Most Doctors Agree Breathing Regularly is Good For You – Headline
It was some time in the late 13th Century and Marco Polo was relaxing in the court of Emperor Kublai Khan where he’d been installed as advisor on all things West.
But young Marco was wrestling with homesickness. He had been travelling along the Silk Road for a long time and he longed for something that reminded him of the sights and smells of Napoli.
But all he had were olives and some cheese. Even so, he confided in the Emperor’s chef, the redoubtable One Hung Low.
Hung Low sympathised not just because he liked the young gwai-lo but because he thought he could do something with his ingredients.
First, he ordered the olives to be pressed. What resulted was a clear golden oil with a not unpleasing odour.
The delighted chef began by thinly slicing seven cloves of garlic which he then sauteed in the new oil.
The resulting fragrance prompted both Marco and the great Khan to rush, moaning with delight, to the kitchen.
They were just in time to witness Hung Low, calm now in the face of discovery, add red chili flakes to the mix and then toss it with noodles in salt water.
As an encore, the chef garnished the dish with parsley and, in a final flourish, grated some of the Italian’s cheese – identified later as Parmegiano Reggiano – over the aromatic platter.
The Khan professed his delight with the steaming ambrosia and, in a fit of gratitude towards his young guest’s Catholic leanings, declared he would call the dish the Pope jumped over the wall but he was dissuaded by young Polo who said its name should rhyme with the chef’s.
And so the chef was promoted, renamed Two Hung Low and the dish would forever be called spaghetti aglio olio (Spaghetti with garlic and oil).
Aside: Hung Low – aglio. Got it?
But Polo was not unpatriotic and so, when he returned to Naples, he covered up the dish’s real origins, claiming that he’d not only discovered olive oil but the new dish and all its by-products which he named pasta.
Through most of his later life, however, Polo grew obsessed with the new cuisine and could often be seen poring over ancient Chinese cook-books. Indeed, he neglected Brigitte, his long suffering wife who grew despondent and pined away.
You could say life pasta by.
But what the great chef Two Hung Low could not have foreseen was he not only set into motion what is now known as Neapolitan cuisine but he also invented a new and wondrous oil that the 21st Century is now associating with the prevention of various diseases linked to aging.
Olive oil, we are now told, is bristling with antioxidants, monounsaturated fatty acids, vitamins and enough minerals to make Popeye abandon spinach altogether. Why do you think his girlfriend is named the way she is?
In summary, scientists have pinpointed three good reasons to make olive oil part of your daily diet.
It reduces the risk of dementia by as much as 28%. This followed the consumption of half a table spoon of oil a day.
“Opting for olive oil instead of margarine or mayonnaise is safer and may reduce the risk of fatal dementia,” said Harvard postdoctoral fellow Dr Anne-Julie Tessier in a statement.
It protects the heart from certain diseases, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in 2022. The study showed that consumption of more than half a tablespoon of oil was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular death (-19%), cancer death (-17%), and death from neurodegenerative disease (-29%), compared with occasional or no consumption at all.
It supports longevity. The same study came to the conclusion that a high consumption of olive oil could help people live longer.
Given the overwhelming statistical evidence, it’s best to drink it daily by the thimbleful.
ENDS
Speakeasy 