3 Times You Should Hold the Olive Oil

Hilton Head Health Program Director, Felicia Hackett, RD

Olive oil has become more or less a table oil. We use it on many different foods to enhance that savory flavor. For cooking it can be used in many ways like roasting and sautéing. Nutrition wise, olive oil is fat and it should be used in moderation since it is an energy dense food. A little bit can go a long way.



Here at Hilton Head Health, we use 1/4 teaspoon to 1 cup of vegetables. Crazy! But it works. Times you should not use olive oil in your cooking are:

• Skip out on adding oil in with the cooking of pasta. Also, when pasta is cooked and you want to keep the pasta from clumping, use extra pasta sauce instead of olive oil

• Use yellow or Dijon mustard, a 0 calorie condiment, instead of oils when making sandwiches or subs at home

• Pass on the olive oil dip and bread as an appetizer and instead fill up on more nutrient dense foods that are served in your meal like non-starchy vegetables

Olive oil makes food more palatable. Our goal in weight loss and management is to reach satiety. It definitely helps make food tasty but we do have to be cognizant of the amount we are using.