Extra Virgin Olive Oil - EVOO
- The difference between green and black olives
- How it’s produced – defining ‘cold pressed’ and ‘early harvest’
- Is it safe to cook with?
- EVOO vs refined olive oil
- How to look after your precious EVOO
- A few of its health benefits
Real food is real medicine and extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), as we know, is the undisputed star of the famously healthy Mediterranean diet. To quote Steven Gundry MD, author of How Not to Die “the only purpose of food is to get more olive oil into your body!” Tongue in cheek maybe but EVOO is certainly packed with antioxidants and healthy monounsaturated fats – it’s been around for millennia and is recognised as one of the healthiest superfoods on the planet.
Scientific studies on the health-giving, healing properties of this elixir abound: it’s heart protective, a natural anti-inflammatory, protects against leaky gut, and supplies polyphenols, which nourish our all-important gut microbes. It’s also a great source of vitamin E, an antioxidant that’s vital for overall health, including that of our skin. A truly magical health elixir and it tastes great too.
Olives – green or black?
What’s the difference between black and green olives? Not much, they all start off as green! Green olives are picked before they’re ripe and the rest ripen and blacken on the tree. It’s the green olives that produce a powerfully potent EVOO, with higher antioxidant and polyphenol content, a stronger aromatic flavour and a peppery kick.
Early harvest and cold pressed
The prized early harvest EVOO is made from olives that are still green – they’re harvested in the first 3-4 weeks of the season, typically in early autumn. The flavour of this precious EVOO is more intense, it’s greener in colour, and it’s higher in health-giving polyphenols (plant antioxidants). It’s the abundance of polyphenols that give it a predominantly peppery, rather than fruity, taste. You might not particularly enjoy the pungent taste of superior EVOO but give your tastebuds time to adapt – as you might have had to do when graduating from milk chocolate to dark!
What about cold pressed? EVOO is, by definition, cold pressed. It is mechanically extracted (as it has been for millennia) and doesn’t undergo the heat or chemical treatment of a refined olive oil. A cold pressed EVOO means the extraction temperature, when it’s being ground into a pulp, and when the oil is separated from the pulp, doesn’t exceed 27 degrees. This is important because it means that the oil not only retains more of the colour, flavour and aroma of fresh olives but it also retains more nutrients than refined and heat extracted olive oil.
EVOO – is it safe for cooking?
Despite the warnings of the dangers of cooking with EVOO that still circulate, it is one of the safest and most stable oils for cooking for two reasons:
- It’s principally made up of heat-stable monounsaturated fats – mainly oleic acid. Vegetable and seed oils, on the other hand, including canola (rapeseed) and sunflower, which are composed of polyunsaturated fats, are easily damaged by heat. When polyunsaturated fatty acids are heat damaged, they form ‘advanced lipid oxidation end products’ which result in inflammatory reactions in our blood stream, as well as our organs (lungs, gut, liver and kidneys – not good.
- The antioxidants it contains protect EVOO from heat damage. It’s thought that the antioxidants have a greater influence on the oil’s heat stability than its monounsaturated fats. And let’s face it, if cooking with EVOO was unhealthy, then the Mediterranean diet itself would be unhealthy too. No self-respecting Nonna would use rapeseed or sunflower or any other kind of oil in place of the glorious super food that’s extra virgin olive oil.
EVOO vs refined olive oil
My favourite EVOO brand is Phileos of Sparta – I’ve never tasted anything better than their early harvest offering and their website features a handy guide on what to look for in a top quality and authentic EVOO.
But honourable mention must also go to the reputable and long-established brands such as Filippo Berio, which Riccardo and I tend to use for home cooking. Not a purist’s choice, as it’s a blend of oils from different countries, but it’s reasonably priced and tastes pretty good. We save the exquisite (and expensive) early harvest oil for drizzling over cooked dishes and salads to better appreciate its flavour.
Don’t be tempted by ‘light olive oil’ or ‘pure olive oil’ - these are healthy sounding marketing terms for refined oil. One man in America, T.J. Robinson, aka The Olive Oil Hunter® has made it his life’s mission to source what he regards as the highest quality EVOOs - you can find him here. If you’d like to read more into the subject, see Tom Mueller’s book, Extra Virginity: The sublime and scandalous world of olive oil. A fascinating read.
How to look after your precious EVOO
We know that green glass bottles protect the oil from UV light. But be mindful of how you store your EVOO, because its enemies, other than light, are heat and oxygen. Keep it in a cool dark place as far from the hob or oven as possible. If you buy big cans of EVOO, to minimise EVOO’s exposure to oxygen, pour two weeks’ worth into a dark glass bottle for day-to-day use.
Some of the health benefits
Adding EVOO to our meals improves absorption of the fat-soluble (A, E, K) vitamins found in our daily vegetables and salad. EVOO’s remarkable health benefits include improved insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular and cancer protection, reduced inflammation, and improved gut health, as well as protection against osteoporosis, dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Leaky gut Have a read of this recent paper, Gut microbiota, intestinal permeability, and systemic inflammation: a narrative review. ‘EVOO has recently been associated with a reduction in postprandial glycemia by improving gut permeability-derived low-grade endotoxemia‘.
In other words, EVOO protects against both blood sugar spikes and inflammation (which naturally occurs after eating) and not only that, it also protects us against toxins entering our blood stream due to leaky gut. Watch out for future blogs on leaky gut. You can discover more by reading this paper by Bartimoccia et al, 2022, Extra Virgin Olive Oil Reduces Gut Permeability and Metabolic Endotoxemia in Diabetic Patients which, as its title suggests, is especially pertinent for diabetics.
Lower all-cause mortality Ruggiero et al 2024: Olive oil consumption is associated with lower cancer, cardiovascular and all-cause mortality among Italian adults: prospective results from the Moli-sani Study and analysis of potential biological mechanisms. All-cause mortality, by the way, means just that: death from any cause - from illness related death to being run over and killed by a bus.
In Ruggiero’s study, participants with the highest intake of olive oil, 30ml or more per day (as recommended in The Human Being Dietuman Being DietH§H) had a 20% lower risk of all-cause mortality, a 25% lower risk of death from heart disease and a 23% lower risk of cancer death, compared to those who were consuming less than 15ml per day. Here’s the link to the paper.
🫒 🫒 🫒 Harvest time!
With the olive harvest fast approaching, it’s time to celebrate the glory of EVOO – cook with it, drizzle it over your salads, delight in its taste and fiery kick, and know that it’s doing you and your microbes a power of good.
A tablespoon (15-20ml) with each meal in Phase 3 onwards is a perfect amount. If you’re having yoghurt, walnut, or seeds with fruit for breakfast there’s no need to add EVOO but do include it with all other meals. Remember that you can also include 3-4 black or green olives (as part of your vegetable weight) in Phases 2 and 3. Remember, for an EVOO with maximum health benefits, it’s not a fruity taste you’re after, but a peppery one.