Olive Oil - The Olive Tree's Gift
Why olive oil has nourished civilizations—and why modern science says it still should.
This week on my podcast Fork U I talked about olive oils. Here is a bit more depth of that discussion
Ask me a dozen years ago about olive oil, and I would have told you the molecular structure of this mono-unsaturated oil, and that the data shows it is good for you. Today, it is a more interesting and fun story.
Olive oil isn’t just oil, when you press the juice out of an olive, there are pigments, phytochemicals, anti-oxidants, and tocopherols, just to name a few. Depending on where the olive is grown, determines the characteristic and taste of the oil.
The First Electricity
Before light bulbs, before gas, before candle wax - from bees, there were olive oil lamps. These were the “electricity” of the civilizations of old. How they discovered this is a mystery.
Once someone discovered the olive oil could be a source of fuel, they discovered the light from olive oil was brighter than wood, lasted a long time, and for all biblical history, the night light was from oil lamps. The temple, homes, and markets were given light from the olive oil. The original menorah in the ancient biblical Tabernacle and Holy Temple was fueled exclusively with pure olive oil.
Olive Oil and Wine - the best olive oil is from…
Olives grow in arid climates. Originally grew almost anywhere in the Mediterranean, from Morocco to Lebanon, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Greece. The first human cultivation of olive trees was 8000 years ago in the region of Syria-Palastine. All known for their olive oil, and every region is convinced their oil is the tastiest.
If you want to start a war on the internet, tell someone that the best olive oil comes from your favorite region. If you think politics on the internet are toxic, wait until you argue about olive oil.
Olive oil is like wine, the soil, the sunshine, the climate, are what we call the terroir. Each of those components has a different effect on the flavor of the olive and its juice. Hot dry climates stress the olive trees, which result in olives with more polyphenols, responsible for a bitter taste. Higher altitudes result in cooler nights, and those olives tend to have a more peppery finish. Both of those (hydroxytyrosol and oleocanthal) are the ingredients in olive oil that have a major impact on your health.
In the United States, arid regions can grow olives. When I lived in Phoenix, olive trees were so abundant that they had to be sprayed to not produce pollen, as they were highly allergenic. Still, the olive trees from Queen Creek produced a great, pepper flavored oil.
Moving to California in 2020, I found that many wineries have olive trees, and many their own brands of olive oils. In 1992, California founded The California Olive Oil Council (COOC). This trade association certifies California-grown extra virgin olive oil and has the strictest chemical and tasting standards in the world.
Dip It or Cook It
The components of olive oil determine where the oil is best used. You hear people say some olive oils should only be used for dressing foods, or making salads. Others are okay for cooking.
Occasionally someone will refer to the “smoke point” of olive oils, noting that the smoke point is such that olive oils are not good for frying foods.
But how olive oil is processed determines the quality of the oil, taste of the oil, and how it can be used.
Start with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the oil we talk about with health. And if you have the sense of humor of a teenager, you never forget it. So think about Extra Virgin as a food oil that has not seen anything other than a press to squeeze the olive and extract the olive juices. In the old days, this was done with a large stone press.
Some call this “cold-pressing.” It is far more mechanical than the above press, but it is simply that.
If the juice from the fruit is heated, or further extracted with chemicals, it is not extra virgin.
Moving to Virgin Olive Oil
Virgin olive oil is also mechanically pressed, but it does have some taste flaws, slightly more acidity. To be classified as extra virgin olive oil the acidity must be under 0.8% (or less than 0.5% in California). While Virgin olive oil has good flavor, the acidity comes from the olives, which had some minor damage that caused a change in the juice. For example, if the olive is bruised, over ripe, handled roughly, harvested when they were a bit over rip, or if the olive was attacked by an insect, then the oil is broken down slightly and becomes a bit acidic. You wonder why the EVOO in California costs more, because the olives picked for this were of a high quality, picked a peak ripeness.
Refined, Pure, and Light Olive Oils
Refined olive oil is virgin olive oil extracted using heat and filters to remove some acidity found in virgin olive oil. This olive oil is colorless and tasteless.
Pure Olive Oil is made by mixing 85% refined with 15% EVOO to add some taste and flavor to the olive oil.
Light Olive oil contains even less EVOO, usually 5-10% EVOO.
These are the olive oils used for baking, because of their neutral flavor, and frying or any use for high heat, as they have a high smoke point. They are less expensive than EVOO.
Health Benefits of Olive Oil
The health benefits have been extensively studied over the last seventy years, as one of the components of the Mediterranean Diet.
One of my favorite studies came from Lyon, France, where researchers enrolled people who had already suffered their first heart attack. Half continued eating the French version of their cardiology diet, called the prudent diet. The other half adopted a Mediterranean diet, and they had to convince those French to replace their beloved butter with olive oil. During the first year, the Mediterranean group had about a 75 percent lower risk of another heart attack, and years later the benefit remained remarkably strong. By the second year, the study was so one-sided that they had to drop the study and no longer advocate the prudent diet, but instead the Mediterranean Diet. Over five years, the rate of a second heart attack for those on the Mediterranean diet was 67% less than others.
The PREDIMED (Prevención con DIeta MEDiterránea or Prevention with Mediterranean Diet) trial followed about 7500 Spanish for five years at a high risk of a heart attack. Those who followed a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil had about a 30 percent reduction in major cardiovascular events compared with the control group. The original study was retracted due to statistical methods and later republished. The results remained the same.
Add to that decades of observational studies involving hundreds of thousands of people showing lower rates of heart disease, diabetes, and even mortality, and it’s easy to see why olive oil has earned its reputation.
The Components of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Let's open the bottle and look inside. Two ingredients, hydroxytyrosol and oleocanthal, I think are the most interesting compounds in extra virgin olive oil. Hydroxytyrosol is highly valued for its cellular antioxidant defense, while oleocanthal is a highly targeted anti-inflammatory agent. They also affect the taste of the oil.
