A great news for all the lovers (or users) of olive oil! A Spanish research group is going to work on a research aimed at showing how regular use of olive oil in your diet can fight against cancer, and in particular breast cancer.

In the news published on the university website the Rector of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and Pedro Barato, President of “Organización Interprofesional del Aceite de Oliva Español” presents the agreement signed with the Multidisciplinary Group on Breast Cancer Research (GMECM), directed by Dr Eduard Escrich, lecturer of the Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology.

The group of researchers will be working in 2010 on this research project over the next 5 years to take forward the a previous research where the group has already demonstrated that even a moderate intake of virgin olive

Olive oil has been shown to fight cancer

oil slows down the spreading of breast cancer.

Previous studies (4. Extra Virgin Olive Oil Compounds Fight Breast Cancer) have already shown the olive oil benefits to fighting breast. Specific compounds found in olive oil (lignans and secoiridoids) seem to act against aggressive types of breast cancer by suppressing the Her2 gene.

In the past natural compounds found in plants such as olive oil that have an anti-inflammatory effect by removing free radicals, have already repeatedly shown to help in cancer prevention but no study has addressed this topic in depth to the extent of being able to use such compounds to create new more natural drugs to fight cancer.

In a press release of the research group at UAB says “Among the research studies to be carried out, some of the most prominent focus on the effects fats and oils can have on mammary (breast) tumors, and especially those of extra virgin olive oil, and an analysis of the molecular changes found in these tumors in all of the genome and in the specific genes implicated in this pathology.”

The leader of the research groups Dr Escrich has already worked in the past on the role of nutrition on preventing and fighting breast cancer and has won several awards on the subject of his research. In his studies he has shown the benefits of diets rich of olive oil in lowering the risk of various types of cancer.

Other studies have also shown that 1/3 of cancers are related to poor diets therefore in case you were not already 100% sure you should turn to a diet rich of high quality olive oil, this should give you the last push to improve your health and quality of life overall! Using such an amazing and tasty food to improve your chances to avoid cancer is a no brainer decision! Have more olive oil and you will feel his benefits in your life for a long long term!

There are many olive oil benefits to your skin but in this article I am going to talk about how olive oil can help in treating eczema.

Eczema is quite widespread and affects mainly Children. Many chemical treatments are available to treat eczema but in this article I am going to talk on how to use olive oil for skin care and in particular to treat this annoying condition.

In 2008 it was reported that 10% of children develops eczema (see the website www.kidshealth.com). Subsequently other sources reported about an increase of eczema figures to up to 1/3 of children, mainly due to the quality of air in large cities. This phenomena is set to increase over the next few years that is why it is important to understand how to treat it naturally.

What is eczema and how does it manifest itself

To understand whether or not your skin is affected by eczema you need to look to one of the following signs: extremely dry, itchy, patchy, swelling, red and inflamed, crusting, flaking, cracking, oozing, or bleeding.

A key trigger of eczema is a dry skin. For this reason, a key remedy would be to keep it well moisturized, daily and intensely. This would help a lot preventing eczema to affect your skin.

On the market many moisturisers can be found but when choosing one of these from the supermarket shelf you need to take into account a number of things. For instance, there are synthetic and natural ones. No need to say what my suggestion would be, after all your skin deserves natural treatments!

Benefits of using olive oil as moisturiser

Since the time of Romans, Egyptians and Ancient Greeks, olive oil has been (and is sill) widely used as a natural moisturiser. For instance, Egyptians used olive oil to rub their bodies after bathing – which served to protect the exposed skin from the intense rays of the sun and contributed toward keeping the skin smooth and supple.

Today the effectiveness of olive oil on the skin has become widely known. In addition to cosmetics, olive oil has been added to lotions and soaps to increase their moisturizing levels. In one of my previous articles I have talked about clinical trials that have clearly shown the benefits of olive oil to the health of skin and many other parts of our body.

The key benefits of using olive oil over other treatments stand into the antioxidant capacity of olive oil’s minor components, such as vitamin E and polyphenols (which have been found to have antioxidant characteristics that play a major role in human health)

How to use olive oil to treat child eczema

Extra virgin olive oil will help with eczema both topically and internally. Regular use of olive oil in your child diet and topical application have shown to reduce, not remove, eczema.

A few treatments found on several health and skin related sources can be followed to take advantage of olive oil in the treatment of skin issues such as eczema and dry skin:

1. Long baths or showers can rob the skin of its moisture. Place a capful of olive oil in your child’s bathwater to keep the skin moisturized during bath time.
2. Add one tablespoon full of olive oil to the child diet.
3. Massage your child’s entire body with olive oil at least twice a day (after bath time in the morning and once before bedtime).
4. Make a thick paste to achieve a deeper moisturizing effect following this recipe found at www.oliveoilsource.com/oliveoildr-skin.htm: (“make an emulsion of water and oil “like mayonnaise” which would thicken and hydrate. Waxes such as beeswax [which you can find in the candle section of your local arts and craft stores] can be added to make more of a liniment or ointment, heat one pint of olive oil with 1 1/2 ounces of beeswax until melted, cool, add more wax if necessary and repeat. Other ingredients used to thicken emollients are agar, a seaweed extract, methyl cellulose or xanthum gums, both plant extracts, and glycerin. They are all edible and used to thicken everything from ice cream to pancake syrup”). *as a side-note, please ensure that the mixture has cooled completely before use.

Note that these suggestions should only be followed if your child does not suffer of allergy to olives.

This article has shown as thanks to its natural properties, olive oil can be used for the skin care and in particular for the treatment of eczema in children as a natural treatment. If you have any experience about your personal use of olive oil, please add your comments to the bottom of this page.

We have been talking about olive oil benefits in most of the articles on this blog. Many other websites do something similar and oftentimes different information is provided about the subject. In this blog we have decided to stick to facts rather than words about olive oil and olive trees.

Our previous articles have talked about scientific information about the benefits of using olive oil regurlarly in your diet so in this article I am going to write about the interview I had with Mike about his experience with really good quality olive oil, olive oil you can drink or appreciate just having it with as slice of oven baked bread.

I met Peter on flickr while searchign for inspirational photos about fresh olive oil (check his collection here) I was really struck by the quality and passions of his photos about olive oil, olive trees and olives,  so I got in touch with him.

After a few emails he gave me access to all his photo (thanks Peter!) and he told me he gets his fresh olive oil directly from oil mill (Frantoio in Italian). I am not affiliated with these guys and the fratoio owner did not even have time to talk about his oil mill (!!) because now there it is the pick season and he is too busy in the production of fine olive oil.

Nevertheless, I am happy to link to them here because I know our readers can find there a great olive oil. I am talking about the Frantoio Sant’Anna, in Souther Italy, the land of the best Italian Olive Oil.

Coming back to Peter, here it is what he has to say about his experience with olive oil and its health benefits.

“I was just curious how a (frantoio) olive oil mill works so I went
to Sant’Anna  near where I live.

Its just impressive how the big  granitic millstones works upper left side. Very noisy.

When they start the press season, they work 20 hours a day even
sunday. (October – december).
As you can see on the pic in the blog the whole  frantoio is very
clean.

People should eat/drink  from this olive oil at least 2 tablespoons
a day, more is better.
I use about 1 liter in a month, put it on vegetables, toasts, Spelt
(rondelle) and so on.
Always fresh from the bottle, cold. I myself don’t use it for
cooking its just too good and tasty cold on anything.

The diffrent from  good olive oil buyed in the frantoio, you know
what you eat, good quality,
olive oil from the supermarket — I don’t trust them low cost oil
– no never — !

Since I use this olive oil from the Sant’Anna frantoio my health is
better over all.
Colesterol HDL is better, higher, LDL is lower now, bone pain is
gone (about after 6 weeks) Glicemia is better, trigliceridi  are
lower now.
I can only say, eat it and you will see its good for you.
Read all about the benefits in the blog, its the trouth whats
written there.”

Thaks a lot Peter, I am sure the readers will appreciate your story about what health benefits drinking oilve oil brought to you. I also have to thank you for the very nice words you have said several times about this blog ( we just started!!!). We know that olive oil is great for health and we aim to become the main point of reference about olive oil benefits (the real ones) and to suggest how to get the best olive oil on the web for those who are not as lucky as you to live near an olive oil mill!

As a reader, besides the health benefits of olive oil Peter has described in his life, one important thing you can see is that buying cheap olive oil from the supermaket it is not the same thing at all. I am sorry, it may be the easier way to get oilve oil but it just isn’t the same drink and benefits! Read more on our article about cold pressed extra virgin olive oil to know why.

In the next days I will be going around the web more collecting stories about what benefits people are getting in using olive oil, where they buy it from and how they are using it! If you want to tell us and our readers more about it, please feel free to get in touch with us.

I have talked several times now about olive oil benefits, cold pressed extra virgin olive oil and how to distinguish amongst different types of olive oil. In this article I am going to start a series of articles dedicated to understanding how to choose the real olive oil that can bring the most benefits.

Today I will be talking about understanding Italian olive oil certifications using the two most important standardised marks, that is, the DOP and the IGP. The DOP certification of olive oil brings the most guarantees as my description of what producers need to demonstrate in order to obtain such a certification.

olive oil - DOP certification

Benefits of DOP Extra Virgin Olive Oil

You know that for me olive oil means Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil Benefits, so I am going to focus on this type of oil to talk about the DOP certification. However, most of what I say here applies to all the types of olive oil I described in my article about cold pressed olive oil – how to choose.

The first mark you need to know is the DOP mark. DOP stands for Denominazione di Origine Protetta (Protected Destination of Origin). This mark is dedicated to the food industry and can be found on wine, mozzarella, and other products produced in Italy. When an olive oil bottle shows this mark it means that the olive oil has gone through a scrupulous quality process that assesses thoroughly the quality of the territory where the olive oil has been produced.

DOP is a guarantee for the olive oil consumer. By drinking olive oil exhibiting sugh a certification, you can be assured that the whole product process, from the rough material to the final bottle, has been executed within the specified area which is known to provide quality olive oil. The area is analyse taking into account both natural and human properties, as well as production and transformation techniques. In other words, DOP olive oil is a guarantee of quality and verified final product, but also a guarantee that the olive oil is unique and inimitable.

DOP Olive Oil Regulations

The DOP certification was born in 1992 following the CEE 2081/92 regulations of the European Community. A DOP certified product is protected against counterfeits within all the European Unity territory.
To receive a DOP certification, the conditions specified in the second article of the CEE 2081/92 must be met.
1) The particular qualities and characteristics of the final products must be deriving from the specific origin the product has been produced in. This includes natural elements as well as production cycles, local knowledge, and so on.
2) The rough material is produced and processed within the region certified by the DOP mark.

In other words, DOP Olive oil must be made using olives farmed and transformed within the DOP region.

To obtain a DOP certification, olive oil producers have to follow a quality production and certification process under the control of an Italian body which has received the authorisation to provide DOP certifications by the Italian Minister of Agriculture. Obtaining the certification is just the start. Producers will be subject to periodic reviews and assessments that aim to guarantee the highest level of quality is preserved.

IGP Extra Virgin Olive Oil  vs. DOP Extra Virgin Olive oil

olive oil IGP certification

IPG stands for Indicazione Geografica Protetta (Protected Geographic Origin) and it is attributed to agricultural products when only one of the phases of the production process has been achieved in a certified area.

The key difference between DOP and IGP olive oil is that to get the IGP certification, the body will verify that at least 1 phase has actually been executed in the certified area, whereas the DOP certification guarantee that all the phases are executed within the area and following the traditional production processes.

Note

This article is based on information found on the internet in several authoritative websites selected personally by the author. Some of the content has been re-elaborated using Olio di Oliva DOP e olio IGP as a reference.

In this article I will talk about the different types of extra virgin olive oil. As you will discover at the end of this article, I suggest you to buy Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It is the best olive oil you can get for you heath even if it is not that easy to spot the differences when it comes to choosing which olive oil to buy.

Before I briefly describe all the different types of olive oil you can find, I have to say that in my analysis to answer the question which one is the best olive oil I have considered the 7 key benefits described in my previous article about benefits of olive oil.

Types of Olive Oil

On the market you can find several types of olive oil, even if very often it will be hard for you to distinguish among them on the supermarket shelf. Here I am going to differentiate different qualities on the basis of the olive oil production process.

• Regular or Pure Olive Oil
  This olive oil is of lower quality and usually the least expensive. Regular or pure olive oil has undergone a chemical process whereby it has been refined and filtered to neutralize both undesirable strong tastes and acid content.
• Virgin Olive Oil
  Virgin means the olive oil was produced without any chemical additives, so it contains no refined oil. It has an acidity that’s less than 2%, so it tastes better. Basically, virgin olive oil is the result of olive press with no (or very little) further manipulation or processing, hence the term “virgin”.
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  It is very high quality olive oil since it comes from the first press only. This allows it to acquire perfect flavour, aroma, and balanced acidity. This olive oil is less processed than Virgin olive oil and is very delicate in flavour. It’s perfect for dipping bread, salad dressings, marinades, and for dressing rough food.
• Cold Pressed Olive Oil
  Cold pressed olive oil can be considered premium olive oil. It is produced following a special process that fully preserves the delicate flavour. Cold pressed means that this oil is only the result of the first press where the olive paste is gently warmed to reach room temperature to avoid loosing taste. Pressing is also done in winter or in general in colder environments to fully retain the flavour. Conversely, in the production process of non cold pressed olive oil, the olive paste is often pressed the second time using hot water and steam to extract the last drop, the heat during the second pressing took away the delicate flavours.

Cold Pressed Olive Oil by library_chic

To summarise, cold pressed olive oil is produced by pressing the olive paste is a very slow process in which olive oil is extracted from olives at room temperature (usually colder than usually). Unfortunately, cold pressed olive oil is an unregulated label description and often must really look hard on the bottles label to find ‘cold pressing’

Cold Pressed Olive Oil Benefits

Cold Pressed Olive Oil is a fantastic aid for any condition associated with dry skin. As I discussed in my article about organic extra virgin olive oil, olive oil be used both topically and as an internal remedy for dry skin. Here I have listed some examples where it can be used as a natural emollient:

• Cold-pressed olive oil works as an emollient, which means it soothes and softens. It helps the itching of eczema, which is a itchy skin condition characterized by oozing lesions. But remember that this is effective only when eczema is associated with dry skin (not always).
• Cold pressed olive oil can be used on the scalp as a remedy for extremely dry skin and hair. If you suffer from dry skin, try adding cold pressed olive oil to your diet. It doesn’t take a lot, as olive oil calories are very high.
• The monounsaturated fats in cold pressed extra virgin olive oil help lower LDL, (bad), Cholesterol without affecting the HDL, (good), levels. Take 1 teaspoon twice daily to help lower your Cholesterol levels.