Diabetes Association publication.
Other health benefits of olive oil include:
- May have strong anti-inflammatory properties.
- May help prevent strokes.
- May have anti-cancer properties.
Other health benefits of vinegar (including Balsamic Vinegar and Apple Cider Vinegar) include:
- It supports weight loss.
- It improves blood circulation.
- It may help with hypertension.
It seems like having olive oil and vinegar in your cupboard is a good shout, especially if you’re looking for an easy and healthy way to stay healthy. And now, we have the perfect place for you to find your goods — Seasons Olive Oil and Vinegar Taproom!
Seasons Olive Oil and Vinegar Taproom was started in 2009 by Tim Balshi and Soraya Aguilar Balshi with the goal of educating the public about the culinary and health benefits of fresh super premium extra virgin olive oil and balsamic condimento vinegars. Their vision of selling products based on quality, objective testing and winning international awards, instead of romantic stories of olive groves and imagery of the Mediterranean, were common objectives they both held dear.
Since then, their olive oil odyssey has led them to open four family owned and operated stores. Their passion for fresh olive oil and high quality vinegars shines in all that they do at each Seasons location, whether it be educational classes, partnering with local restaurants or chef-driven cooking demonstrations.They strive to share their passion with their customers, both in store and online, as they promote a food culture driven by healthy eating, education and interaction.
Visit their website to browse their large selection of olive oils, vinegars, specialty oils and seasonings, all available for shipping anywhere in the United States! And if you’re in the area, visit one of their four locations in Annapolis, Maryland (Baltimore/Washington, DC area), Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (between Philadelphia and New York City), Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Morristown, New Jersey (Philadelphia area).
