Olive Oil – Page 2 – HISTORY HEIST

Tips and Guidelines for Finding the Real Deal

For more information about olive oil — how it’s made and what constitutes extra-virgin olive oil, please listen to the full interview with Olmsted, or read through the transcript, as he goes into details about pressing, grading and testing. In his book, “Fake Food, Real Food,” he also explains how to make your own.

I just happen to grow olive trees on my property, so I will probably start making my own freshly pressed olive oil. Below is a summary of various tips gathered from experts about how to find the best quality olive oil. You can also find more information on Mueller’s website, Truth in Olive Oil.¹³

Harvest date: Insist on a harvest date, and try to purchase oils only from the current year’s harvest. Look for “early harvest” or “fall harvest.”	Storage and tasting: Find a seller who stores the oil in clean, temperature-controlled stainless steel containers topped with an inert gas such as nitrogen to keep oxygen at bay, and bottles it as they sell it; ask to taste it before buying.
Color and flavor: According to Guy Campanile, an olive oil producer, genuine, high-quality extra virgin olive oil has an almost luminescent green color.¹⁴ However, good oils come in all shades, from luminescent green to gold to pale straw, so color should not be a deal-breaker. The oil should smell and taste fresh and fruity, with other descriptors including grassy, apple, green banana, herbaceous, bitter or spicy (spiciness is indicative of healthy antioxidants). Avoid flavors such as moldy, cooked, greasy, meaty, metallic or resembling cardboard.	Bottles: If buying pre-bottled oil, favor bottles or containers that protect against light; darkened glass, stainless steel or even clear glass enclosed in cardboard are good options. Ideally, buy only what you can use up in six weeks.
Labeling terms: Ensure that your oil is labeled “extra virgin,” since other categories — “pure” or “light” oil, “olive oil” and “olive pomace oil” — have undergone chemical processing. Some terms commonly used on olive oil labels are meaningless, such as “first pressed” and “cold pressed.” Since most extra virgin olive oil is now made with centrifuges, it isn’t “pressed” at all, and true extra virgin oil comes exclusively from the first processing of the olive paste.	Quality seals: Producer organizations such as the California Olive Oil Council and the Australian Olive Association require olive oil to meet quality standards that are stricter than the minimal USDA standards. Other seals may not offer such assurance. Of course, finding “USDA certified organic” is a bonus, but not the only consideration. Though not always a guarantee of quality, PDO (protected designation of origin) and PGI (protected geographical indication) status should inspire some confidence.
Storage and use: Keep your olive oil in a cool and dark place, and replace the cap or cork immediately after each pour. Never let it sit exposed to air.	Prolonging freshness: To slow oxidation, try adding one drop of astaxanthin to the bottle. Astaxanthin is red, so it will tint your olive oil. As the olive oil starts to pale, you know it’s time to throw it away. Alternatively, add one drop of lutein, which is orange in color. Vitamin E oil is another option,¹⁵but since it’s colorless, it will not give you a visual indicator of freshness.

Olmsted, who is also a food critic, suggests considering buying olive oil from countries besides Italy, many of which produce very fine, high-quality oils. His favorite is Australia, but Chile, South Africa and even California also produce high-quality oils.

“I’m a big fan of Australia,” he says. “Most of the experts I talked to say, across the board, [Australia has] the best, most reliable quality. Australia also has separate legal standards from what most of the rest of the world uses for olive oil, which are considerably stricter, the testing and the grading.

Another thing is to look at some other countries that people don’t really associate so much with olive oil, but do a great job. I like a lot of the new world olive oils: California, Chile [and] South Africa.”

As for the best place to buy olive oil, look for stores where taste testing is allowed and encouraged, such as gourmet stores or specialty retailers. “Once you taste good olive oil, you can never go back to the bad stuff. It’s pretty clear when you taste it and smell it that it’s fresh, that it’s fruity, that it’s a whole different ball game,” Olmsted says.

Not for Cooking

When it comes to cooking with extra virgin olive oil, you’re better off using other stable oils or fats instead to avoid eating rancid oil. Extra virgin olive oil is ideal for drizzling onto foods or using in salad dressings or dips since this requires no cooking.

So what are the best oils for cooking? Because olive oil isn’t as stable as other sources of fats, other great oil options to cook with instead include: coconut oil (which is also best when it’s cold-pressed and virgin), organic pastured butter/ghee (which contain healthy short-chain fatty acids that have a higher heat threshold), or red palm oil (stable under high heat and great for cooking or baking). Coconut oil is my personal favorite choice since the list of coconut oil benefits is long — acting as an antimicrobial, energy booster and fat-loss tool. In addition, red palm oil does have some concerning sustainability issues, which is why it’s important to only get RSPO-certified palm oil, if you choose to go that route. Other healthy options for high-heat cooking include ghee oil and avocado oil.

How can you use extra virgin olive oil in uncooked dishes? To make a quick and versatile dressing for salads, vegetables or whole grains, combine it with several tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and a small amount of dijon mustard. You can also roast, grill, sauté or steam vegetables and then add seasoning and olive oil when they’re finished cooking. Using extra virgin olive oil in pesto, hummus, spreads, raw soups and dips is another option.

How to Use Olive Oil

You’ll find plenty of inconsistencies when you begin reading information about olive oil’s supposed health benefits, as well as the risks of using it for cooking. Some advocate consuming olive oil only at room temperature, drizzling it abundantly over salads and other foods. Others argue there is insufficient evidence that cooking with olive oil produces enough toxic byproducts to pose a health risk.

Case in point: An article published in Serious Eats examined a few studies and then concluded there’s no real danger from cooking with olive oil. The author cited one study that found olive oil to be more stable than various seed oils for frying at temperatures between 320 and 374 degrees F.

Another study found olive oil produced fewer fumes (volatile aldehydes) than canola oil. Indeed, several studies have shown that virgin olive oil produces fewer oxidation products than polyunsaturated oils when heated, due to its antioxidants. I disagree with recommendations to cook with olive oil, and so do many experts on fats and oils.

For example, I’ve previously interviewed Rudi Moerck, Ph.D., on the proper use of various cooking oils. He warns olive oil should not be used in cooking, as its chemical structure and high amount of unsaturated fats make it highly susceptible to oxidative damage when heated. When oxidative damage happens inside your body, it can trigger pain, arthritis, cancer and heart disease, and can speed up the aging process, so you’ll want to minimize anything that increases your body’s oxidative stress.

Moreover, even if your olive oil were to withstand the heating process without oxidizing, its nutrients are destroyed by heat, so it’s not providing you with any health benefit once you’ve cooked with it.

If you need to cook something and have only two options available — a good olive oil and canola — it makes sense to reach for the olive. Just realize that there are much better options than either of those. Saturated fats such as butter, ghee and lard rendered from organically raised grass-fed animals are far more resistant to the heat-induced oxidation of cooking than even the best olive oil. Coconut oil is another excellent option.

How to Optimize Shelf Life

Olive oil is extremely perishable even when used cold, thanks to its chlorophyll content, which accelerates decomposition. If you’re like most people, you’re probably leaving your bottle of olive oil right on the counter, opening and closing it multiple times a week.

It’s important to remember that any time the oil is exposed to air and/or light, it oxidizes, and the chlorophyll in extra virgin olive oil accelerates the oxidation of the unsaturated fats. Clearly, consuming spoiled oil (of any kind) will likely do more harm than good. To protect your olive oil from rancidity, be sure to:

Keep it in a cool, dark place
Purchase smaller bottles to ensure freshness
Immediately replace the cap after each pour

To help protect extra virgin olive oil from oxidation, Moerck suggests putting one drop of astaxanthin into the bottle. You can purchase astaxanthin, which is an extremely potent antioxidant, in soft gel capsules. Just prick it with a pin and squeeze the capsule into the oil.

The beautiful thing about using astaxanthin instead of another antioxidant such as vitamin E is that it is naturally red, whereas vitamin E is colorless, so you can tell the oil still has astaxanthin in it by its color. As the olive oil starts to pale in color, you know it’s time to throw it away.

You can also use one drop of lutein in your olive oil. Lutein imparts an orange color and will also protect against oxidation. Again, once the orange color fades, your oil is no longer protected against rancidity and should be tossed. This method is yet another reason for buying smaller bottles. If you have a large bottle, you may be tempted to keep it even though it has begun to oxidize.

Olive Tree Biblical History and Symbolism

The Olive Tree

One Jewish legend identifies the tree of life as the olive tree. See Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 7 vols. (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Jewish Publication Society of America, 1947), 1:93; 2:119. In other apocryphal Jewish and Christian writings the tree of life is identified with the olive tree. See Apocalypse of Moses 9, 12. In Second Enoch 25, a life-giving oil is described and “the appearance of that oil was more than a great light, and its anointing was excellent too.” (See Legends of the Jews, Volume 5; notes to Volumes 1 and 2, p. 113.)

The olive tree is a perennial, not a deciduous tree. Its leaves do not seasonally fade nor fall. Through scorching heat and winter cold they are continually rejuvenated. The tree is thus evergreen, or “everolive.” Without cultivation it is a wild, unruly, easily corrupted tree. Only after long, patient cultivating, usually eight to ten years, does it begin to yield fruit. Long after that, new shoots often come forth from apparently dead roots. As one stands in the olive groves, struck by the gnarled tree trunks that are at once ugly and beautiful, it is hard to avoid the impression of travail—of ancient life and renewing life. Today some trees, still productive on the Mount of Olives, are known by scientific measure to be at least 1,800 years old. (Encyclopedia Americana, 1979 ed., 30 vols., s.v. “olive,” 20:713–15)

The Fruit

To this day, preparing the rock-pocked, hand-plowed land and then planting, cultivating, pruning, grafting, and harvesting olive trees is an arduous process. Even after the harvest, the olives are bitter, useless to man or beast. To make them edible, one must place them in a large stone box, layer them with salt and vinegar, make more layers of olives, and add more purgatives. Slowly the bitterness is purged from them. These refined olives were a delicious staple food that graced the tables of the common people and of the rich.

To produce olive oil, the refined olives had to be crushed in a press. The mellowed and seasoned olives were placed in strong bags and flattened on a furrowed stone. Then a huge crushing circular rock was rolled around on top, paced by a mule or an ox and a stinging whip. Another method used heavy wooden levers or screws twisting beams downward like a winch upon the stone with the same effect: pressure, pressure, pressure—until the oil flowed.

Olive oil was used both internally and externally. It was a cooking oil, made better by heating, and was a condiment for salads and breads and meats. The pure oil had other vital uses: it was an almost universal antidote, reversing the effects of a variety of poisons. It was often used in a poultice believed to drain infection or sickness. As an ointment, olive oil—mingled with other liquids—soothed bruises and wounds and open sores. (In Jesus’ parable, oil and wine were poured by the Good Samaritan into the wounds of the robbed and beaten traveler near Jericho.[Luke 10:25-37]) Oil and wine were poured by the temple priests on the altar of the temple. Olive oil was also the substance of light and heat in Palestine. Into olive lamps—small vessels with a hole at each end—one poured the oil. Even in a darkened room one lamp, one thin flame of light, was enough to lighten the face. A Jewish oral teaching says the drinking of olive oil is likewise light to the mind—that it enhances intellectual processes. The mash that remained after repeated crushings of oil was a household fuel, needed even in the summer Judean desert after sunset. The image of pouring oil on troubled waters, and the associated olive branch of peace—such as the offering of peace and relief to Noah after raging seas—were common in Bible lore. In other spiritual contexts oil was the token of forgiveness. And hence Paul speaks of it as “the oil of gladness.” (Heb. 1:9.) The Greek root of this word is el-ah-yah, meaning an olive tree or fruit.

The Place and the Time

Did Jesus know all this? Surely all this—and more. Was there, then, significance in his climactic resort to the Mount of Olives? Is that mount, all of it, symbolic and sacred?

On that Mount four holinesses came together: the place, the time, the person, and the name.

First, the place. The Mount of Olives overlooked the temple—which by now had been desecrated, the temple Jesus first called, on a day of cleansing, “My Father’s house,” but later, “My house.” (See John 2:16; Matt. 21:13.) Beyond the Herodian courts of the temple was a Holy of Holies. Two olive-wood pillars stood before its entrance. Nearby stood the seven-branched Menorah, the perpetual lamp, the everlastingly burning tree. The “heaviest and the purest oil,” from vessels with the high priests’ seal, burned day and night in the Menorah. (L. Yardin, The Tree of Light, P. 43)

For the tabernacle in the wilderness Moses had been instructed, “And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.” (Ex. 27:20.) Later, the rabbis interpreted this to mean that a man, like the olive, must be beaten and bruised, but all in order to glow with light. (See Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim)

We learn in the newly translated Temple Scroll (one of the Dead Sea Scrolls) that by at least 150 B.C., a segment of Jewry envisioned a future Messianic temple where the New Wine Festival was to be followed by a New Oil Festival. One-half hin (about three-fourths of a gallon) of oil from each tribe of Israel was to be brought to the temple to light the lamps. The climax was to be the eating of olives and the anointing with new oil. The purpose was to ransom (kapper) the year’s oil crop for its use by the people and on the temple altar.

Oil was burning in the temple Menorah during the last days of Jesus, but to the people it had lost its sacred significance or had not yet received its most sacred consecration.

Jesus went onto the mount overlooking the temple “as he was wont.” (Luke 22:39.) In the last days of his life, he lodged there, “abode” there. (Luke 21:37.) On that hill (perhaps half way up) was a vineyard of olive trees. The garden on the mount is called Gethsemane. Geth or gat in Hebrew means “press.” Shemen means “oil.” (See Brown, Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon, Oxford: Oxford University Press) This was the Garden of the olive press. Remnants of ancient olive presses near cisterns that preserved the costly oil can still be seen in upper Galilee and in Bethany.

As one stands in this Garden of the olive press—the setting for the Atonement—it is sobering to visualize the purgation of the olive and the intense, seemingly unending pressure which caused the precious oil to flow (Jesus sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane). Indeed, the symbolism of the place is inescapable.

Another holiness, a holiness of time. It was the hour, the week of Pesach, Passover—that long-honored sacred celebration of Israel’s divine deliverance from Egypt. After the destruction of the temple in A.D. 72 the ritual was modified. But at the time of Jesus this was the appointed day when they brought the lamb, the unspotted lamb, down that very mount, the Mount of Olives, to the altar. It was roasted and the blood of the lamb was sprinkled on the altar.

The Person and the Name

The person was holy. This was Yeshua Ha Masshiach, Jesus the Messiah. As Isaiah foresaw, he was the stem of Jesse, from the stump or root of the house of David. (Isa. 11:1–5) To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he had been “the Holy One of Israel.” In the flesh he sat at Jacob’s Well, and to a despised woman of Samaria announced for the first time, “I … am he. I am he from whom shall flow living water.” (See John 4:4–42.)

The name was holy. The root word for Messiah in the book of Daniel means “anointed one,” with connotations of coronation and ordination. This was the night when in the hardest of hard ways, he would become the anointing one. The word Messias, as used by John, has another Hebrew root: Yitshar, meaning to glow with light as one glistens when one is anointed. (See James Strong, Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary) To merit that name, to take it upon him, to seal it everlastingly upon himself—to become the Light of the worlds—Jesus was required to tread the press. In eventual triumph the Messiah was to say, “I have trodden the … press” (in this case the winepress, not the olive press, but the two merge in allegory as in life) “and none were with me.” “The Lamb of God hath … trodden the wine-press alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.”

“Mine Hour Is Come”

Having glimpsed the holy place, the holy time, the holy person, and the holy name, we may glimpse what must have gone through him and what he must have gone through. “Mine hour,” he had said often, “has not yet come.” (John 2:4.) But now it had come.

We have witnessed the fervor of pious Jews as they stand—they do not kneel—at the place that is but a remnant of the wall below the ancient temple mount. Rhythmically they throw their whole bodies into their prayers. In response to occasional ridicule they say, “We are avoiding distraction. We want to concentrate.” As Jesus prayed that night, the motion was internal. And it was destruction, not distraction—destruction of abundant life in the Father’s family—that he threw himself against. Somehow he purged the ultimate bitterness, as bitter as gall, the consequences of death-dealing iniquity of all sons and daughters of God.

“How?” we ask. But a child can understand. (Did he not commend little children to us, promising that the mightiest, the greatest in his kingdom would be as they?) Unashamedly little children, without full understanding, wince and weep with others, and they dance in the contagion of joy. Pain—at worst the pain of abandonment—hurts, even the intimation of it. In those of us who are far away, even 2,000 years and 10,000 miles away, it hurts enough to unstiffen the neck and melt the heart and bring contrition to the spirit; it hurts enough to make us sick. Or, if we are moved enough to receive Him, it hurts enough to make us well. He who never took a backward step from the will of the Father, he who was supersensitive, could and did feel. For us. With us. The pressure worked upon him; as the olive press worked upon the olive. Somewhere on the road between north and south he cried out anticipating, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.” How long was the interim between that prayerful sentence and the next? “But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.” And a voice from heaven came: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” (John 12:27–28.)

In glorifying the Father, Jesus suffered with a suffering so great that drops of blood came from his pores. (See Luke 22:44) It is not a spectacle one wishes to recall—rather we recoil—but we are commanded to eat and drink each week to memorialize that hour. Under this burden of burdens, all his preparation, all his worthiness were not sufficient. An angel came, “strengthening him.” (Luke 22:43.) Strengthening—not delivering. (See Matt. 26:51–54.)

When was it enough? During the same night, he was betrayed. He was accosted, abused—purged like the olive. By thirty-nine lashes he was ripped into, pierced. The kindest reading of Pilate’s motive is the hope that scourging would suffice for those who clamored for crucifixion. It did not. The descending weight begun on the Olive Mount was weightier than the cross he was to carry. As the cross ruthlessly held him, he groaned, “I thirst!” And whether in trivial aid or mockery, someone thrust a sponge full of vinegar—one of the purgatives added to olives in the stone boxes—to his lips. “It is finished,” he said, (John 19:28–30.) “and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.“

At the last, a spear was thrust into his side. Out of it flowed water and blood, as oil flows from the purged and pressed olive. Simeon, bowed down with age, as he had held the infant Jesus in the temple, had prophesied that wound, that last wound, that proof of the full measure of his giving. To Mary he had said,

(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

“The thoughts of many hearts.”

Now consider the parable of the wise and foolish virgins:

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
“And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.
“Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil Recipes

Olive oil shouldn’t be used for cooking, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be part of delicious meals. Here are some of my favorite extra virgin olive oil recipes:

Precautions for Using Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The biggest barriers to enjoying this oil in a healthy way are finding the right kind, storing it properly and using it the right way in recipes. Just remember that it’s worth the splurge to buy a high-quality product considering how beneficial it can be for you. Also be sure to store it properly, use it within several months of opening and avoid cooking with it.

There is at least one report that using olive oil topically may dry out skin. Some people use it as a carrier oil with essential oils, so if you do so, try not applying it to the same spot on consecutive days. Do not use it on children or infant skin. (18)

Final Thoughts on Olive Oil Benefits

To get the most benefits of healthy fats from your diet overall, rotate other sources of healthy fats for olive oil, including coconut oil, ghee, organic grass-fed animal products, nuts and seeds, palm oil, and wild-caught fish.

Major olive oil benefits include the way it:

Protects heart health
Helps fight cancer
Helps with weight loss and obesity prevention
Supports brain health
Fights mood disorders and depression
Naturally slows aging
May help lower risk of diabetes
Is associated with lowered breast cancer risk

There are a couple things to note about using extra virgin olive oil. First, make sure to get oil in a darkly colored, glass jar, labeled as extra virgin (cold-pressed) olive oil from a trusted source to get the best olive oil benefits. Cheap options, plastic bottled oils and anything in a clear bottle is more likely to be stuffed with fillers like other rancid oils and may be more likely to go rancid faster and counteract the olive oil benefits.

Second, you should not use olive oil in high-heat cooking, as it creates advanced glycation end products that can speed the aging process. Instead, opt for coconut oil or other healthy options when cooking, and use olive oil in salads and after cooking for taste in order to get all the wonderful olive oil benefits.

Sources:

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