From Laurel on Health Food comes “14 Foods that Lower Cholesterol”.

1. Whole grain and oats
2. Blueberries
3. Pistachios
4. Walnuts
5. Almonds
6. Avocados
7. Olives
8. Olive oil
9. Flaxseed oil
10. 100% cranberry-grape juice
11. Fish and fish oil
12. Black soybeans
13. Pomegranate juice
14. Yogurt with live active cultures (probiotics)

Check out if any of the foods above also made the “Eight foods to eat daily” list.

Compare with the verboten foods of the Paleolithic Diet — no grains, no beans, no dairy, etc. — as well as the items all three of these have in common. Somewhere in the middle, the truth lies.

A story in the LA Times this past weekend — “Caltech branches into … olive oil” — covers the geeks at the SoCal technical university coming up with a great scheme.

Take 130 trees dropping olives on campus walkways. Add in students seeking prankish respite from their studies. Mix in a French-born university president with a taste for Mediterranean cuisine.

That’s the formula for making olive oil at Caltech.

The institution better known for rocket science is launching its own brand of the golden kitchen condiment, produced from the trees on its Pasadena campus. A minor flood — upward of 300 gallons — is expected this fall.

Caltech has joined up with the California Olive Oil Council in order to get their products tested in various ways, including whether it gets rated as “extra virgin.”

According to the story, UC Davis and Cal State Fresno have also ventured into olive oil production.

A commercial came on a few days ago that was very confusing.

You probably have heard of the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter butteresque products. Apparently they’re jumping on the Mediterranean Diet bandwagon with a new line:

Olive oil is a key part of the Mediterranean Diet. Now you can enjoy I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® Mediterranean Blend, made with olive oil, for the same delicious butter taste you’ll feel great about eating. It’s an excellent source of Omega 3 ALA, is naturally cholesterol free, and contains 70% less saturated fat than butter.

They also have a “Light” version.

Now, I have no idea how particularly healthy these products are, but at what point do you think it’s a good idea to just, you know, use actual olive oil instead of fake butter?

On a related topic my new favorite way to have a baked potato is drizzling it with olive oil and red wine vinegar, then a dash or two of garlic and basil, salt and pepper. Some red pepper flakes for bite. Good Lord, that’s good stuff.

The WHFoods “World’s Healthiest Foods” website (run by the George Mateljan Foundation) has a really cool “Weekly Bulletin” mailing list with informative articles on various food topics. The latest has a brief article answering the question, “Can you tell me more about the Mediterranean Diet?”

The article has nothing really new if you are already familiar with the ideas surrounding the diet, though it serves as a good introduction if you aren’t.

Of more interest is the References list at the bottom, with a dozen scientific articles that folks interested in diving into the nitty gritty might like to track down if they have the access and means to do so.

Not like anybody needs another excuse to quaff a few, but yet more research is appearing showing a correlation between moderate drinking and good health. Folks familiar with the Mediterranean Diet will not be surprised by this, nor anyone who has been paying attention to health articles, tv shows, or other publicity.

On MSNBC: “Want to live longer? Toss back a few cocktails”

According to the data, drinking a moderate amount of alcohol — up to four drinks per day in men and two drinks per day in women — reduces the risk of death from any cause by roughly 18 percent, the team reports in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Now, this does not mean everybody should start drinking four drinks a day. One person’s “moderate” is another’s “excessive.” Instead:

“Little amounts, preferably during meals, this appears to be the right way (to drink alcohol),” said Dr. Giovanni de Gaetano of Catholic University, another author on the study. “This is another feature of the Mediterranean diet, where alcohol, wine above all, is the ideal partner of a dinner or lunch, but that’s all: the rest of the day must be absolutely alcohol-free.”

Ah, there it is again — a mention of the Mediterranean Diet. But do you really suppose the good Dr. de Gaetano speaks like this in real life…

“The message carried by scientific studies like ours is simple,” Dr. de Gaetano continued. “Alcohol can be a respectful guest on our table, but it is good just when it goes with a healthy lifestyle, where moderation leads us toward a consumption inspired by quality not by quantity.”

So have a glass of wine or pint of beer with dinner — it does a body good. ;)