As if olive oil weren't delicious enough!

This article was released today from Reuters News Agency.

To sum it up, Dr. Francisco Perez-Jiminez of the Sofia University Hospital in Cordoba and his colleagues performed a study providing new evidence that eating virgin olive oil and other foods that contain phenols (organic compounds thought to be good for the heart) can help people with high cholesterol fight off blood clots.

Here's some background information on the difference between kinds of olive oil:

Extra-virgin olive oil comes from the first pressing of the olives, contains no more than 0.8% acidity and comes from trees that have experienced neither drought nor disease and are traditionally picked by hand. It is generally regarded to have superior taste and be of superior quality.

Virgin olive oil has acidity of less than 2% and is regarded to have an acceptable taset.

Pure olive oil This is usually a blend of refined olive oils and one of the above categories. Oils labeled as ‘Pure olive oil’ or ‘Olive oil’ are usually a blend of refined olive oil and one of the above two categories. Refined oil is oil that has been treated with chemicals for various reasons. (Extra virgin and virgin olive oil does not contain refined oil or any of the chemicals involved)

Olive oil is also a blend of virgin oil and refined oil and contains no more than 1.5% acidity. It lacks a strong flavor and does not have the purported health benefits of virgin and extra-virgin olive oil.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/virgin_olive_oil_blood_clot_dc

Low-Stress Food Event at Pres A Vi in San Francsico

We had an event in San Francisco to promote Low-Stress Food.

This was our invite, it gives some background information on Joon.

Please join us on Monday, August 6^th from 6-8PM at Pres a Vi in the Presidio for cocktails, light fare and inspired conversation among friends. At this gathering, I will be delighted to introduce to you my friend, Dr. Joon Yun, Partner and head of healthcare investing at Palo Alto Investors, LLC, and founder of the non-profit think tank, Palo Alto Institute. Dr. Yun is a graduate of Harvard University and Duke Medical School who later trained and taught with the faculty at Stanford University. He has authored numerous studies published in peer-reviewed medical journals and is named on over 30 patents. He actively serves on the boards of several companies and non-profit philanthropic organizations.

Dr. Yun has just published a new book entitled, "Low-Stress Food—Eat Your Way to a Low-Stress Life" which explores the unprecedented idea that food itself can be a source of stress, as determined by how it gets to our plates. Food can be a source of second hand stress which contributes to a wide range of diseases including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, infection, depression, high blood pressure, autoimmune disease, and cancer. " Low-Stress Food—Eat Your Way to a Low-Stress Life" is a referendum on the modern food system that reveals the potential to change the world by making enlightened choices about food.

Prior to what is sure to be an important national conversation, we are honored to be among be the first to hear him share ideas and concepts about Low-Stress Food at this informal gathering. We look forward to seeing you. Kindly reply by August 1st.

We brought fresh (organic, in season) veggies for all the guests as well as copies of the book (if you'd like your own copy, please go here). Among the people on the invite list were writers for magazines, restaurant owners and growers.

Please visit our website to learn more.

Coming Soon: The Low-Stress Food Blog

It starts with an intuition that the food we eat may represent a significant, previously unrecognized, source of chronic stress. Food brings us not only calories but also information through “gut feeling”. Assimilating the stress of the food we eat into our own body is an evolutionary strategy designed to protect us during stressful times of resource scarcity such as winter. The tremendous stress we impart on animals and plants through the industrialized food infrastructure is coming full circle back to those who consume them in a deadly rendition of “you are what you eat”. Despite living in a time of unprecedented resource abundance, but modern humans who consume stressed food are stewing in inappropriate angst and “fattening up for winter” on a year-round basis.

Insight into the role of chronic stress embedded in the foods is the first step in recognizing how food can improve our mental and physical wellness. The consumption of “second hand stress” embedded in foods could play a role in virtually every stress-associated disease. Low-Stress Food (LSF) may be the unifying paradigm that mechanistically links virtually all the observed associations between food and health under a common umbrella, particularly those involving modern health food movements such as organic foods, local foods, “slow foods”, vegetarianism, raw foods, in-season foods, macrobiotics, unprocessed foods, natural foods and free-range meats. At the core of all mainstream belief systems is the “Golden Rule”—the idea that kindness and cruelty both return in kind. Low-Stress Food extends that notion to the food that we eat and espouses the broader holistic philosophy that good relationships, whether at the personal or systemic level, are the foundation to building a better world.

Low-Stress Food is a referendum on the modern food system and reveals the potential to change the world if we collectively make enlightened choices about food. Moral persuasion alone can only take progressive social movements so far; LSF can more effectively catalyze these important movements and stir the populist imagination by mobilizing enlightened self-interest.