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Only virgin type of olive oil consumption reduces the risk of mortality: study

233 points by nokcha 4y ago

danjoredd 4y ago
Good thing I put that in practically all my food anyway. I always thought extra virgin olive oil tastes better than vegetable oil
- klodolph 4y ago
  Virgin olive oil has a strong flavor and very low smoke point, which makes it unsuitable for most types of food. You may like the taste of olive oil better than vegetable oil, but it’s kind of weird to taste olive oil in most foods. Kind of like how you wouldn’t but blue cheese on everything, or truffles on everything, or bacon on everything, even if you like the taste of those things—they taste a bit weird when combined with the wrong dish. Vegetable oil is chosen in situations where you don’t want to taste it at all, where it’s just used to cook the food.
  - foobarian 4y ago
    > or truffles on everything, or bacon on everything, Speak for yourself there buddy
    - klodolph 4y ago
      I somehow survived the “let’s put bacon on everything” craze of the 2010s but it was not a good time.
      - zwieback 4y ago
        so, the 2020s appear to be shaping up as the "truffles on everything" decade and I hate it. Maybe I'd enjoy a real truffle here and there but the truffle flavoring I usually encounter is offensive to my tongue.
        quesera 4y ago
        Truffles, I can handle. But I'm still scarred from the 1990s "put capers in everything" era.
      - bcrosby95 4y ago
        I even found bacon flavored chapstick at a bacon novelty store back then.
  - exclusiv 4y ago
    I use avocado or safflower oil. Avocado has the highest smoke point at 520 degrees F. If cooking with oil, everything cooked with safflower oil tastes better to me. https://homecookworld.com/cooking-oils-smoke-points/ https://homecookworld.com/cooking-oils-smoke-points/
  - Darmody 4y ago
    Maybe it's not a bad idea to remove all the foods that need unhealthy vegetable oils.
  - OgAstorga 4y ago
    Vegetable oil smokes at a very similar point than olive oil [1]. The only reason people uses vegetable oils is 1. it's cheap. 2. does not add extra flavors. [1] https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/hs-fs/hubfs/CulinaryOil_SmokePoints.jpg?width=1200&name=CulinaryOil_SmokePoints.jpg https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/hs-fs/hubfs/CulinaryOil_S...
  - danjoredd 4y ago
    IDK man. Maybe its because I mostly just eat fish and veggies, but I find that it works well for the types of dishes I cook.
    - klodolph 4y ago
      It’s not about the ingredients, it’s about the styles. If you want to cook fish and veggies in a cantonese style, olive oil is going to give it a bit of a weird flavor.
  - leloup_legarou 4y ago
    > Virgin olive oil has a strong flavor and very low smoke point, which makes it unsuitable for most types of food. Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) doesn't have a "very low smoke point". This table on wikipedia gives the smoke point of "Extra virgin, low acidity, high quality" EVOO at 207°C/405 °F: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point#Temperature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point#Temperature The same page gives standard home cooking temperatures as follows: Pan frying (sauté) on stove top heat: 120 °C (248 °F) Deep frying: 160–180 °C (320–356 °F) Oven baking: Average of 180 °C (356 °F) So premium-quality EVOO has a smoke point comfortably above the temperatures where most people will cook with it. I suspect the idea that EVOO has a low smoke point comes from confusion between extra virgion olive oil and "extra virgin" olive oil (i.e. between the real deal and the stuff sold in its place). Anyway anecdotally, me, both my grandmothers, my mother, and everyone else I know has been cooking with EVOO for ages and I've never heard of anyone actually managing to make it burn (though I've certainly burned the food cooking in it). And we cook most, or rather, all, types of food in it. You're perfectly right though that EVOO has a strong flavor. That's the whole point.
    - dvzk 4y ago
      Searing or frying meats on the stovetop can easily exceed 400f. Below sufficient temperature the process will take too long and the meat will dry out. A steak seared at 350f will likely have a non-charred exterior. Air frying dense meats after baking and pressure cooking also demands high heat to add a glaze and retain moisture.
      - leloup_legarou 4y ago
        The OP said that "virgin" olive oil has a "very low smoke point" that "makes it unsuitable for most types of food" and neither of that is true.
        dvzk 4y ago
        Sorry, yes, most food types do not require high heat. Non-refined olive oils — even your rare low-acidity example — do have a low smoke point in practice. All store bought “extra virgin” olive oils in my experience also burn closer to 300-350 degrees fahrenheit. Are you a vegetarian by chance? You said most people cook well below 405 degrees. Traditional American households do exceed that temperature on the grill and the stove. When olive oil burns, the smoke isn’t always highly visible. Examine close up and from the side. The rising smoke can look a lot like heat distortion. As a final point, for anyone still here, smoke points aren’t an automatic reason to avoid a cooking oil. Chemical stability is variably correlated, so maybe do some more reading.
  - Contax 4y ago
    I agree. My partner's family in Spain have some land with olive trees (400 old ones plus 300 they planted recently) and sometimes we go there to help them pick the olives from the trees/ground, for us it's more like some festive days with the family than work. The thing is, every year they give us more cold pressed olive oil than we can consume, and they don't do it in exchange for our "work", they also get more than they can consume, and no, they don't sell it (not worthy considering the legal/health paperwork and fees that would involve). We love it, its taste is amazing, and we know where it comes from and how it has been processed. Yet... we still have to buy and use sunflower oil for a lot food! The taste is just too hard for some stuff and is less than ideal for deep frying. Olive oil for a stew? Some cooked rice or pasta? A salad? Toasted bread with garlic or tomato? Sure! But it we are frying anything, from fries to churros, we do it with vegetable oil.
arcticfox 4y ago
I’m kind of bad at parsing these studies so maybe someone can help: Did they control for people opting for virgin OO having other confounding lifestyle factors that would cause the effect? I certainly lean towards virgin OO when I’m feeling that I want to be healthy.
- UncleOxidant 4y ago
  It seems like most olive oil is labeled "extra virgin". But there are definitely issues of authenticity (see: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10955085-extra-virginity https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10955085-extra-virginity )
- vineyardmike 4y ago
  > I certainly lean towards virgin OO when I’m feeling that I want to be healthy. Fwiw the use case for non-virgin olive oil is different. You’d want to use non virgin in anything that involves heat as it won’t burn or break down as easily. For anything that you’ll taste (eg dressings) you’d want an extra virgin oil that will have more of the plants’ taste. Could be worth splurging on nice oil for dressings/dipping oil but don’t waste it on anything that’ll be heated.
  - nicoburns 4y ago
    I feel like you always want virgin olive oil. Just don’t hear it too high. If you have uses that require high heat then use a completely different oil like coconut.
  - CoastalCoder 4y ago
    Some of this is contrary to what I've read and my personal experience: Subjecting EVOO to an electric blender results in a distinctly bitter taste. For salad dressings that involve a blender, I stick with non-EV olive oils.
    - vineyardmike 4y ago
      > Subjecting EVOO to an electric blender results in a distinctly bitter taste. I've never considered using a blender to make a dressing. I was thinking "drizzle oil over leaves with some vinegar" type of dressing. Something like that is where you'd be able to taste the flavors of the oil. But I'm one of those weird people who goes to oil tasting rooms to find the ones I like so maybe its not a universal advice.
some_furry 4y ago
This isn't surprising; cold-pressed virgin olive oil has a much lower oxidation rate than other vegetable oils Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGnfXXIKZM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGnfXXIKZM
ozim 4y ago
Italian mobs selling "virgin olive oil" likes that article. My main point is that I am not able to tell real virgin olive oil from scam one. From what I understand most of "virgin olive oil" on supermarket shelves is scam.
- seydor 4y ago
  Actually it is Extra Virgin that is the standard (at least in EU - the US uses the name loosely)
- UncleOxidant 4y ago
  I tend to think that the California grown/produced olive oil is less likely to be adulterated vs OO from Spain and Italy.
  - nemetroid 4y ago
    When buying in the US, I assume that you mean.
  - simondw 4y ago
    Do you have evidence to support that?
    - UncleOxidant 4y ago
      Primarily because there are stricter requirements via FDA on the US food supply. If a US producer gets caught adulterating they're going to face legal issues that a foreign producer will not face. Not saying it's not possible that CA producers could be adulterating, but if they get caught there will be consequences that an importer won't face - the importer can just say they were trusting their suppliers overseas. Also found this (from 2010): "The research team found that 69 percent of the imported oils sampled, compared with just 10 percent of the California-produced oils sampled, failed to meet internationally accepted standards for extra virgin olive oil." https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/most-imported-olive-oils-don%E2%80%99t-match-%E2%80%98extra-virgin%E2%80%99-claims-study-finds https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/most-imported-olive-oils-don%E2...
sul_tasto 4y ago
How do we know that the olive oil we buy from the grocery store is actually authentic? I thought most of the olive oil in the US contains cheaper seed oils, just like most of the honey contains corn syrup.
- UncleOxidant 4y ago
  Adulteration of OO is definitely an issue. There's not a lot of testing. I tend to think that if you buy CA grown/produced olive oil it's more likely to be authentic.
- gtirloni 4y ago
  If it says "Extra Virgin" it's supposed to be olive oil, cold extraction, probably first press (leaving alone frauds). If it doesn't (just says "olive oil"), it's probably olive oil mixed with all sorts of other vegetable oils.
  - red_trumpet 4y ago
    > If it doesn't (just says "olive oil"), it's probably olive oil mixed with all sorts of other vegetable oils. Do they not have to declare the other ingredients on the packaging?
    - zerocrates 4y ago
      In the US, yes. And if it's a mixture of olive and something else they also just can't call it "olive oil" on the front label either. On the other hand that's just what's required. If nobody's looking closely, who's to say what you're actually doing, or what has happened from your upstream suppliers with or without your knowledge?
    - gtirloni 4y ago
      > Do they not have to declare the other ingredients on the packaging? They do but it's the same with everything else: there are definitions of what is something and sometimes they allow unexpected ingredients or mixtures that we wouldn't have expected. I think milk or milk-based is one of those things. Same for beef burger (if it's 62% beef than it's allowed to be caled a beef burger, no matter if it tastes like cardboard).
GloriousKoji 4y ago
Typically you're suppose to add "in mice" to the end of headlines but in this case it's "in Spanish people".
- adrian_b 4y ago
  Actually this study is consistent with several studies done in rats, but I do not remember now the links. In the studies done in rats, the purpose was to determine whether a high-fat diet causes or prevents atherosclerosis. In rats, the worst outcome was caused by a diet high in saturated fat and much better outcomes were caused by a diet enriched in oleic acid, e.g. by using high-oleic sunflower oil. However, the extra-virgin olive oil had an additional protective effect against atherosclerosis, in comparison with the other vegetable oils with a similar fatty acid profile. So the conclusion is that EVOO includes some unidentified substance, perhaps a phenolic compound, which is good for cardiovascular health. This, together with the fact that the olive oil has an optimal fatty acid profile with high content of oleic acid and with enough linoleic acid, makes it a very good choice for the main source of fat in the food.
UncleOxidant 4y ago
There's so much rampant mis-labeling of olive oil (see [1]) in many cases it's adulterated with other oils and in some cases it's not actually virgin olive oil. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10955085-extra-virginity https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10955085-extra-virginity
OgAstorga 4y ago
The less Linoleic Acid in your oil the better[1]. This image[2] is a good reference. Also, and as opposed to common beliefs. You can cook on olive oil[3] [1] https://openheart.bmj.com/content/5/2/e000898 https://openheart.bmj.com/content/5/2/e000898 [2]. https://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/LA-in-oil-table.jpg https://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/LA-in... [3]. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924224422000693 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092422442...
- eltondegeneres 4y ago
  Your first link is from a "carnivore diet" blog, which seems to mostly sell their own line of supplements.
  - OgAstorga 4y ago
    The dietary preferences of the owner of the site does not alter the validity of the information. The image is just a reference. Here's the source of that table https://media.johnwiley.com.au/product_data/excerpt/06/04713855/0471385506.pdf https://media.johnwiley.com.au/product_data/excerpt/06/04713...
    - CommieBobDole 4y ago
      I don't think that article is the source of the table - there's a similar table, but a lot of the items are different and the numbers mostly don't match. Also that article seems to be primarily concerned with the health benefits of linoleic acid and how to increase consumption of it.
    - Dylan16807 4y ago
      > The dietary preferences of the owner of the site does not alter the validity of the information. The image is just a reference. Sourcing is important, and weird enough dietary ideas influence the trustworthiness of the chain. But more importantly the supplement-selling is a big potential conflict of interest.
- 4y ago
jpfdez 4y ago
https://www.oleoestepa.com/en/what-is-the-extra-virgin-olive-oil/ https://www.oleoestepa.com/en/what-is-the-extra-virgin-olive...
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
bgribble 4y ago
On urban US supermarket shelves virtually every bottle of olive oil advertises itself as "virgin" or the "even better" varieties ("extra virgin", "first cold pressed" etc). I have read that many of these labels are hogwash, and that the contents of your typical supermarket "extra virgin olive oil" bottle pretty often include adulterants like palm, canola, or sunflower oil. I can definitely taste the diff between supermarket stuff and super-premium olive oil where I know who the importer is (in New York City, my go-to is the house brand of a restaurant called Frankie's 457 Spuntino who imports their own oil). But I'm not sure whether that reflects the quality of olives/processing, or is an indicator of "real" vs "fake" olive oil...
- tiagod 4y ago
  I live in Portugal where most olive oil is good quality. The taste and appearance among good olive oil varies wildly and the super-premium ones will usually taste quite different from standard decent quality supermarket extra virgin.
  - VBprogrammer 4y ago
    I lived with a Greek flatmate for a while. By far the best olive oil I've had was from their family owned olive grove. Usually brought back from his trips home in reused milk jugs.
    - ericbarrett 4y ago
      There used to be a vineyard in Lake County (CA) that made small-batch olive oil from trees on their estate. Sadly, the trees were destroyed in a fire a few years ago. I'll never forget the taste; it had a very strong olive flavor and was so acidic it actually felt spicy on your tongue. Have never found its equal in a store, no matter how exotic and/or pricey.
      - disillusioned 4y ago
        A great oil finishing with a strong black pepper taste is fairly achievable if you know where to look. Zingerman's Mail Order does a phenomenal job of sourcing olive oils like this but also of specifically calling out the tasting notes and the differences in their options. Two that they have that specifically hit this spiciness you're looking for: https://www.zingermans.com/Product/petraia-olive-oil/O-PET https://www.zingermans.com/Product/petraia-olive-oil/O-PET https://www.zingermans.com/Product/la-spineta-olive-oil/O-SPI https://www.zingermans.com/Product/la-spineta-olive-oil/O-SP... But in my experience, their live chat or phone service is absolutely amazing at guiding you to a great option, too.
clumsysmurf 4y ago
Is there something for Olive Oil like IFOS for fish oil?
- jelsisi 4y ago
  The IOC (International Olive Counsel) https://www.internationaloliveoil.org/ https://www.internationaloliveoil.org/
leobg 4y ago
Risk of mortality? I thought mortality was a fact. :)
- dylan604 4y ago
  Clearly, those are just alternative facts.
ryanwaggoner 4y ago
Seeing a lot of comments about how supposedly a lot of EVOO sold on store shelves isn't actually pure olive oil, and I'm curious where this belief comes from. Any data or studies you can point me to? Here's an FDA report of 88 EVOO bottles purchased from supermarkets that were tested, three of which were identified as impure enough to possibly indicate they were adulterated: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286479191_Authenticity_Assessment_of_Extra_Virgin_Olive_Oil_Evaluation_of_Desmethylsterols_and_Triterpene_Dialcohols https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286479191_Authentic...
- swalling 4y ago
  It's not "adulteration" so much as fraud by mixing it with cheaper oils or labeling oil as "extra-virgin" when it's not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil_regulation_and_adulteration#Investigations,_incidents,_and_recalls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil_regulation_and_adult...
  - ryanwaggoner 4y ago
    That's what "adulteration" means. From the study I referenced: "Three of the 88 samples labeled as EVOO failed to meet purity criteria, indicating possible adulteration with commodity oil and/or solvent-extracted olive oil."
    - tradertef 4y ago
      3 out of 88 is not that bad. If you read this thread everyone is thinking most EVOO is adultered. If you buy from a trustworthy company, you would most likely be ok. We only use OO in our house and almost all of it from Cosco.. Refined + 15% EV for cooking and Organic cold press EV for salads and cold dishes.
thecoppinger 4y ago
Edit: reading this back, it sounds somewhat like an attempt to shill a product. So, disclaimer: I have absolutely no affiliation with Jeff or the Cultured Oils, I’m just fascinated by it. Serial entrepreneur Jeff Nobbs recently launched a new product in the food oil space: Cultured Oil* I came across his writings* on the perils of seed oils earlier this year and it radically changed the way I eat. After becoming aware of the danger high linoleic acid diets pose, as well as the climate implications of other oils, Jeff’s Cultured Oil looks incredibly impressive, albeit I haven’t had the chance to try it yet as they don’t ship to New Zealand. In summary, from their FAQ: “Cultured Oil is cooking oil made by fermentation, resulting in high levels of healthy fats, a small environmental footprint, a clean taste, and a high smoke point! Fermentation describes the process of microorganisms (or "cultures") consuming natural sugars and converting those sugars into entirely new foods. Just as there are sourdough and wine cultures, there are also oil cultures. An oil culture converts sugar into the healthy delicious fats that make up Cultured Oil. Cultured Oil is primarily monounsaturated fat, the heart-healthy and heat-stable fat also found in olive and avocados. In every serving of Cultured Oil (1 Tbsp - 14 grams), there are about 13 grams of monounsaturated fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, and 0.4 grams of polyunsaturated fat. Olive oils and avocado oils contain between 55-83% monounsaturated fat, and up to 21% polyunsaturated fat. Cultured Oil contains over 90% monounsaturated fat and less than 4% polyunsaturated fat * https://www.zeroacre.com/ https://www.zeroacre.com/ * https://www.jeffnobbs.com/posts/what-causes-chronic-disease https://www.jeffnobbs.com/posts/what-causes-chronic-disease
- lumb63 4y ago
  I recently saw cultured oil as well and have been doing some in depth research on adjacent topics since I have a family history of CVD. How has his writing changed how you eat, and have you noticed any differences in health metrics?
  - thecoppinger 4y ago
    > [a] How has his writing changed how you eat, and [b] have you noticed any differences in health metrics? [a] Well, I now avoid vegetable oils quite intensely. The higher-order effect of being more aware and intentional of what I eat & cook has lead me to much healthier eating habits over all; I now mainly consume un-processed foods. In fact, it's nigh impossible to remove seed oil from ones diet without cutting out processed foods, as you quickly realize it's in (nearly) everything. [b] I track a bunch of health metrics via an Oura ring and Apple Watch, but it's hard to parse what improvements have come from the reduction in seed oils vs. the myriad of other positive changes I've made over roughly the same time period (daily weight lifting, running, improved sleep hygiene etc.). I can say that my resting heart rate has decreased, my sleep quality has improved & my VO₂ max is better than it's been since I began recording it (about a year) etc. etc. I recently had my bloods, testosterone, cholesterol & liver functions tested and everything came back healthy. — Overall, I've gone from being frequently fatigued, rundown and mentally overwhelmed (frequent anxious & depressive thoughts) earlier in the year to the other end of the spectrum as of writing. I can't recommend making the jump to cut-out seed oils enough. On a side note, as a 20-something year old, this experience has been a real eye opener. I've always held a healthy skepticism of conventional healthcare/medical wisdom as my father was a doctor and his insider views on things were very revealing. Now that I've gone through a dietary/health metamorphosis of sorts, I feel enlightened to the fact that you simply cannot rely on populist knowledge & guidelines to ensure you're being healthy, or for much else for that matter. Whether it be a consequence of the monolithic & slow moving nature of health science, or something more nefarious [lobbying, misaligned financial invectives, greed over health & welfare], the fact that seed oils were (and still are) praised & pushed as being a healthy alternative to olive oil, butter etc. is nigh insanity. A few months ago I finally stumbled down the PFAS chemicals rabbit hole, and my dull sense of terror & disappointment increased further still. It's a strange world we live in. The phrase 'boring dystopia' springs to mind.
dfried 4y ago
Lots of people are going to respond to this with comments about how most olive oil in the US is fake. This is based on an old study [1] and is no longer the case. It's now FUD perpetuated by DTC brands as part of their marketing. [2] [1] https://www.aboutoliveoil.org/uc-davis-olive-center-olive-oil-quality-reports https://www.aboutoliveoil.org/uc-davis-olive-center-olive-oi... [2] https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/briefs/brightland-drops-claims-that-most-olive-oils-in-u-s-are-adulterated-rancid/102608 https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/briefs/brightland-drops-claims...
- lupire 4y ago
  Your [1] is an olive oil industry marketing site that provides no evidence. Better would be a similar study to the original UCDavis study, to check if quality has improved.
metroholografix 4y ago
Greek olive oil is considered the best in the world and doesn't suffer from Mafia infiltration which is a huge problem in Italy [1] [2] [3]. Here is some good quality Greek olive oil available in US, reasonably priced, that you can buy without fear of adulteration or other shadiness: https://www.amazon.com/Terra-Creta-Kolymvari-Protective-Designation/dp/B00KROTNAW/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1549294575 https://www.amazon.com/Terra-Creta-Kolymvari-Protective-Desi... https://www.amazon.com/Iliada-Extra-Virgin-Olive-Liter/dp/B003TO9SJS/ref=sr_1_2_mod_primary_new?crid=1BKWNC16YQO5W https://www.amazon.com/Iliada-Extra-Virgin-Olive-Liter/dp/B0... The Greek extra virgin olive oil sold at Trader Joe's is also very good. Avoid the - Whole Foods & 365 branded - Greek EVOO at Whole Foods: it was rancid every single time I've tried it. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-crime-food/italian-police-break-mafia-ring-exporting-fake-olive-oil-to-u-s-idUSKBN1602BD https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-crime-food/italian-... [2] https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-basics/mafia-olive-oil-on-60-minutes/50203 https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-basics/mafia-olive-o... [3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2016/02/10/the-olive-oil-scam-if-80-is-fake-why-do-you-keep-buying-it/#a2a6e4c639d7 https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2016/02/10/the...
- surfsvammel 4y ago
  Nice. How would one go about finding such suggestion for consumption in Europe?
  - brnt 4y ago
    Visit tour local Greek deli? They're not very numerous, but they're out there.
  - metroholografix 4y ago
    Most EU supermarkets should have some Greek EVOO (Tesco in UK and Jumbo in Netherlands have Iliada, Sainsbury's has a selection of Greek olive oils). Alternatively, find a Greek deli/market/imports place, they are in every country I've been to in northern Europe. They typically supply restaurants and should have a good selection of foods. Look for PDO / Agrocert stamps.
  - 4y ago
DeathArrow 4y ago
If one tablespoon of virgin olive oil a day is reducing the mortality risk to half, immagine the effect of two tablespoons of virgin olive oil.
- hinkley 4y ago
  Certain death.
  - fithisux 4y ago
    you talk about cholesterol? My grandma got it.
    - hinkley 4y ago
      Well, you could read that a few ways. But death is certain no matter what you do, so in that sense any action or inaction brings with it certain death.
vixen99 4y ago
A useful test for olive oil is its taste when swallowed. If it produces a hot sensation in the throat this is due apparently to oleocanthal, a major polyphenol in the oil. Oleocanthal has been cited in numerous publications as having anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/31/3/999.full.pdf https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/31/3/999.full.pdf [Unusual Pungency from Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Is attributable to Restricted Spatial Expression of the Receptor of Oleocanthal]
Matthewiiv 4y ago
It's almost as if human nutrition and mortality are complex systems and a single foodstuff doesn't have any significant effect. Not only that but surely nobody is surprised that the people who can afford the more expensive version of a product live longer. Why have we not given up on this nonsense idea of miracle foods already?
- fithisux 4y ago
  So the study does not account/adjust for other factors. Very interesting.
  - Matthewiiv 4y ago
    It does, but at some point a bigger study will come along that accounts for more factors, and that will find there's no effect.
- deandublin 4y ago
  did you read it? it just says unheated OO is better than the heated stuff. Pretty obvious that heating food can kill the good stuff, if there is good stuff in it to start with, that it.
  - brutusborn 4y ago
    Where does it say that?
- ROTMetro 4y ago
  Quoting DoingIsLearning from these comments: The study was in Spain were both the quality of olive oil is very high and the retail cost fairly low comparatively with the rest if the world. Also many arguably poor farmers will grow their own olive trees and distribute the oil yield among their wider family. So perhaps not so case closed as you say.
  - Matthewiiv 4y ago
    That's a fair point, although I would argue that if good quality olive oil is very cheap, then perhaps it's the other way round. Only the very poorest are forced to consume non extra virgin olive oil. Also, I'm not sure about Spain but farmers generally have noticeably higher life expectancy than the average.
lalaithion 4y ago
Aka "Good job finding a class-correlate you didn't manage to control for"
- snissn 4y ago
  that's my gut reaction too, haven't dug into it though and probably won't put in the time
- leloup_legarou 4y ago
  If the study was done in the US, then maybe. But it was done in Spain: > 12,161 individuals, representative of the Spanish population ≥18 years old, were recruited between 2008 and 2010 and followed up through 2019. Where nobody can prepare food without olive oil. It's the law.
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    > Where nobody can prepare food without olive oil. It's the law. Like everywhere else, Spain is a place where virgin olive oil is more expensive than the defiled version.
    - tluyben2 4y ago
      Depends where they did this research: outside the big cities (Madrid and Barcelona) and especially in the south, you can find enough places outside supermarkets where you can buy extra virgin cheaper than other oils in supermarket. Especially when you buy per 5 liter from local farmers (which is what I do). If you live there (or if the research was done there), there would be no point buying oil in the supermarket and you always have the best oil on tap for next to nothing. Hence everyone there uses it for everything.
      - leloup_legarou 4y ago
        That, and also if you've grown up eating EVOO, even not the best quality one you can get from the village etc, you won't tolerate other vegetable and seed oils in your food, and certainly not in your salad. I had a friend from Canada who returned Home a while ago and he went to the supermarket to buy oil to put on his salad. He saw the price of EVOO and came back with a bottle of sunflower oil, scoffing about the "scam" of EVOO. A couple of weeks later he told me "well, it's really better though isn't it?" and he started buying EVOO after that. I don't know what changed his mind. Anyway I get it that EVOO sounds like a class marker and I've no doubt it is, in some parts of the world. Another poster was talking about virtue signalling. But in the neck of the woods I'm from (the Mediterranean) it's just not considered posh, or hip, to buy good olive oil, nor do you ever hear anyone bragging about it. It's just how people eat, and they prefer the best quality stuff than the lower quality stuff. Of course, the low quality stuff also sells just because some people can't afford the good quality stuff, and I guess there's also people who are not used to it, even if they're born in one of the places that are famous for it. There's just a completely different mentality about EVOO (and some other foodstuffs: bread, wine, cheese maybe) in some parts of the Old World. It's about culture and (gulp) identity rather than fashion and those preferences will not change when EVOO (etc) goes out of fashion.
ucha 4y ago
I get a couple of gallons of olive oil in a small village directly from the press in November each year. It's not filtered so it has a lot of particles in suspension and it goes bad faster, maybe after a year or so. But it tastes nothing like supermarket extra-virgin olive oil, the taste is so much more concentrated. Olive oil has a pretty short shelf life. The best way to get the good stuff is to make sure you buy: - the latest harvest (they're usually harvested in early fall) - non-filtered - stored in a dark bottle, somewhere cool (light oxidizes it) - single origin (if it's not, then they're likely mixing old rancid and new oils) - first press, cold extracted
- specialist 4y ago
  Yup. Fresher is better. A friend once sent me a gallon from his family's harvest. Nectar of the gods. -- California Olive Ranch is available in (my) local groceries. They helpfully imprint the harvest date on the label. Any thing on the shelf is probably over a year old. Meh. I've pre-ordered their harvest reserve (autumn). Two weeks from tree to mouth. Very good. Nothing on their web site about harvest reserve 2022. Maybe it's only announced on the mailing list. https://www.californiaoliveranch.com https://www.californiaoliveranch.com Caveat emptor: Ordering their non-harvest online was the same old stuff available retail. Rip off. -- I'm sure other growers are happy to oblige. https://cooc.com https://cooc.com https://txaoo.org https://txaoo.org
deandublin 4y ago
the main point of this comparison is - you should choose the best quality food that you can - so unheated OO over the heated stuff, for example. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
senand 4y ago
You simply won't be able to find world-class olive oil in supermarkets or on amazon. I can wholeheartedly recommend https://villahumbourg.it/en-index.html https://villahumbourg.it/en-index.html, 100% oil from one farm in Tuscany, for sure no Mafia infiltration and the new oil is just being harvested these days. How I know that? It's from my mother, who I just visit for my holidays. I know I'm biased, but it's just the truth ;-)
- nikita2206 4y ago
  Didn’t you just bring down her website?
- flanbiscuit 4y ago
  I did a wine tour in Tuscany a few years ago and most of the small vineyards also grew olives and made olive oil and it was the best olive oil I ever had. I wish I had bought more. Thanks for the link, I might be ordering some soon. grazie!
oldgradstudent 4y ago
Virgin olive oil is more expensive. The most important, and well known confounding factor in observational health research is socioeconomic status - rich people live longer than poor people. This research attempted to control for it in a limited fashion, but that's not nearly enough.
- brutusborn 4y ago
  This is so common in these kinds of studies that I tend to ignore them. I saw a similar one recently that linked certain types of meat and dairy consumption to longevity but didn't control for wealth. The real problem isn't diet but being poor.
  - oldgradstudent 4y ago
    Yeah, it's almost looks they're written by statistics professors trying to illustrate the concept of confounders.
  - steve76 4y ago
- DoingIsLearning 4y ago
  The study was in Spain were both the quality of olive oil is very high and the retail cost fairly low comparatively with the rest if the world. Also many arguably poor farmers will grow their own olive trees and distribute the oil yield among their wider family. So perhaps not so case closed as you say.
  - moonchrome 4y ago
    If that was true why would anyone use refined oil ?
    - tluyben2 4y ago
      You will have to live in Spain and know people to get high quality cheap oil. I have my own olive trees and we bring our olives to a small cooperative press; in that community the oil costs next to nothing, however, when it’s exported (and most here is for local production and is sold locally only), it is priced to what you find in the shop.
ilkke 4y ago
Virgin type of consumption? Risk of mortality? Is it me or is that title extremely oddly phrased?
jesuscript 4y ago
At this point these studies sound like the ticker on Sim City 3000. https://simcity.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_news_ticker_messages https://simcity.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_news_ticker_messages “All Raccoons Cheat At Poker, Animal Researchers Say”
pessimizer 4y ago
Sounds like another study discovering that wealthy people are healthier.
- sn41 4y ago
  Not surprising, since health is wealth.
faizan-ali 4y ago
I wrote a small post explaining why the EVOO industry is rampant with fraud and ho to go about looking for good olive oil: https://medium.com/@faizan_ali/extra-virgin-olive-oil-9c9cf18dda89 https://medium.com/@faizan_ali/extra-virgin-olive-oil-9c9cf1...
bilsbie 4y ago
Man this oil stuff is exhausting. I’m now trying to avoid seed oils but they put them in everything. Now I have to worry about olive oil?
WitCanStain 4y ago
Fortunately all the oil consumption I do is of the virgin type
iguana 4y ago
If you're interested in increasing EVOO consumption for the health benefits based on polyphenols, look into Moroccan olive oil, as it has very high polyphenol levels - as high as 30x regular EVOO.
canjobear 4y ago
My conclusion is that olive oil consumption has no effect on mortality. Finding an effect in 1/2 of your data, and not in the other half, is a classic sign of p-hacking.
finneganscat 4y ago
19h 4y ago
Weirdly enough I haven't seen non-virgin olive oil in German stores.. is that an American thing?
- stephen_g 4y ago
  You’ll find the store brand sometimes having a cheaper “olive oil” here in Australia, which is still 100% olive I believe but probably includes second press. But any brand name oil will basically always be virgin/“extra-virgin”.
- dagw 4y ago
  Go to Aldi. Read the label of the cheapest olive oil you find. It will almost certainly be non-virgin. For example https://www.aldi-nord.de/sortiment/nahrungsmittel/saucen-oele-gewuerze/fette-oele-essige/olivenoel-0812-0-0.article.html https://www.aldi-nord.de/sortiment/nahrungsmittel/saucen-oel...
cellu_cc 4y ago
Obligatory Fat Gold plug: https://fat.gold/ https://fat.gold/ It's incredible. If you can afford it, the subscription is always great and an excellent chance to try oil from different olives that typically don't get pressed.
ck2 4y ago
It's crazy to me all the weird games people play with food names and sources and content that can vary from batch to batch even from "reliable" sellers when we know it's simply the polyphenols providing antioxidant mechanisms. You can get polyphenols/antioxidants from much cheaper, easier, reliable consistent sources. This isn't 1822 or 1922 but 2022, we should use technology to have real nutrition labels for things we eat.
leric 4y ago
bhk 4y ago
The obvious confounder of income/wealth was apparently not accounted for.
teleforce 4y ago
Obligatory link mentioning 80% of olive oils are fake (fake virgin & extra virgin grading, country of origin, etc) [1]. I wish there is reliable and rapid in-situ testing, but not lab based sample testing that is not reliable and slow (companies can always send the good samples for testing and still selling the fake versions). My hypothesis is that hyperspectral camera imaging technology can perform the in-situ reliable and rapid testing for screening the fake expensive foods namely virgin olive oils, honey, etc. [1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2016/02/10/the-olive-oil-scam-if-80-is-fake-why-do-you-keep-buying-it https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2016/02/10/the...
silexia 4y ago
Warning on all studies published in Nature: they changed their policies recently to only publish studies that agree with their political opinions. This is now an opinion mag, not a science publication.
- puzzlingcaptcha 4y ago
  This isn't even published in Nature but in EJCN, which is published by Springer Nature. With impact factor of 4 I'd caution against taking the results at face value.
denton-scratch 4y ago
The "risk of mortality" is 100%. Perhaps there are some foodstuffs that increase expected lifespan; but youcan't reduce the risk of mortality. We're all mortal.
- vibrio 4y ago
  Prove it. /s
- eimrine 4y ago
  Mortality is the number of deaths within a particular society and within a particular period of time:
Kaibeezy 4y ago
The paper concludes, in part: “Our results also suggest a negative synergism between high virgin OO consumption and total physical activity on all-cause mortality.” I take this to mean that to some extent, either virgin olive oil and/or physical activity reduce all-cause mortality; they overlap. Am I reading this correctly? Also, I was disappointed at the extent the discussion degenerated to a procurement hearsay scuffle. Not our usual standard of discourse.
nanna 4y ago
I buy Palestinian olive oil as it tastes the best and it supports a people living under apartheid and occupation.
canbus 4y ago
chicob 4y ago
I am an olive oil producer, in Portugal, and we're harvesting as I type. I have made some remarks about olive oil production on HN in the past, but here are some remarks about olive oil quality, grading, and production: Olive oils do degrade with time, which means triglycerols break into free fatty acids and glycerol (E → F + _ ). Of course aroma also changes with time, but this is more subjective, and decided by actually tasting samples. So olive oil freshness comes in three gradings, defined by free fatty acid content: extra virgin (<0,5%), virgin (<2%), and lampante (>2%). These grades will generally decide the market value, but differentiation can change this (special varieties and a good aroma allow for a better price). Extra-virgin can, in principle, be sold as virgin (e.g. if aroma is not good enough for some reason) but not the other way around. All my production is extra virgin. That is 100.00% extra virgin. I have never, nor my family has ever, produced anything but extra virgin olive oil. The worst I have seen around me was a producer getting 0,4% free acidity, which is still extra virgin. Today, olive oil is industrially extracted by crushing the olives and separating water and fatty phases in a centrifuge, at cold temperatures. Olives have around 20% w/w directly extractable oil, but the fatty content of the pomace contains around 40% fat. This oil can be further extracted in centrifuges, up to a point were some temperature will be needed. This fat won't be completely extracted, and that is up to the plant processing it, that usually keeps the pomace for itself. Heating does lower the quality of olive oil, and as such its price, but some data is good to put things into perspective. Around 95% of Portugal's production was virgin/extra virgin, followed by the US (~90%), Greece (~75%), and Italy and Spain (both ~65%) the latter being the largest producer (~35% of world total). Portugal now ranks 7th in production volume, and is the first to put olive oil in the market, although the market is controlled by Spain. Future markets usually keep prices down for the starting weeks, and I hope this will change in the following years as Portuguese production increases. Having this objective measure in mind, and without disregard for other characteristics that can improve olive oil general quality, one can say that Portuguese olive oil is the best, modesty aside. But it does seem the US know what they're doing, although in smaller quantities! Italy is one of the largest importers of Portuguese olive oil. I have no idea what they do with it.
- pezezin 4y ago
  > Italy is one of the largest importers of Portuguese olive oil. I have no idea what they do with it. Spanish neighbor here; as far as I know they resell it as Italian olive oil, as it is better known around the world and can command higher prices. That is changing though; I live in a small city in Japan, and even here, the local supermarkets are bringing more and more Spanish and Portuguese olive oil.
Maursault 4y ago
Olive oil consumption is unsustainable. What we need is wide adoption of electric olives.

233 points by nokcha 4y ago

Good thing I put that in practically all my food anyway. I always thought extra virgin olive oil tastes better than vegetable oil

klodolph 4y ago
Virgin olive oil has a strong flavor and very low smoke point, which makes it unsuitable for most types of food. You may like the taste of olive oil better than vegetable oil, but it’s kind of weird to taste olive oil in most foods. Kind of like how you wouldn’t but blue cheese on everything, or truffles on everything, or bacon on everything, even if you like the taste of those things—they taste a bit weird when combined with the wrong dish. Vegetable oil is chosen in situations where you don’t want to taste it at all, where it’s just used to cook the food.
- foobarian 4y ago
  > or truffles on everything, or bacon on everything, Speak for yourself there buddy
  - klodolph 4y ago
    I somehow survived the “let’s put bacon on everything” craze of the 2010s but it was not a good time.
    - zwieback 4y ago
      so, the 2020s appear to be shaping up as the "truffles on everything" decade and I hate it. Maybe I'd enjoy a real truffle here and there but the truffle flavoring I usually encounter is offensive to my tongue.
      - quesera 4y ago
        Truffles, I can handle. But I'm still scarred from the 1990s "put capers in everything" era.
    - bcrosby95 4y ago
      I even found bacon flavored chapstick at a bacon novelty store back then.
- exclusiv 4y ago
  I use avocado or safflower oil. Avocado has the highest smoke point at 520 degrees F. If cooking with oil, everything cooked with safflower oil tastes better to me. https://homecookworld.com/cooking-oils-smoke-points/ https://homecookworld.com/cooking-oils-smoke-points/
- Darmody 4y ago
  Maybe it's not a bad idea to remove all the foods that need unhealthy vegetable oils.
- OgAstorga 4y ago
  Vegetable oil smokes at a very similar point than olive oil [1]. The only reason people uses vegetable oils is 1. it's cheap. 2. does not add extra flavors. [1] https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/hs-fs/hubfs/CulinaryOil_SmokePoints.jpg?width=1200&name=CulinaryOil_SmokePoints.jpg https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/hs-fs/hubfs/CulinaryOil_S...
- danjoredd 4y ago
  IDK man. Maybe its because I mostly just eat fish and veggies, but I find that it works well for the types of dishes I cook.
  - klodolph 4y ago
    It’s not about the ingredients, it’s about the styles. If you want to cook fish and veggies in a cantonese style, olive oil is going to give it a bit of a weird flavor.
- leloup_legarou 4y ago
  > Virgin olive oil has a strong flavor and very low smoke point, which makes it unsuitable for most types of food. Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) doesn't have a "very low smoke point". This table on wikipedia gives the smoke point of "Extra virgin, low acidity, high quality" EVOO at 207°C/405 °F: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point#Temperature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point#Temperature The same page gives standard home cooking temperatures as follows: Pan frying (sauté) on stove top heat: 120 °C (248 °F) Deep frying: 160–180 °C (320–356 °F) Oven baking: Average of 180 °C (356 °F) So premium-quality EVOO has a smoke point comfortably above the temperatures where most people will cook with it. I suspect the idea that EVOO has a low smoke point comes from confusion between extra virgion olive oil and "extra virgin" olive oil (i.e. between the real deal and the stuff sold in its place). Anyway anecdotally, me, both my grandmothers, my mother, and everyone else I know has been cooking with EVOO for ages and I've never heard of anyone actually managing to make it burn (though I've certainly burned the food cooking in it). And we cook most, or rather, all, types of food in it. You're perfectly right though that EVOO has a strong flavor. That's the whole point.
  - dvzk 4y ago
    Searing or frying meats on the stovetop can easily exceed 400f. Below sufficient temperature the process will take too long and the meat will dry out. A steak seared at 350f will likely have a non-charred exterior. Air frying dense meats after baking and pressure cooking also demands high heat to add a glaze and retain moisture.
    - leloup_legarou 4y ago
      The OP said that "virgin" olive oil has a "very low smoke point" that "makes it unsuitable for most types of food" and neither of that is true.
      - dvzk 4y ago
        Sorry, yes, most food types do not require high heat. Non-refined olive oils — even your rare low-acidity example — do have a low smoke point in practice. All store bought “extra virgin” olive oils in my experience also burn closer to 300-350 degrees fahrenheit. Are you a vegetarian by chance? You said most people cook well below 405 degrees. Traditional American households do exceed that temperature on the grill and the stove. When olive oil burns, the smoke isn’t always highly visible. Examine close up and from the side. The rising smoke can look a lot like heat distortion. As a final point, for anyone still here, smoke points aren’t an automatic reason to avoid a cooking oil. Chemical stability is variably correlated, so maybe do some more reading.
- Contax 4y ago
  I agree. My partner's family in Spain have some land with olive trees (400 old ones plus 300 they planted recently) and sometimes we go there to help them pick the olives from the trees/ground, for us it's more like some festive days with the family than work. The thing is, every year they give us more cold pressed olive oil than we can consume, and they don't do it in exchange for our "work", they also get more than they can consume, and no, they don't sell it (not worthy considering the legal/health paperwork and fees that would involve). We love it, its taste is amazing, and we know where it comes from and how it has been processed. Yet... we still have to buy and use sunflower oil for a lot food! The taste is just too hard for some stuff and is less than ideal for deep frying. Olive oil for a stew? Some cooked rice or pasta? A salad? Toasted bread with garlic or tomato? Sure! But it we are frying anything, from fries to churros, we do it with vegetable oil.

arcticfox 4y ago

I’m kind of bad at parsing these studies so maybe someone can help: Did they control for people opting for virgin OO having other confounding lifestyle factors that would cause the effect? I certainly lean towards virgin OO when I’m feeling that I want to be healthy.

UncleOxidant 4y ago
It seems like most olive oil is labeled "extra virgin". But there are definitely issues of authenticity (see: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10955085-extra-virginity https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10955085-extra-virginity )
vineyardmike 4y ago
> I certainly lean towards virgin OO when I’m feeling that I want to be healthy. Fwiw the use case for non-virgin olive oil is different. You’d want to use non virgin in anything that involves heat as it won’t burn or break down as easily. For anything that you’ll taste (eg dressings) you’d want an extra virgin oil that will have more of the plants’ taste. Could be worth splurging on nice oil for dressings/dipping oil but don’t waste it on anything that’ll be heated.
- nicoburns 4y ago
  I feel like you always want virgin olive oil. Just don’t hear it too high. If you have uses that require high heat then use a completely different oil like coconut.
- CoastalCoder 4y ago
  Some of this is contrary to what I've read and my personal experience: Subjecting EVOO to an electric blender results in a distinctly bitter taste. For salad dressings that involve a blender, I stick with non-EV olive oils.
  - vineyardmike 4y ago
    > Subjecting EVOO to an electric blender results in a distinctly bitter taste. I've never considered using a blender to make a dressing. I was thinking "drizzle oil over leaves with some vinegar" type of dressing. Something like that is where you'd be able to taste the flavors of the oil. But I'm one of those weird people who goes to oil tasting rooms to find the ones I like so maybe its not a universal advice.

some_furry 4y ago

This isn't surprising; cold-pressed virgin olive oil has a much lower oxidation rate than other vegetable oils Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGnfXXIKZM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGnfXXIKZM

ozim 4y ago

Italian mobs selling "virgin olive oil" likes that article. My main point is that I am not able to tell real virgin olive oil from scam one. From what I understand most of "virgin olive oil" on supermarket shelves is scam.

seydor 4y ago
Actually it is Extra Virgin that is the standard (at least in EU - the US uses the name loosely)
UncleOxidant 4y ago
I tend to think that the California grown/produced olive oil is less likely to be adulterated vs OO from Spain and Italy.
- nemetroid 4y ago
  When buying in the US, I assume that you mean.
- simondw 4y ago
  Do you have evidence to support that?
  - UncleOxidant 4y ago
    Primarily because there are stricter requirements via FDA on the US food supply. If a US producer gets caught adulterating they're going to face legal issues that a foreign producer will not face. Not saying it's not possible that CA producers could be adulterating, but if they get caught there will be consequences that an importer won't face - the importer can just say they were trusting their suppliers overseas. Also found this (from 2010): "The research team found that 69 percent of the imported oils sampled, compared with just 10 percent of the California-produced oils sampled, failed to meet internationally accepted standards for extra virgin olive oil." https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/most-imported-olive-oils-don%E2%80%99t-match-%E2%80%98extra-virgin%E2%80%99-claims-study-finds https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/most-imported-olive-oils-don%E2...

sul_tasto 4y ago

How do we know that the olive oil we buy from the grocery store is actually authentic? I thought most of the olive oil in the US contains cheaper seed oils, just like most of the honey contains corn syrup.

UncleOxidant 4y ago
Adulteration of OO is definitely an issue. There's not a lot of testing. I tend to think that if you buy CA grown/produced olive oil it's more likely to be authentic.
gtirloni 4y ago
If it says "Extra Virgin" it's supposed to be olive oil, cold extraction, probably first press (leaving alone frauds). If it doesn't (just says "olive oil"), it's probably olive oil mixed with all sorts of other vegetable oils.
- red_trumpet 4y ago
  > If it doesn't (just says "olive oil"), it's probably olive oil mixed with all sorts of other vegetable oils. Do they not have to declare the other ingredients on the packaging?
  - zerocrates 4y ago
    In the US, yes. And if it's a mixture of olive and something else they also just can't call it "olive oil" on the front label either. On the other hand that's just what's required. If nobody's looking closely, who's to say what you're actually doing, or what has happened from your upstream suppliers with or without your knowledge?
  - gtirloni 4y ago
    > Do they not have to declare the other ingredients on the packaging? They do but it's the same with everything else: there are definitions of what is something and sometimes they allow unexpected ingredients or mixtures that we wouldn't have expected. I think milk or milk-based is one of those things. Same for beef burger (if it's 62% beef than it's allowed to be caled a beef burger, no matter if it tastes like cardboard).

GloriousKoji 4y ago

Typically you're suppose to add "in mice" to the end of headlines but in this case it's "in Spanish people".

adrian_b 4y ago
Actually this study is consistent with several studies done in rats, but I do not remember now the links. In the studies done in rats, the purpose was to determine whether a high-fat diet causes or prevents atherosclerosis. In rats, the worst outcome was caused by a diet high in saturated fat and much better outcomes were caused by a diet enriched in oleic acid, e.g. by using high-oleic sunflower oil. However, the extra-virgin olive oil had an additional protective effect against atherosclerosis, in comparison with the other vegetable oils with a similar fatty acid profile. So the conclusion is that EVOO includes some unidentified substance, perhaps a phenolic compound, which is good for cardiovascular health. This, together with the fact that the olive oil has an optimal fatty acid profile with high content of oleic acid and with enough linoleic acid, makes it a very good choice for the main source of fat in the food.

UncleOxidant 4y ago

There's so much rampant mis-labeling of olive oil (see [1]) in many cases it's adulterated with other oils and in some cases it's not actually virgin olive oil. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10955085-extra-virginity https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10955085-extra-virginity

OgAstorga 4y ago

The less Linoleic Acid in your oil the better[1]. This image[2] is a good reference. Also, and as opposed to common beliefs. You can cook on olive oil[3] [1] https://openheart.bmj.com/content/5/2/e000898 https://openheart.bmj.com/content/5/2/e000898 [2]. https://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/LA-in-oil-table.jpg https://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/LA-in... [3]. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924224422000693 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092422442...

eltondegeneres 4y ago
Your first link is from a "carnivore diet" blog, which seems to mostly sell their own line of supplements.
- OgAstorga 4y ago
  The dietary preferences of the owner of the site does not alter the validity of the information. The image is just a reference. Here's the source of that table https://media.johnwiley.com.au/product_data/excerpt/06/04713855/0471385506.pdf https://media.johnwiley.com.au/product_data/excerpt/06/04713...
  - CommieBobDole 4y ago
    I don't think that article is the source of the table - there's a similar table, but a lot of the items are different and the numbers mostly don't match. Also that article seems to be primarily concerned with the health benefits of linoleic acid and how to increase consumption of it.
  - Dylan16807 4y ago
    > The dietary preferences of the owner of the site does not alter the validity of the information. The image is just a reference. Sourcing is important, and weird enough dietary ideas influence the trustworthiness of the chain. But more importantly the supplement-selling is a big potential conflict of interest.
4y ago

jpfdez 4y ago

https://www.oleoestepa.com/en/what-is-the-extra-virgin-olive-oil/ https://www.oleoestepa.com/en/what-is-the-extra-virgin-olive...

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

bgribble 4y ago

On urban US supermarket shelves virtually every bottle of olive oil advertises itself as "virgin" or the "even better" varieties ("extra virgin", "first cold pressed" etc). I have read that many of these labels are hogwash, and that the contents of your typical supermarket "extra virgin olive oil" bottle pretty often include adulterants like palm, canola, or sunflower oil. I can definitely taste the diff between supermarket stuff and super-premium olive oil where I know who the importer is (in New York City, my go-to is the house brand of a restaurant called Frankie's 457 Spuntino who imports their own oil). But I'm not sure whether that reflects the quality of olives/processing, or is an indicator of "real" vs "fake" olive oil...

tiagod 4y ago
I live in Portugal where most olive oil is good quality. The taste and appearance among good olive oil varies wildly and the super-premium ones will usually taste quite different from standard decent quality supermarket extra virgin.
- VBprogrammer 4y ago
  I lived with a Greek flatmate for a while. By far the best olive oil I've had was from their family owned olive grove. Usually brought back from his trips home in reused milk jugs.
  - ericbarrett 4y ago
    There used to be a vineyard in Lake County (CA) that made small-batch olive oil from trees on their estate. Sadly, the trees were destroyed in a fire a few years ago. I'll never forget the taste; it had a very strong olive flavor and was so acidic it actually felt spicy on your tongue. Have never found its equal in a store, no matter how exotic and/or pricey.
    - disillusioned 4y ago
      A great oil finishing with a strong black pepper taste is fairly achievable if you know where to look. Zingerman's Mail Order does a phenomenal job of sourcing olive oils like this but also of specifically calling out the tasting notes and the differences in their options. Two that they have that specifically hit this spiciness you're looking for: https://www.zingermans.com/Product/petraia-olive-oil/O-PET https://www.zingermans.com/Product/petraia-olive-oil/O-PET https://www.zingermans.com/Product/la-spineta-olive-oil/O-SPI https://www.zingermans.com/Product/la-spineta-olive-oil/O-SP... But in my experience, their live chat or phone service is absolutely amazing at guiding you to a great option, too.

clumsysmurf 4y ago

Is there something for Olive Oil like IFOS for fish oil?

jelsisi 4y ago
The IOC (International Olive Counsel) https://www.internationaloliveoil.org/ https://www.internationaloliveoil.org/

leobg 4y ago

Risk of mortality? I thought mortality was a fact. :)

dylan604 4y ago
Clearly, those are just alternative facts.

ryanwaggoner 4y ago

Seeing a lot of comments about how supposedly a lot of EVOO sold on store shelves isn't actually pure olive oil, and I'm curious where this belief comes from. Any data or studies you can point me to? Here's an FDA report of 88 EVOO bottles purchased from supermarkets that were tested, three of which were identified as impure enough to possibly indicate they were adulterated: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286479191_Authenticity_Assessment_of_Extra_Virgin_Olive_Oil_Evaluation_of_Desmethylsterols_and_Triterpene_Dialcohols https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286479191_Authentic...

swalling 4y ago
It's not "adulteration" so much as fraud by mixing it with cheaper oils or labeling oil as "extra-virgin" when it's not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil_regulation_and_adulteration#Investigations,_incidents,_and_recalls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil_regulation_and_adult...
- ryanwaggoner 4y ago
  That's what "adulteration" means. From the study I referenced: "Three of the 88 samples labeled as EVOO failed to meet purity criteria, indicating possible adulteration with commodity oil and/or solvent-extracted olive oil."
  - tradertef 4y ago
    3 out of 88 is not that bad. If you read this thread everyone is thinking most EVOO is adultered. If you buy from a trustworthy company, you would most likely be ok. We only use OO in our house and almost all of it from Cosco.. Refined + 15% EV for cooking and Organic cold press EV for salads and cold dishes.

thecoppinger 4y ago

Edit: reading this back, it sounds somewhat like an attempt to shill a product. So, disclaimer: I have absolutely no affiliation with Jeff or the Cultured Oils, I’m just fascinated by it. Serial entrepreneur Jeff Nobbs recently launched a new product in the food oil space: Cultured Oil* I came across his writings* on the perils of seed oils earlier this year and it radically changed the way I eat. After becoming aware of the danger high linoleic acid diets pose, as well as the climate implications of other oils, Jeff’s Cultured Oil looks incredibly impressive, albeit I haven’t had the chance to try it yet as they don’t ship to New Zealand. In summary, from their FAQ: “Cultured Oil is cooking oil made by fermentation, resulting in high levels of healthy fats, a small environmental footprint, a clean taste, and a high smoke point! Fermentation describes the process of microorganisms (or "cultures") consuming natural sugars and converting those sugars into entirely new foods. Just as there are sourdough and wine cultures, there are also oil cultures. An oil culture converts sugar into the healthy delicious fats that make up Cultured Oil. Cultured Oil is primarily monounsaturated fat, the heart-healthy and heat-stable fat also found in olive and avocados. In every serving of Cultured Oil (1 Tbsp - 14 grams), there are about 13 grams of monounsaturated fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, and 0.4 grams of polyunsaturated fat. Olive oils and avocado oils contain between 55-83% monounsaturated fat, and up to 21% polyunsaturated fat. Cultured Oil contains over 90% monounsaturated fat and less than 4% polyunsaturated fat * https://www.zeroacre.com/ https://www.zeroacre.com/ * https://www.jeffnobbs.com/posts/what-causes-chronic-disease https://www.jeffnobbs.com/posts/what-causes-chronic-disease

lumb63 4y ago
I recently saw cultured oil as well and have been doing some in depth research on adjacent topics since I have a family history of CVD. How has his writing changed how you eat, and have you noticed any differences in health metrics?
- thecoppinger 4y ago
  > [a] How has his writing changed how you eat, and [b] have you noticed any differences in health metrics? [a] Well, I now avoid vegetable oils quite intensely. The higher-order effect of being more aware and intentional of what I eat & cook has lead me to much healthier eating habits over all; I now mainly consume un-processed foods. In fact, it's nigh impossible to remove seed oil from ones diet without cutting out processed foods, as you quickly realize it's in (nearly) everything. [b] I track a bunch of health metrics via an Oura ring and Apple Watch, but it's hard to parse what improvements have come from the reduction in seed oils vs. the myriad of other positive changes I've made over roughly the same time period (daily weight lifting, running, improved sleep hygiene etc.). I can say that my resting heart rate has decreased, my sleep quality has improved & my VO₂ max is better than it's been since I began recording it (about a year) etc. etc. I recently had my bloods, testosterone, cholesterol & liver functions tested and everything came back healthy. — Overall, I've gone from being frequently fatigued, rundown and mentally overwhelmed (frequent anxious & depressive thoughts) earlier in the year to the other end of the spectrum as of writing. I can't recommend making the jump to cut-out seed oils enough. On a side note, as a 20-something year old, this experience has been a real eye opener. I've always held a healthy skepticism of conventional healthcare/medical wisdom as my father was a doctor and his insider views on things were very revealing. Now that I've gone through a dietary/health metamorphosis of sorts, I feel enlightened to the fact that you simply cannot rely on populist knowledge & guidelines to ensure you're being healthy, or for much else for that matter. Whether it be a consequence of the monolithic & slow moving nature of health science, or something more nefarious [lobbying, misaligned financial invectives, greed over health & welfare], the fact that seed oils were (and still are) praised & pushed as being a healthy alternative to olive oil, butter etc. is nigh insanity. A few months ago I finally stumbled down the PFAS chemicals rabbit hole, and my dull sense of terror & disappointment increased further still. It's a strange world we live in. The phrase 'boring dystopia' springs to mind.

dfried 4y ago

Lots of people are going to respond to this with comments about how most olive oil in the US is fake. This is based on an old study [1] and is no longer the case. It's now FUD perpetuated by DTC brands as part of their marketing. [2] [1] https://www.aboutoliveoil.org/uc-davis-olive-center-olive-oil-quality-reports https://www.aboutoliveoil.org/uc-davis-olive-center-olive-oi... [2] https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/briefs/brightland-drops-claims-that-most-olive-oils-in-u-s-are-adulterated-rancid/102608 https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/briefs/brightland-drops-claims...

lupire 4y ago
Your [1] is an olive oil industry marketing site that provides no evidence. Better would be a similar study to the original UCDavis study, to check if quality has improved.

metroholografix 4y ago

Greek olive oil is considered the best in the world and doesn't suffer from Mafia infiltration which is a huge problem in Italy [1] [2] [3]. Here is some good quality Greek olive oil available in US, reasonably priced, that you can buy without fear of adulteration or other shadiness: https://www.amazon.com/Terra-Creta-Kolymvari-Protective-Designation/dp/B00KROTNAW/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1549294575 https://www.amazon.com/Terra-Creta-Kolymvari-Protective-Desi... https://www.amazon.com/Iliada-Extra-Virgin-Olive-Liter/dp/B003TO9SJS/ref=sr_1_2_mod_primary_new?crid=1BKWNC16YQO5W https://www.amazon.com/Iliada-Extra-Virgin-Olive-Liter/dp/B0... The Greek extra virgin olive oil sold at Trader Joe's is also very good. Avoid the - Whole Foods & 365 branded - Greek EVOO at Whole Foods: it was rancid every single time I've tried it. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-crime-food/italian-police-break-mafia-ring-exporting-fake-olive-oil-to-u-s-idUSKBN1602BD https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-crime-food/italian-... [2] https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-basics/mafia-olive-oil-on-60-minutes/50203 https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-basics/mafia-olive-o... [3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2016/02/10/the-olive-oil-scam-if-80-is-fake-why-do-you-keep-buying-it/#a2a6e4c639d7 https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2016/02/10/the...

surfsvammel 4y ago
Nice. How would one go about finding such suggestion for consumption in Europe?
- brnt 4y ago
  Visit tour local Greek deli? They're not very numerous, but they're out there.
- metroholografix 4y ago
  Most EU supermarkets should have some Greek EVOO (Tesco in UK and Jumbo in Netherlands have Iliada, Sainsbury's has a selection of Greek olive oils). Alternatively, find a Greek deli/market/imports place, they are in every country I've been to in northern Europe. They typically supply restaurants and should have a good selection of foods. Look for PDO / Agrocert stamps.
- 4y ago

DeathArrow 4y ago

If one tablespoon of virgin olive oil a day is reducing the mortality risk to half, immagine the effect of two tablespoons of virgin olive oil.

hinkley 4y ago
Certain death.
- fithisux 4y ago
  you talk about cholesterol? My grandma got it.
  - hinkley 4y ago
    Well, you could read that a few ways. But death is certain no matter what you do, so in that sense any action or inaction brings with it certain death.

vixen99 4y ago

A useful test for olive oil is its taste when swallowed. If it produces a hot sensation in the throat this is due apparently to oleocanthal, a major polyphenol in the oil. Oleocanthal has been cited in numerous publications as having anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/31/3/999.full.pdf https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/31/3/999.full.pdf [Unusual Pungency from Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Is attributable to Restricted Spatial Expression of the Receptor of Oleocanthal]

Matthewiiv 4y ago

It's almost as if human nutrition and mortality are complex systems and a single foodstuff doesn't have any significant effect. Not only that but surely nobody is surprised that the people who can afford the more expensive version of a product live longer. Why have we not given up on this nonsense idea of miracle foods already?

fithisux 4y ago
So the study does not account/adjust for other factors. Very interesting.
- Matthewiiv 4y ago
  It does, but at some point a bigger study will come along that accounts for more factors, and that will find there's no effect.
deandublin 4y ago
did you read it? it just says unheated OO is better than the heated stuff. Pretty obvious that heating food can kill the good stuff, if there is good stuff in it to start with, that it.
- brutusborn 4y ago
  Where does it say that?
ROTMetro 4y ago
Quoting DoingIsLearning from these comments: The study was in Spain were both the quality of olive oil is very high and the retail cost fairly low comparatively with the rest if the world. Also many arguably poor farmers will grow their own olive trees and distribute the oil yield among their wider family. So perhaps not so case closed as you say.
- Matthewiiv 4y ago
  That's a fair point, although I would argue that if good quality olive oil is very cheap, then perhaps it's the other way round. Only the very poorest are forced to consume non extra virgin olive oil. Also, I'm not sure about Spain but farmers generally have noticeably higher life expectancy than the average.

lalaithion 4y ago

Aka "Good job finding a class-correlate you didn't manage to control for"

snissn 4y ago
that's my gut reaction too, haven't dug into it though and probably won't put in the time
leloup_legarou 4y ago
If the study was done in the US, then maybe. But it was done in Spain: > 12,161 individuals, representative of the Spanish population ≥18 years old, were recruited between 2008 and 2010 and followed up through 2019. Where nobody can prepare food without olive oil. It's the law.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  > Where nobody can prepare food without olive oil. It's the law. Like everywhere else, Spain is a place where virgin olive oil is more expensive than the defiled version.
  - tluyben2 4y ago
    Depends where they did this research: outside the big cities (Madrid and Barcelona) and especially in the south, you can find enough places outside supermarkets where you can buy extra virgin cheaper than other oils in supermarket. Especially when you buy per 5 liter from local farmers (which is what I do). If you live there (or if the research was done there), there would be no point buying oil in the supermarket and you always have the best oil on tap for next to nothing. Hence everyone there uses it for everything.
    - leloup_legarou 4y ago
      That, and also if you've grown up eating EVOO, even not the best quality one you can get from the village etc, you won't tolerate other vegetable and seed oils in your food, and certainly not in your salad. I had a friend from Canada who returned Home a while ago and he went to the supermarket to buy oil to put on his salad. He saw the price of EVOO and came back with a bottle of sunflower oil, scoffing about the "scam" of EVOO. A couple of weeks later he told me "well, it's really better though isn't it?" and he started buying EVOO after that. I don't know what changed his mind. Anyway I get it that EVOO sounds like a class marker and I've no doubt it is, in some parts of the world. Another poster was talking about virtue signalling. But in the neck of the woods I'm from (the Mediterranean) it's just not considered posh, or hip, to buy good olive oil, nor do you ever hear anyone bragging about it. It's just how people eat, and they prefer the best quality stuff than the lower quality stuff. Of course, the low quality stuff also sells just because some people can't afford the good quality stuff, and I guess there's also people who are not used to it, even if they're born in one of the places that are famous for it. There's just a completely different mentality about EVOO (and some other foodstuffs: bread, wine, cheese maybe) in some parts of the Old World. It's about culture and (gulp) identity rather than fashion and those preferences will not change when EVOO (etc) goes out of fashion.

ucha 4y ago

I get a couple of gallons of olive oil in a small village directly from the press in November each year. It's not filtered so it has a lot of particles in suspension and it goes bad faster, maybe after a year or so. But it tastes nothing like supermarket extra-virgin olive oil, the taste is so much more concentrated. Olive oil has a pretty short shelf life. The best way to get the good stuff is to make sure you buy: - the latest harvest (they're usually harvested in early fall) - non-filtered - stored in a dark bottle, somewhere cool (light oxidizes it) - single origin (if it's not, then they're likely mixing old rancid and new oils) - first press, cold extracted

specialist 4y ago
Yup. Fresher is better. A friend once sent me a gallon from his family's harvest. Nectar of the gods. -- California Olive Ranch is available in (my) local groceries. They helpfully imprint the harvest date on the label. Any thing on the shelf is probably over a year old. Meh. I've pre-ordered their harvest reserve (autumn). Two weeks from tree to mouth. Very good. Nothing on their web site about harvest reserve 2022. Maybe it's only announced on the mailing list. https://www.californiaoliveranch.com https://www.californiaoliveranch.com Caveat emptor: Ordering their non-harvest online was the same old stuff available retail. Rip off. -- I'm sure other growers are happy to oblige. https://cooc.com https://cooc.com https://txaoo.org https://txaoo.org

deandublin 4y ago

the main point of this comparison is - you should choose the best quality food that you can - so unheated OO over the heated stuff, for example. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

senand 4y ago

You simply won't be able to find world-class olive oil in supermarkets or on amazon. I can wholeheartedly recommend https://villahumbourg.it/en-index.html https://villahumbourg.it/en-index.html, 100% oil from one farm in Tuscany, for sure no Mafia infiltration and the new oil is just being harvested these days. How I know that? It's from my mother, who I just visit for my holidays. I know I'm biased, but it's just the truth ;-)

nikita2206 4y ago
Didn’t you just bring down her website?
flanbiscuit 4y ago
I did a wine tour in Tuscany a few years ago and most of the small vineyards also grew olives and made olive oil and it was the best olive oil I ever had. I wish I had bought more. Thanks for the link, I might be ordering some soon. grazie!

oldgradstudent 4y ago

Virgin olive oil is more expensive. The most important, and well known confounding factor in observational health research is socioeconomic status - rich people live longer than poor people. This research attempted to control for it in a limited fashion, but that's not nearly enough.

brutusborn 4y ago
This is so common in these kinds of studies that I tend to ignore them. I saw a similar one recently that linked certain types of meat and dairy consumption to longevity but didn't control for wealth. The real problem isn't diet but being poor.
- oldgradstudent 4y ago
  Yeah, it's almost looks they're written by statistics professors trying to illustrate the concept of confounders.
- steve76 4y ago
DoingIsLearning 4y ago
The study was in Spain were both the quality of olive oil is very high and the retail cost fairly low comparatively with the rest if the world. Also many arguably poor farmers will grow their own olive trees and distribute the oil yield among their wider family. So perhaps not so case closed as you say.
- moonchrome 4y ago
  If that was true why would anyone use refined oil ?
  - tluyben2 4y ago
    You will have to live in Spain and know people to get high quality cheap oil. I have my own olive trees and we bring our olives to a small cooperative press; in that community the oil costs next to nothing, however, when it’s exported (and most here is for local production and is sold locally only), it is priced to what you find in the shop.

ilkke 4y ago

Virgin type of consumption? Risk of mortality? Is it me or is that title extremely oddly phrased?

jesuscript 4y ago

At this point these studies sound like the ticker on Sim City 3000. https://simcity.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_news_ticker_messages https://simcity.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_news_ticker_messages “All Raccoons Cheat At Poker, Animal Researchers Say”

pessimizer 4y ago

Sounds like another study discovering that wealthy people are healthier.

sn41 4y ago
Not surprising, since health is wealth.

faizan-ali 4y ago

I wrote a small post explaining why the EVOO industry is rampant with fraud and ho to go about looking for good olive oil: https://medium.com/@faizan_ali/extra-virgin-olive-oil-9c9cf18dda89 https://medium.com/@faizan_ali/extra-virgin-olive-oil-9c9cf1...

bilsbie 4y ago

Man this oil stuff is exhausting. I’m now trying to avoid seed oils but they put them in everything. Now I have to worry about olive oil?

WitCanStain 4y ago

Fortunately all the oil consumption I do is of the virgin type

iguana 4y ago

If you're interested in increasing EVOO consumption for the health benefits based on polyphenols, look into Moroccan olive oil, as it has very high polyphenol levels - as high as 30x regular EVOO.

canjobear 4y ago

My conclusion is that olive oil consumption has no effect on mortality. Finding an effect in 1/2 of your data, and not in the other half, is a classic sign of p-hacking.

finneganscat 4y ago

19h 4y ago

Weirdly enough I haven't seen non-virgin olive oil in German stores.. is that an American thing?

stephen_g 4y ago
You’ll find the store brand sometimes having a cheaper “olive oil” here in Australia, which is still 100% olive I believe but probably includes second press. But any brand name oil will basically always be virgin/“extra-virgin”.
dagw 4y ago
Go to Aldi. Read the label of the cheapest olive oil you find. It will almost certainly be non-virgin. For example https://www.aldi-nord.de/sortiment/nahrungsmittel/saucen-oele-gewuerze/fette-oele-essige/olivenoel-0812-0-0.article.html https://www.aldi-nord.de/sortiment/nahrungsmittel/saucen-oel...

cellu_cc 4y ago

Obligatory Fat Gold plug: https://fat.gold/ https://fat.gold/ It's incredible. If you can afford it, the subscription is always great and an excellent chance to try oil from different olives that typically don't get pressed.

ck2 4y ago

It's crazy to me all the weird games people play with food names and sources and content that can vary from batch to batch even from "reliable" sellers when we know it's simply the polyphenols providing antioxidant mechanisms. You can get polyphenols/antioxidants from much cheaper, easier, reliable consistent sources. This isn't 1822 or 1922 but 2022, we should use technology to have real nutrition labels for things we eat.

leric 4y ago

bhk 4y ago

The obvious confounder of income/wealth was apparently not accounted for.

teleforce 4y ago

Obligatory link mentioning 80% of olive oils are fake (fake virgin & extra virgin grading, country of origin, etc) [1]. I wish there is reliable and rapid in-situ testing, but not lab based sample testing that is not reliable and slow (companies can always send the good samples for testing and still selling the fake versions). My hypothesis is that hyperspectral camera imaging technology can perform the in-situ reliable and rapid testing for screening the fake expensive foods namely virgin olive oils, honey, etc. [1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2016/02/10/the-olive-oil-scam-if-80-is-fake-why-do-you-keep-buying-it https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2016/02/10/the...

silexia 4y ago

Warning on all studies published in Nature: they changed their policies recently to only publish studies that agree with their political opinions. This is now an opinion mag, not a science publication.

puzzlingcaptcha 4y ago
This isn't even published in Nature but in EJCN, which is published by Springer Nature. With impact factor of 4 I'd caution against taking the results at face value.

denton-scratch 4y ago

The "risk of mortality" is 100%. Perhaps there are some foodstuffs that increase expected lifespan; but youcan't reduce the risk of mortality. We're all mortal.

vibrio 4y ago
Prove it. /s
eimrine 4y ago
Mortality is the number of deaths within a particular society and within a particular period of time:

Kaibeezy 4y ago

The paper concludes, in part: “Our results also suggest a negative synergism between high virgin OO consumption and total physical activity on all-cause mortality.” I take this to mean that to some extent, either virgin olive oil and/or physical activity reduce all-cause mortality; they overlap. Am I reading this correctly? Also, I was disappointed at the extent the discussion degenerated to a procurement hearsay scuffle. Not our usual standard of discourse.

nanna 4y ago

I buy Palestinian olive oil as it tastes the best and it supports a people living under apartheid and occupation.

canbus 4y ago

chicob 4y ago

I am an olive oil producer, in Portugal, and we're harvesting as I type. I have made some remarks about olive oil production on HN in the past, but here are some remarks about olive oil quality, grading, and production: Olive oils do degrade with time, which means triglycerols break into free fatty acids and glycerol (E → F + _ ). Of course aroma also changes with time, but this is more subjective, and decided by actually tasting samples. So olive oil freshness comes in three gradings, defined by free fatty acid content: extra virgin (<0,5%), virgin (<2%), and lampante (>2%). These grades will generally decide the market value, but differentiation can change this (special varieties and a good aroma allow for a better price). Extra-virgin can, in principle, be sold as virgin (e.g. if aroma is not good enough for some reason) but not the other way around. All my production is extra virgin. That is 100.00% extra virgin. I have never, nor my family has ever, produced anything but extra virgin olive oil. The worst I have seen around me was a producer getting 0,4% free acidity, which is still extra virgin. Today, olive oil is industrially extracted by crushing the olives and separating water and fatty phases in a centrifuge, at cold temperatures. Olives have around 20% w/w directly extractable oil, but the fatty content of the pomace contains around 40% fat. This oil can be further extracted in centrifuges, up to a point were some temperature will be needed. This fat won't be completely extracted, and that is up to the plant processing it, that usually keeps the pomace for itself. Heating does lower the quality of olive oil, and as such its price, but some data is good to put things into perspective. Around 95% of Portugal's production was virgin/extra virgin, followed by the US (~90%), Greece (~75%), and Italy and Spain (both ~65%) the latter being the largest producer (~35% of world total). Portugal now ranks 7th in production volume, and is the first to put olive oil in the market, although the market is controlled by Spain. Future markets usually keep prices down for the starting weeks, and I hope this will change in the following years as Portuguese production increases. Having this objective measure in mind, and without disregard for other characteristics that can improve olive oil general quality, one can say that Portuguese olive oil is the best, modesty aside. But it does seem the US know what they're doing, although in smaller quantities! Italy is one of the largest importers of Portuguese olive oil. I have no idea what they do with it.

pezezin 4y ago
> Italy is one of the largest importers of Portuguese olive oil. I have no idea what they do with it. Spanish neighbor here; as far as I know they resell it as Italian olive oil, as it is better known around the world and can command higher prices. That is changing though; I live in a small city in Japan, and even here, the local supermarkets are bringing more and more Spanish and Portuguese olive oil.

Maursault 4y ago

Olive oil consumption is unsustainable. What we need is wide adoption of electric olives.