We Olive Celebrates American Heart Month with Huge Olive Oil Giveaway

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Donate to the American Heart Association during American Heart Month and enter to win olive oil for a year at We Olive.

The typical American only consumes about one liter of olive oil each year, less than ten percent of the FDA recommendation.

Paso Robles, CA (PRWEB) February 06, 2014

We Olive, in honor of American Heart Month, is demonstrating its commitment to heart health with a company-wide campaign to raise awareness about heart disease and the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil. The premium California olive oil and gourmet foods retailer has announced plans to giveaway olive oil for a year at each of its eleven locations in an effort to educate consumers about the importance of olive oil as part of a heart healthy diet and to help raise money for the American Heart Association. Throughout the month of February, We Olive will be collecting donations for the American Heart Association and giving customers a chance to win olive oil for a year. We Olive will also be arming customers with information on how to make simple changes to their diet that can yield big results.

The core of their campaign is based on a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed a significant decrease in the risk of heart disease for people who eat a Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil. This coupled with the Food & Drug Administration's qualified health claim that adding two tablespoons of olive oil to a diet in place of an equal amount of unhealthy saturated fat can reduce the risk of heart disease, provides compelling evidence in support of olive oil consumption. Based on the FDA recommendation, Americans should be consuming about 10 liters of olive oil each year or 40 liters for a family of four.

Frank Mercurio, co-owner of We Olive in addition to being Chief Scientific Officer at BioTheryX, a company dedicated to bringing new treatments to patients as quickly as possible, explains the connection between the lack of olive oil in the American diet and the increased risk of heart disease.

"The typical American only consumes about one liter of olive oil each year, less than ten percent of the FDA recommendation. If you look at countries like Greece (over 20 liters per person), Spain (around 14 liters per person) or Italy (around 12 liters per person), you see an average person consuming 15 - 20 times this amount. We also know that there is over-whelming and continuously increasing evidence that the Mediterranean diet which is rich in extra virgin olive oil and consumed in these countries offers a wide variety of health benefits, including a reduced risk of heart disease and stroke. With heart disease being the number one killer of Americans, we cannot ignore these studies especially when we have some of the keys to prevention readily available to us."

We Olive's goal is to raise awareness about the benefits of the Mediterranean diet and help consumers make healthier choices by replacing saturated fat, like butter or animal fat, with extra virgin olive oil. The giveaway of free olive oil for a year is designed to illustrate to their customers just how easy it is to make the switch.

Mercurio offers, "The data shows that adding more extra virgin olive oil to your diet is a good thing, but many people don't know exactly how and where to add that extra olive oil or believe that the change will be cost-prohibitive. We want to show our customers what a year's supply of olive oil for good health looks like -just one bottle each month, and how to incorporate that healthy fat into their diet."

We Olive will be handing out heart-healthy recipes, a butter-to-olive oil conversion chart to help consumers modify their favorite recipes, and information about heart disease and how olive oil works to reduce that risk. For health-conscious customers that aren't near a We Olive location, the retailer provides these same resources on their website with an informative blog, a large collection of healthful recipes and an online shop.

For more information about the giveaway, the health benefits of olive oil or to locate a store, visit http://www.weolive.com.

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