Olive Oil

Want to whittle your stroke risk by 41 percent? Use olive oil for cooking, salad dressings and bread.
Cut your risk of stroke by making olive oil your first choice in the kitchen. If you’re still using butter, margarine, shortening or corn oil for bread and cooking, making the switch to extra-virgin olive oil could slash your chance of stroke by 41 percent.
The study, published in the journal Neurology, found that using liberal amounts of olive oil in place of other, not-so-healthful oils and fats dramatically protected against brain attacks in people over the age of 65. Nearly three-quarters of all strokes occur in people over the age of 65 — and your risk more than doubles each decade after the age of 55.
Olive oil isn’t the only heart-healthy oil that appears to offer protection. A diet rich in omega-3s, found in fish, has been shown to reduce the severity of stroke in experimental animals. While we do not know if this is the case in humans, there are lots of good reasons to take in these heart-healthy oils. Just remember that all fats — even the heart-healthy kind — are high in calories. Just one tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil weighs in at 120 calories.