Cardiologists see the impact that diet has on a patient’s heart, so they choose foods and ingredients carefully for their own meals.
When doctors shared their favorite heart-healthy breakfasts, lunches and dinners, their daily menu included plenty of oatmeal, salads, lean protein, yogurt, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
But there’s one ingredient in particular cardiologists like to add to their main meal.
Cardiologist Tip of the Day: Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil As Your Main Fat
“The food we make is pretty liberally oiled with olive oil. It’s very Mediterranean,” Dr. Sharonne Hayes, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, previously told TODAY.com.
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University in Boston, said his family goes through a liter of olive oil a week, which he described as about average in Mediterranean countries like Greece and Italy.
“Using healthy oils liberally and often” is “important for dinner,” he previously told TODAY.com.
The Start TODAY app features many recipes with olive oil, like this Sheet-Pan Maple Dijon Chicken with Fall Veggies.
Why It Matters
What people eat is the single top determinant of heart health, Mozaffarian said.
Olive oil is a central food in the Mediterranean diet, which has major benefits for heart health.
Olive oil benefits include a high monounsaturated fat content, which helps to lower the “bad” LDL cholesterol, and antioxidants that protect cells from damage, registered dietitian Samantha Cassetty notes.
Extra virgin olive oil is the most flavorful and nutrient-rich type of the healthy fat because it’s the least processed, she adds.
How to Get Started
The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend about 2 tablespoons of any oil per day.
But some doctors use more when it comes to extra virgin olive oil.
“At our household, I can tell you we do not even think about limiting the amount of olive oil, we just use it as much as we want,” Dr. James O’Keefe, a cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, previously told TODAY.com.
He follows the Pesco-Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes fish and seafood as the main sources of animal protein rather than lean red meat or poultry.
The Start TODAY app features a variety of heart-healthy seafood recipes with olive oil and a new Mediterranean meal plan every single week.
The recommended amount of extra virgin olive oil on this diet is 4 tablespoons or more per day, according to a review of its benefits.
Polyphenols, the plant compounds that are believed to give olive oil so many health benefits, have a bitter taste. So an extra virgin olive oil high in polyphenols will produce a tingling or burning in the back of the throat a few seconds after swallowing it, the authors advise.
TODAY’s Expert Tip of the Day series is all about simple strategies to make life a little easier. Every Monday through Friday, different qualified experts share their best advice on diet, fitness, heart health, mental wellness and more.
