This guest post is from Niki Tsourounakis, one of the reader of this blog who is also an olive oil lover and expert. Their company, Amphora, is a leading company which produces, imports & supplies high quality specialty foods.

I am very happy to host on my blog some good information on how to select the right extra virgin olive oil given that, as you know from my previous posts, not all the olive oil you buy is what you think it is!
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Educate Yourself!
You have probably heard that olive oil is extremely good for you, and not only great-tasting, but rich with nutrients. Do you REALLY know why or which ones? And do you know how to distinguish the good from the bad?
True Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the only kind of olive oil you should be consuming. That is, if you care about your health! Olive oil ranges from ‘extra virgin’ all the way down to ‘pomace’ oil, which is overly refined olive oil with minimal, if any nutritional qualities. It should really only be used in your oil lamp! Virgin Olive oil is also somewhat refined too, and is not as nutritious as extra virgin olive oil.
So now, we are somewhere. We have narrowed it down to extra virgin olive oil. There is so much fraud in the olive oil industry that it is hard to be certain when reading product labels to know if you are actually reading the truth. Most of the time, the “extra virgin olive oil” you are ingesting is actually a lower grade of olive oil, or a mix of olive oil blended with another type of oil. There have been numerous cases of fraud by adding sunflower oil and/or hazelnut oil to olive oil. Up to an astonishing 30% is undetectable to the palate! It has also been reported that a certain company was caught coloring their oil with banana peels to emulate the greenish look of olive oil and selling it as such. Unfortunately, companies such as these only get a minimal fine and a slap on the wrist. Shortly after, they are at it again. In the end, it is very difficult to track a product that is produced in one country and sold in another. This increases the odds of tampering with the finished product.
It is a fact that extra virgin olive oil accounts for less than 10% of oil in many producing countries….so it doesn’t take a genius to know that most of what you are buying at the grocery store is not really extra virgin! These days, anyone can print a label that says anything on it.
Online articles can educate us in an instant, but the internet is also notorious for posting un-truths with no responsibility or traceability to the author. So here it is: I am the author. Niki Tsourounakis. Hold me accountable if you like. I am responsible for Vlatos Premium Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I can guarantee you this olive oil is everything that the label states. Know what goes into your mouth!

www.vlatos.com

I know that many of my readers love good cooking! Actually I would say that half of my readers are interested to the benefits of olive oils and the other half to olive oil products and in particular to olive oil to use in their diet! I wrote in a post about using olive oil in the kitchen and in particular about the good and bad ways to use it. However, a certainly good way to use it is to cook great dishes! I haven’t published any recipe on my blog about how to use olive oil to cook some very tasty dish and maybe one day I will share some of my recipes and certainly invite my readers to share their experiences!

In the meantime, one of my readers has suggested me a cooking school directory which I am sure some of my readers may find interesting therefore I decided to write this quick post about it!

Do you feel your hair are getting dry and are suffering for the dry heating of our houses, or because the cold winter has forced you to wear hats or bonnets when going out, or just because your work is stressing you out? Then give them a treat based

Olive oil benefits to dry hair

on olive oil (of course!) and you will see the benefits coming!

As you should now know from my previous posts, one of the main benefits of olive oil is its nourishing property. Used on hair, olive oil can nourish, condition, and improve the strength and elasticity. Moreover, being olive oil a completely natural product, treating yourself with it will help reducing the stress caused by chemical products and therefore improve the health of your hair overall.

Treatment for hair based on olive oil

There are several products out there using olive oil to treat your hair, however, as a gift to make my readers forgive me for the lack of posting over the last month J, I am going to tell you how to prepare a completely natural treatment for hair based on olive oil:

INGREDIENTS (enough for 1 or 2 treatments, depending on the length and thickness of your hair)

½ cup olive oil
5 drops of an essential oil (lavender, eucalyptus, etc.)

1. Pour olive oil into a jar with a lid, then add the essential oil of your choice. Put the lid on the jar and shake well to disperse the essential oil. Let the mix sit for 24 hours in a cool, dark place. Shake again before use.

2. Rinse hair with warm water. Pour 1 tablespoon of oil treatment in the palms of your hands and warm it by rubbing your hands. Gently massage the oil into the scalp using your fingertips, in a circular motion. Massage with care the entire scalp and then rub the ends of your hair.

3. Take a plastic bag big enough to fit on your head and place it over your hair, secure it by tying or with a hair clip or clothespin, and let the oil to rest on your hair for at least a half-hour.

4. Rinse well, then shampoo as usual, possibly using a delicate shampoo.

The recipe for this treatment has been adapted from The Herbal Home Spa by Greta Breedlove (Storey Books, 1998). Do it well and you will see that the benefits olive oil can bring to your hair are higher than expected!

Related posts about olive oil benefits

Olive oil benefits for skin: how to treat eczema in children naturally

Will olive oil help fighting cancer?

Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil Benefits

Benefits of Olive Oil – 7 Very Healthy Reasons to Turn to Olive Oil

Olive oil health benefits: an Interview

After more than a month from my last post I want to apologise to my readers…and say thanks to Luca and Mary who have emailed me asking if it was all ok! I have been a little busier than usual on a number of things, some of them about olive oil of course!

However, now I am back with a few news! Soon I am going to introduce some small changes to my website by organising better some of the old posts in three categories: olive oil benefits, reviews of types of commercial olive oils and suggestions on where to buy online the best olive oil products. This is in line with the several requests I have received lately from readers who found the content of this blog very trust worthy and instructive and wanted me to suggest them some places where they could buy olive oil or related products to experience at best its benefits.

To start with, I am going to increase the reviews of olive oils you can find online. To this end, if you are a producer of olive oil and want to talk about your olive oil on this blog, please get in touch with me here.

Second, I am going to have a look around the web about other types of olive oil products which I know can really bring some benefits and will include a section where you can find the best selection I can come with! Of course this will be subjective given that I am not doing this a my job but just because I love olive oil and love talking about the benefits of olive oil…and being Italian, I also love to share with people the things I like most.

In the meantime, I am going to post my next blog about another, often neglected, possible use of olive oil, for the health of your hair!

In this post I am not going to talk about the benefits of olive oil as in most of the other posts so far and I am going to start instead a new chapter on this blog, that is, the review of various

Greeks harvesting olives

types of olive oils. My aim is to provide my numerous readers (thanks again for all the support emails!) verified information to be more informed on which olive oil they should buy to enjoy the best health benefits of olive oil.

I am going to start this chapter with Greek olive oil, and discuss some of the varieties of such a great producer. One question many of the readers have asked me is: can you get good Greek olive oil online? The answer is yes. One thing that I have pointed out in one of my previous posts on Italian vs. Spanish vs. Greek olive oil is that much of the Italian and other olive oil you consume is already partially or entirely from Greece – look for the telltale “GR” under “Country of Origin”.  However,  you know that not all the olive oils you buy at the supermarket would ever make my kitchen so keep reading for more details!

Tassos Greek Olive Oil

Tassos olive oil  comes from Crete and is one of the best oils from outside of Greece. This is a greenish-tinged oil which is rich but has a smooth flavor.  For a long time, it was only available on line in a massive three-liter container. It can be used for dipping, salads, cooking, and baking. More recently it is also available in smaller quantities -as well as olives, honeys, spreads and even as feta stuffed marinated red peppers – directly from the manufacturer’s website, Tassos.com.

Liohori Olive Oil

Another great Cretan olive oils. It is available at a good price in three-liter tin

Cretan olive oils

Taste of Crete Olive Oil

This extra-virgin olive oil comes from the area of Sitia in the northeastern part of Crete, rich in Minoan ruins and kept cool by breezes -and sometimes winds- blowing across the Aegean sea. Made from Koroneki olives, this is a milder, reasonably-priced oil.

Aegean Kalamata Olive Oil

Though Kalamata olives are known for their unique, strong flavor, the olive oils themselves are not as spicy. A large three-liter metal can supplies you with extra-virgin olive oil for a few meals at least.

Kalamata Olive Oils

If the average consumer knows one word of Greek in conjunction with olives, it is probably “Kalamata”, the term for the strong, pointy, purple-colored olives often served at Greek restaurants worldwide. However, Kalamata olive oil is not purple, as a bottle of any of these olive oils will prove.

With this traditional olive oil I conclude on my first post trying to explore the different types of olive oils available on the net. For each olive oil I am going to talk about, I will have talked with the producer and often tasted my self the oil to make sure that all the olive oil benefits I have talked about are embodied in the various oils. Every now and then, I will also talk about olives and other olive products to make sure you can have more olive benefits and taste in your kitchen and life in general!

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!

Olive oil is one of the cornerstones of Italian cuisine and Olive Oil Benefits are central in the Mediterranean diet. Having talked extensively the health benefits of olive oil, by now everyone should know its strengths and weaknesses. However, how many people know that 10 g of oil are equivalent to 90 kcal or the equivalent to 150 g of whole yogurt?

Olive Oil production and types of olive oil

Let’s summarize the main characteristics of olive oil. It is obtained from olives by pressing either using modern techniques that crushers olives by centrifugation or using traditional granite millstones. The separation of oil from the pulp and water is obtained by hydraulic presses. If the process of crushing does not exceed 30 ° C, the best quality of olive oil is produced, that is the cold pressed olive oil. Such olive oil is left to mature in earthenware jars or containers made of steel. Different types of olive oil are produced by the same process. Depending on the content of free oleic acid may be extra virgin olive oil (<1%), extra fine virgin olive oil (<1.5%), and fine virgin olive oil until (<3%) and normal olive oil (> 3%).

The world’s largest producer is Spain with one million tons, followed by Italy with 450,000 and Greece with 360,000. I have discussed about the difference between Italian olive oil and Spanish olive oil and Greek olive oil in a previous post. Italy exports about 40% of production (to the United States, Germany, Japan). The country that consumes more oil is Greece (24 kg per capita per year), followed by Italy 12kg and Spain 10kg .

Of the Italian varieties the most well known are Taggiasca and Lavagnina (Liguria), Frantoio (Tuscany), Casaliva (Lake Garda), Carboncella e Canino (Lazio), Moraiolo (Umbria), Gentile (Abruzzi), Rotondella (Campania), Ogliarola, Cellina , and Coratina e Cima (Puglia or Apulia), Carolea (Calabria), Nocellara of Belize and Bosana (Sicily and Sardinia).

How and when Italians use olive oil to cook

Olive oil is nutritionally interesting because it is a source of safe lipids. If the olive oil quality is good or even excellent, it is a product that during the processing has not been modified and contains very few (or no) chemical residues. As such it should be considered the preferred source of lipids. However, as all the fats it brings many calories, so you should not abuse of it. Olive oil health benefits are excellent when used in salads, sauces and any cold dish but it’s use should be limited in hot food such as meat, fish or fried vegetables (the classic French fries).  During the cooking process, foods tend to absorb olive oil greedily, with the result that even low-calorie foods like fish or meat becomes much more caloric. Clearly this does not work well with most diets.

Should you use olive oil to fry food?

An article appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2003) establishes once again that the use of low-smoke oils for frying (such as cold-pressed sunflower oil) increases the risk of hypertension.

Fried oils should never be reused

An interesting bit of the research (from the Spanish Soriguet and others, Malaga) is that the risk of hypertension increases as the oil (both olive oil and other oils) is reused. Indeed reusing oil (think to the French fries in fast food restaurants: many restaurateurs say they use olive oil, but how many could say that they do not reuse it indefinitely?) increases the amount of harmful substances derived from the thermal treatment of oil, substances that bind to food and are ingested. Although the quantity of unhealthy substances depends on the type of oil used it is also true that a degradation of oil is always present and the study shows that there is no healthy oil af far as frying oil is concerned. As a rule of thumb, the amount of harmful substances is inversely proportional to the oil smoking point: when you smoke coming out from the oil, you have exceeded the critical level! The results of this study were so evident that Soriguet concludes: “I made the fryer disappear from my house”.

Suggestion

We must remember ourselves that cooking at low temperatures is the healthiest way to cook and the health benefits of olive oil can be enjoyed if we use high quality and fresh olive oil, if we do not reuse fried oil and have it rough to dress and make our food tastier.

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.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil brings more benefits than any other vegetable oil because the way it is produced. In fact, traditionally produced extra virgin olive oil is produced by just pressing olives using special presses. There are different ways to produce olive oil and these are summarised in the article cold pressed olive oil

However, it is well know as well that with time the olive oil benefits will decrease. Moreover, its taste will change and, for those who haven’t tried novel olive oil, the difference is massive. Therefore the best olive oil is fresh olive oil! Try to taste it on a slice of bread (ideally freshly backed and Italian bread!) and you will have tried one of the most fantastic and simple foods ever…Have a look to the picture on the right hand side…can you imagine how it will taste? If you haven’t tried it you cannot fugure out, pure olive juice.

Fresh olive oil is the best olive oil to drink

In Italy there is a famous saying which says: “Old wine and fresh oil” which reinforces what I have just told you. The best olive oil is the one consumed within one year from production and it is better to consume it within 18 months. To best preserve olive oil, it should be kept away from direct sunlight, heath sources and in a bottle with no or very little air inside.

In this article I am going to ask to one of my Italian friends (olive oil producer of course!) about why you should consume new olive oil (or “Olio di Oliva Novello” as Italians would call it).

Here it is a photo of an Italian Frantoio (oil mill) and below the questions I am going to ask him about fresh olive oil!

Find out more about this olive oil producer on:

Flickr photos abot Italian olive oil

Website of Frantoio Sant’Anna

Italian Olive oil production: Frantoio Sant'Anna

Tell to our readers something about your olive oil mill (Frantoio)

Why people should drink fresh olive oil?

What is the difference between fresh olive oil and olive oil you can buy at the supermarket?

What’s special about your olive oil