Get used to drinking foul-tasting olive oil

I have a serious problem with olives. If you give me a jar of green olives stuffed with garlic and pickled in citric acid and salt, I will not stop. I will keep eating until the jar is empty. I am addicted to olives. Fortunately, they are not fattening.

After I have consumed the entire jar, I become strangely aroused. For some reason that I have been unable to determine, olives function as a kind of intoxicating aphrodisiac inside my body. Any man that is still in the same room as me when I finish the jar of olives is in big trouble, or he is in for the ride of his life, depending on how you look at it.

One time, the guy in the room was my brother. Shameful, I know, but I was unable to control myself. I blamed the olives. My brother blamed me. Whose side are you on this matter? Do you think it was his fault, my fault, or the olives?

Alright, alright, I confess, I am pranking you. I am addicted to olives, but they do not function as an aphrodisiac. 🤣

However, olives do have almost magical powers. Olive trees are resilient, drought-tolerant, and long-lived. An olive tree can allegedly live for thousands of years. Olive trees are one of the oldest cultivated trees on Earth. Their history is deeply intertwined with human advancement. Civilizations rose and fell along the same trajectory as the cultivation of olive trees.

Olive trees had symbolic and spiritual importance in multiple cultures. The leaves and branches were used in public ceremonies, funerals, and religious rituals. The ancient Greeks viewed olive trees as sacred symbols of peace, prosperity, and wisdom.

As you can see in the above photograph, olive trees grow successfully in difficult conditions – hot dry weather, direct sunlight, little water, and poor-quality sandy soil. Unlike other plants, olive trees have the ability to tolerate strong winds and salt spray from living near the sea (mainly the Mediterranean Sea).

In order to survive and thrive in difficult conditions, olive trees evolved special abilities. They produce chemicals called polyphenols that help protect the tree and its fruit (the olives). These polyphenols are not only capable of protecting olive trees. They are also capable of protecting the human body.

However, let’s not fall into a deep pit of fanaticism. We should not believe the fanatics that claim that olive oil produces miraculous health benefits or that it can heal dozens of diseases. In reality, olive oil only benefits certain parts of the human body, but these are important parts.

Multiple studies indicate that high-polyphenol olive oil intake most likely benefits us in the following ways:

• Improved cardiovascular health. Reduction of the risk of coronary heart disease (including heart attacks/strokes).

• Healthier cholesterol concentrations in blood.

• Protection against oxidation (damage) of lipids (fats etc.) in blood (because polyphenols are antioxidants).

• Improved stability of the concentrations of triglycerides and glucose in blood, and thereby reduced risk of diabetes or pre-diabetes.

• Reduction in systemic inflammation.

• Protection of brain cells from oxidative damage (because polyphenols are antioxidants).

• Slower aging of the human body (at least in some organs if not all).

• Overall reduction in the rate of mortality.

However, you only receive these health benefits if the olive oil is high in polyphenols, but not all olive oil products are good quality.

An easy and accurate way to test the quality and age of olive oil is to taste it raw. If it tastes bad, then it is good. 😃

“Extra virgin” olive oil (EVOO) is the highest grade of olive oil, and it contains the highest levels of the health-promoting polyphenols. These polyphenols in olives are really excellent for your health, but unfortunately they taste bad. The flavor is a kind of bitter peppery burning sensation that is challenging to swallow without gagging. 🤢

The longer that olive oil is stored (the longer it takes to transport it and sell it to you), the more the concentration of intact polyphenols decreases. Ironically, this causes the olive oil to taste better (milder) although the oil is degrading.

When fresh olive oil is heated during frying or baking, the unpleasant peppery flavor disappears. The flavor changes from bad to good. The heat of cooking damages or destroys the polyphenols.

This explains why olive oil in cooked food tastes good – because the bad-tasting polyphenols have been destroyed or degraded. Unfortunately, this also means that cooked olive oil loses much (but not all) of its health benefits.

To get the full health benefits of EVOO, you need to consume it raw (for example, in a salad) and tolerate the bad flavor. Alternatively, if you must heat it, then heat it for the shortest time possible at the lowest possible temperature.

My brothers are immensely proud of their intentionally juvenile antics such as challenging each other to drink one extra-large cup of the highest-quality EVOO. And I must admit, I do enjoy watching them do it. A lot.

I am normally strongly opposed to sadism and schadenfreude, but watching people struggle to consume disgusting food or liquids is my one exception. It reverts the lot of us to giggling little children.

A smart idea is to consume 15 mL (one tablespoon) of EVOO with every meal. Consuming EVOO three times per day is more effective than a large amount once per day.

Note that exposure to air (or rather the oxygen in air) causes olive oil (and others) to slowly go rancid, therefore it is important to keep the bottle/container tightly closed, and use it reasonably quickly (or taste it to check if it is still good).

Sunlight (especially ultraviolet light) also has a destructive effect on all edible oils, therefore keep the bottle away from windows.

⚠️ Important: If olive oil is rancid, then it will taste bad, but this is a different bad flavor than the flavor of the peppery polyphenols. Therefore, a good idea is to learn to recognize the flavor of fresh raw olive oil. Do not consume any oil that has passed (or is close to passing) the expiry date on the bottle, because rancid oil is quite unhealthy.