Freeday 30 March 2001

Pic of the day: Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Extra virgin

A couple years ago, today's title would have brought quite other associations. Like, the safe approach to human sacrifices, particularly when dragons are involved. Or it may have been a fitting description of some of the girls I knew in "Smith's Friends". I mean, being a virgin is fairly easy if you live a reasonably protected life. It's the little extra that goes beyond inexperience and well into innocence, that marks an "extra virgin".

But the truth about "extra virgin" is so prosaic: It's a generic type of olive oil, known for its great taste and health benefits. Actually all olive oil has health benefits, or at least that's the theory this year. (Fish oil is sooo 90es!) But virgin oil is supposedly the best quality, and so we rich people buy "extra virgin" olive oil, even though few if any of us would be able to decide from the taste whether we get what we pay for or whether they just label it to please the northerners. The people who could appreciate it probably still use the more common variant...

Anyway, I have known about the olive oil thing for a couple years and used it in my pasta for about as long. (Pasta rulez!) But yesterday, as I looked at my years ago entries, I found the link to OnHealth, whose name I had forgotten when they no longer sponsored The Hunger Site. And just in time I found it too, because tomorrow is its last day. Be that as it may, there was an article about the benefit of monounsaturated fats, including not least the olive oil.

***

It is suddenly my belief that God wants men to enjoy these three things for food: Bread, wine and oil. For those who are easily addicted to fermented wine, I suppose grape juice will be better. So I bought this flask of olive oil, a liter of grape juice, and some fresh bread after work. (Actually I am not susceptible to alcohol, but it gives me a headache, and the prices here are horrible too.) It felt so good and so right, I could hardly wait to get home and taste it.

It tasted kinda strange. Perhaps I should not have mixed the grape juice and the olive oil with hot water? Anyway, I liked it once I got over the shock. And it sure tasted healthy. I guess I can look into better ways to arrange it in the future, if any.

The nice thing about the oil is that it really satisfied. I get the big meal feeling. Supposedly the fat sets off some signal pathways telling the brain that the body has received some high-density nourishment, an effect you don't get from carbohydrates alone. (Much as I love carbs.) The food stays longer in the stomach and you feel strangely content, as if a higher power intended them to meet this fate. Ooops, the last was me quoting Darklands. But it is true that you don't hungry again quite as fast when there's some fat in the food. So if you eat fat anyway, it may as well be healthy, right?

***

Health update. The head cold is practically gone. On the left side it has developed into a moderate sinusitis. It was there this morning even though I had slept more than six hours. I was sore and tender from my gums to my temple. It seems to have retreated since, as I've stuffed myself with vitamins and chewed the occasional xylitol gum. (This artificial sweetener also happens to kill several species of bacteria. It may give diarrhea if over-used, though.) I'm still slightly tender from the left temple upward a ways, which is strange as there can't possibly be any sinuses there. Oh well. It seems pretty local though, and no fever.

Don't expect me to eat healthy stuff if I get well. ;)