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).
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.
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”.
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.
Tagged as: cooking with olive oil, olive oil health benefits
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