Cooking with olive oil is the healthiest

Researchers from Spain and Brazil have found that cooking vegetables with the addition of olive oil can improve the extractability of their polyphenols, increasing the amount of this component, due to its absorption by olive oil.

As a result of eating disorders, poor aggressive environmental conditions or psychological stress, free radicals accumulate in the body, which can destroy healthy cells. And that's where we need polyphenols. They neutralize their action and remove them from the body, preventing the development of many diseases. The study examined the inner workings of traditional Mediterranean cuisine techniques, in an attempt to shed light on how olive oil interacts with other ingredients. It was found that along with polyphenols, various other useful biologically active compounds from vegetables are absorbed by oil during cooking and enter our body.

In Spanish cuisine there is such a word sofrito, "frying" of any vegetables in olive oil, and it is also a specific sauce, basic for different dishes – such a fragrant puree of tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and herbs. It turned out that there are more polyphenols in this sauce, and the product is healthier thanks to Extra Virgin olive oil, which "sucks" them out of vegetables.