Registered Dietitian Debunks Olive Oil Trend
As seen in TIME, Clinical Associate Professor and Chairperson for the Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Mindy Haar, Ph.D., RDN, debunks a TikTok trend encouraging users to consume daily olive oil shots. While people taking the shots believe they are more likely to reap the oil’s health benefits, Haar explains that doing so can lead to weight gain, as the average olive oil shot adds approximately 357 calories to one’s daily consumption.
“The thing people don’t realize is that no matter what type of fat they’re consuming, it all has the same calories,” says Haar. “A tablespoon of lard and a tablespoon of olive oil are equal in number of calories…Once a food rightfully gets a healthy aura, there’s this notion of, ‘Some is good. More is better,’ but that’s not always the case.”