“Ho! Ho! Ho! And a belly full of…”
Let’s leave that jelly in Santa’s belly this year and add some olive oil to our bellies! Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre encourages the addition of some healthy nutrition this Toronto holiday season. A great place to start is with how the foods are prepared. Substituting olive oil for butter and other oils may be a healthier choice…and even a tastier one!
First, a little about olive oil and its benefits. What makes it so good? Olive oil posesses lots of good fat, the monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). These are healthy dietary fat unlike the saturated and trans fats with unsaturated fats. MUFAs may help lower heart disease risk, stroke risk, total cholesterol levels. MUFAs may even assist in blood clotting and help control insulin levels and blood sugar. (1,2) Olive oil may help protect bone mass and prevent osteoporosis, protect against breast and skin cancers and even depression, improve heart health, and reduce the risk of kidney disease! (2) So are you ready to try some olive oil enhanced foods this holiday season? All your Toronto family will benefit!
What can olive oil enhance for the holiday dinner?
How about some roasted accordion red potatoes (a tastier, creamier potato, to boot!) with drizzled olive oil topped with green thyme (for the extra benefit of its healthy nutrients, vitamins and phytonutrients) before roasting in the oven. Great idea from Good Housekeeping. They’ll look so holiday-ish in their red and green! (3,4,5)
And
turkey...who can resist the taste and smell of roasted turkey? Preparing it for its roasting with olive oil and thyme, rosemary, and sage make it juicy, tender and even healthier beyond its own offering of protein, tryptophan, and vitamins/nutrients. (6) 
And for dessert, try some mini olive oil cakes with lemon glaze. Leave it to Food Network® (their picture to the right) to come up with this pretty, healthy, and tasty treat! (7) To enhance the holiday look, plop a cranberry or two on the top of each little cake. Yum!
Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre sees many patients with concurrent medical issues beyond just their back pain or neck pain and love sharing a nutritional tip that may improve these other health issues! So don’t be shy about your health issues! Discuss them all at your next Toronto chiropractic visit. Know that Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre keeps a look out for tips to help us all live healthier lives.
So contact Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre today. Santa is welcome, too! We’ll be sure to have an olive oil sample for him to try! Happy Holidays!