The benefits of olive oil for the skin: olive oil and calories

Question
I recently heard that olive oil is good for dry skin.  I am a very picky and
healthy eater and am wondering if the calories in the olive oil are absorbed
through your skin? If so, where do they go and what happens?
I really hope they aren't :)

-Beth

Answer
Beth,

Olive oil doesn't seem to penetrate the skin very well, it works either on the surface or "from inside out" as a dietary oil. The most health benefits are described for the dietary olive oil and many of the benefits of Mediterranean diet including skin improvement are attributed to the dietary olive oil. However, it does work topically (see suggested reading)

But _IF_ all the olive oil applied to the skin _could_ be completely absorbed, let's calculate how many calories it could add to your daily calorie balance.

1 tablespoon contains 120 Calories. Olive oil works better in combination with other substances that make it either more fluid (ethanol) or more topically active (honey) and the usual part of the oil is about 1/3, which give us 40 Cal.

Now, studies showed that the error in self-recorded energy intake is as high as 14 percent, which for the 2000 Cal. a day energy budget means 280 Cal., so your natural error in calorie calculation can be 7 times higher than the maximal theoretically possible calories coming with 1 tablespoon of olive oil rubbed into your skin.

Cant resist to mention that if your concern about calories carried by the very healthy oil practically mean that you are on a low fat diet, you might want to reconsider this approach since it's repeatedly shown that it does your body more bad than good.

Reading

Some clinical facts about topical effects of olive oil
http://atkinszone.com/faq/2007/11/q-is-it-ok-to-rub-oilve-oil-into-skin.html

Creating negative calorie balance
http://atkinszone.com/faq/2007/11/negative-calorie-balance-eat-500-less.html

Can a person eat unlimited calories, and still lose weight?
http://bantadiet.com/banta/?page_id=42

Tanya Zilberter

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