There are a handful of ways to infuse oil with medicinal and nutritional herbs. You may use Infused Olive Oils in cooking or in bath and skin products. There are an assortment of herbs to select from depending on the specific use.
For example, Rosemary Infused Olive Oil can be used as energetically flavored oil for roasting potatoes or stirring into your favorite pasta sauce.
For medicinal use, Rosemary Infused Olive Oil can be added to a variety of bath products. Additionally, Rosemary Infused Olive Oil is known to relieve an itchy scalp and dandruff. It is also thought to promote hair growth.
Calendula, plantain, chickweed, chamomile, lavender and comfrey Infused Olive Oils can be used in preparing lotions, salves, insect repellant or used as a bath oil. Calendula is a healing herb and is used most commonly for sunburns, itchiness, rashes, inflammation, and slow healing wounds. Plantain is also wound healing.
Chickweed can be used for small burns and skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema. Chamomile and lavender are calming, healing, and antifungal. Comfrey can be aid with minor burns, rashes, and insect bites.
Culinary Infused Olive Oils
Use savory Infused Olive Oils for an amazing addition to salad dressings or any number of healthy, delicious meal preparations using garlic, ginger, peppers and herbs. Our Infused Olive Oil experts recommend using dried herbs to prevent bacterial growth and mold. Fresh herbal Infused Olive Oils can be used, but to be safe, should only be used the day-of.
Herb Infused Olive Oil For Healing & Beauty
Cold Infusion/Solar Infusion
Materials needed:
Cooking with Olive Oil is an extremely commonly used practice.
The topic has been debated for a variety of years. A handful of so called “experts” say cooking with Olive Oil is indeed beneficial, however, doing so may also be a bit harmful.
Never Actually Cook With Olive Oil
We generally recommend that you never heat or cook cook with Olive Oil. Nut and seed oils are extracted in cold conditions and in the dark. They can be easily damaged. Our Olive Oil experts suggest that you never cook with cold pressed Olive Oil. The value of Olive Oil is in its micronutrients- salicylates, phytonutrients.
Olive Oil is best pressed cold when it typically contains higher nutrition from ripe olives. The Olives are pressed to extract their oil. In some cases, olives are so ripe that when you lay them on the actual tray, they drip oil without any pressure from the machine. As a result, light and heat are indeed among extra virgin olive oil’s worst enemies.
How Should Olive Oil Be Stored?
Olive Oil should be stored at cool temperatures, away from light and without exposure to oxygen. If it isn’t, the Olive Oil can deteriorate so much that it can no longer be classified as extra virgin olive oil.
In addition, high temperatures and oxygen negatively impact the Olive Oil on an assortment of levels. The sensory profile declined, rancidity developed, free fatty acid levels rose, antioxidants were lost and rancidity developed.
Tocopherols were lost meaning the vitamin E content of the nutritious oil was drastically depleted if not diminished altogether.
Heating Extra Virgin Olive Oil At 180 Degrees C For 36 h
Oxidation progress was monitored by measuring oil quality changes (peroxide value and conjugated dienes and trienes), fatty acid composition, and minor compound content. Tocopherols and polyphenols were the most affected by the thermal treatment and showed the highest degradation rate.”
Despite the heating conditions, (virgin olive oil) maintained most of its minor compounds and, therefore, most of its nutritional properties.
That’s why everything is only good in moderation. Eating food, if it’s not food, is not healthy. Drinking lighter fluid in moderation is not acceptable, eating antifreeze in moderation is not healthy– yet these are the ingredients are in processed foods today.
The preservative tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, is lighter fluid, used in chicken nuggets. Propylene glycol, antifreeze, is used in ice cream and frozen yogurt to prevent them from turning into a block of ice.
If food is not in its real food from the body can not recognize it for digestion. This is true for olive oil in its original unadulterated state.
A handful state that olive oil has been heated for centuries by the ancient Greeks, Romans and Italians. Others say they never heated olive oil, unless it was being used as lamp oil, it’s only the later generations that have heated the oil.
Atherosclerosis, a journal which analyses disturbances of lipid and lipoprotein metabolism, says olive oil is altered and suffers oxidative stress when heated.
The World Journal of Gastroenterology says, “Virgin (unrefined) olive oil contains a significant amount of antioxidants and α-tocopherol and phytochemicals. However, when refined or heated, olive oil loses these natural compounds.
The exact composition of Olive Oil generally depends not only on the growth conditions in the year preceding the harvest, but also on the degree of ripeness of the fruit and the technical processing (cold pressing, refining).”
If heat in the extraction damages the oil, we would be naive to believe heating the oil in cooking doesn’t damage the oil.
Quality Olive Oil should be green in color and taste spicy. Additionally, it should be stored in a colored glass container to deter sunlight from damaging the oil. Cooking is best done with grass fed tallow, pastured lard, unrefined coconut oil or butter if high heat isn’t used.
Various studies have shown Olive Oilto offer a handful of health benefits. An assortment of other studies have advised that some of these benefits claimed for Olive Oil should have caveats attached to them.
Healthy Fats
The main type of fat in Olive Oilis monounsaturated fatty acids, making it a healthy oil when compared to a variety of others.
Also, it is lower in saturated fats than, for example, butter, suggesting that replacing butter with Olive Oil in food is a healthy selection. Olive Oil contains no trans-fats.
Antioxidant
Olive Oilmay reduce the risk of cancer because of the antioxidant nature of its polyphenols. By decreasing oxidation and cell damage, the risk of degenerative diseases is reduced.
Studies have discovered that using Olive Oil, rather than saturated fats, can actually help decrease the risk of upper digestive and respiratory tract neoplasms, breast, and possibly colorectal and other cancer sites.
No Cholesterol
Olive Oil itself contains no cholesterol. Furthermore, it reduces LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol in the body. LDL deposits cholesterol in the arteries, which can unfortunately lead to heart disease.
Blood Pressure
An assortment of studies have shown an association between Olive Oil and blood pressure, with a reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
Insulin & Blood Sugar
Some research has described and displayed that Olive Oil may benefit insulin levels and blood-sugar control.
Reduce Oxidation
Olive Oil contains polyphenols and oleic acid, both of which have been found to assist in reducing oxidation of LDL. Oxidized LDL contributes to plaque build-up in the arteries.
All of these health benefits depend on the initial quality of the oil, how it is stored, and its freshness at the time it is consumed. Exposure to light and air reduces its quality and its ability to deliver these benefits.
