An 11 year study into the cooking and eating habits of over 40,000 adults in Spain has concluded that there is no link between eating fried foods and the risk of heart disease or premature death – as long as you use olive oil in your frying pan. The Mediterranean lifestyle is renowned for its healthy diet, with olive oil being a central ingredient in every Spanish, Italian and Greek recipe book. The study has also identified sunflower oil as being a better option for maintaining your health and wellbeing than butter or lard.

Unfortunately for us, switching to olive oil or sunflower oil won’t automatically transform us into a slim and healthy nation. The study also emphasises the importance of a balanced, low-fat diet and points to the other risks inherent in eating a lot of fried food, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol. A lot of food in Britain is currently fried in solid or reused oils, which are then absorbed by the food that cooks in them.  This leads to a higher calorie intake and could well be a factor behind the rising obesity statistics.

Even if it doesn’t make us healthier straight away, choosing olive oil over butter or lard is definitely a positive step forward for those who want to make a change to their dietary habits and lower their risk of future health problems. Expanding your culinary horizons in terms of cooking methods could also be a way in which to lower cholesterol: why not put the frying pan away for a few days and try steaming, boiling, baking or roasting?  The results of the Spanish study are not a green light to revel in fried foods and nothing else, after all.

Besides naturally healthy fats such as olive oil and sunflower oil, the Mediterranean diet is famous for its abundance of fresh fruit, vegetables and fish. Perhaps we should go further than just buying a nice bottle of olive oil for the kitchen counter and take inspiration from their diet in its entirety, in an effort to ensure healthy hearts across the country.

 This is a guest post by Jemma Saunders. For more information on health and wellbeing visit www.articles4home.com. For more from Jemma read her blog and follow her on Twitter @JemSaunders1

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