from Hacker News

Only virgin type of olive oil consumption reduces the risk of mortality: study

by nokcha on 10/24/22, 7:28 PM with 255 comments

  • by dfried on 10/24/22, 8:42 PM

    Lots of people are going to respond to this with comments about how most olive oil in the US is fake.

    This is based on an old study [1] and is no longer the case.

    It's now FUD perpetuated by DTC brands as part of their marketing. [2]

    [1] https://www.aboutoliveoil.org/uc-davis-olive-center-olive-oi...

    [2] https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/briefs/brightland-drops-claims...

  • by metroholografix on 10/24/22, 8:45 PM

    Greek olive oil is considered the best in the world and doesn't suffer from Mafia infiltration which is a huge problem in Italy [1] [2] [3].

    Here is some good quality Greek olive oil available in US, reasonably priced, that you can buy without fear of adulteration or other shadiness:

    https://www.amazon.com/Terra-Creta-Kolymvari-Protective-Desi...

    https://www.amazon.com/Iliada-Extra-Virgin-Olive-Liter/dp/B0...

    The Greek extra virgin olive oil sold at Trader Joe's is also very good.

    Avoid the - Whole Foods & 365 branded - Greek EVOO at Whole Foods: it was rancid every single time I've tried it.

    [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-crime-food/italian-...

    [2] https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-basics/mafia-olive-o...

    [3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2016/02/10/the...

  • by bgribble on 10/24/22, 7:55 PM

    On urban US supermarket shelves virtually every bottle of olive oil advertises itself as "virgin" or the "even better" varieties ("extra virgin", "first cold pressed" etc). I have read that many of these labels are hogwash, and that the contents of your typical supermarket "extra virgin olive oil" bottle pretty often include adulterants like palm, canola, or sunflower oil.

    I can definitely taste the diff between supermarket stuff and super-premium olive oil where I know who the importer is (in New York City, my go-to is the house brand of a restaurant called Frankie's 457 Spuntino who imports their own oil). But I'm not sure whether that reflects the quality of olives/processing, or is an indicator of "real" vs "fake" olive oil...

  • by oldgradstudent on 10/24/22, 10:32 PM

    Virgin olive oil is more expensive.

    The most important, and well known confounding factor in observational health research is socioeconomic status - rich people live longer than poor people.

    This research attempted to control for it in a limited fashion, but that's not nearly enough.

  • by GloriousKoji on 10/24/22, 7:48 PM

    Typically you're suppose to add "in mice" to the end of headlines but in this case it's "in Spanish people".

  • by ucha on 10/24/22, 9:49 PM

    I get a couple of gallons of olive oil in a small village directly from the press in November each year. It's not filtered so it has a lot of particles in suspension and it goes bad faster, maybe after a year or so. But it tastes nothing like supermarket extra-virgin olive oil, the taste is so much more concentrated.

    Olive oil has a pretty short shelf life. The best way to get the good stuff is to make sure you buy:

    - the latest harvest (they're usually harvested in early fall)

    - non-filtered

    - stored in a dark bottle, somewhere cool (light oxidizes it)

    - single origin (if it's not, then they're likely mixing old rancid and new oils)

    - first press, cold extracted

  • by vixen99 on 10/24/22, 9:06 PM

    A useful test for olive oil is its taste when swallowed. If it produces a hot sensation in the throat this is due apparently to oleocanthal, a major polyphenol in the oil. Oleocanthal has been cited in numerous publications as having anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.

    https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/31/3/999.full.pdf

    [Unusual Pungency from Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Is attributable to Restricted Spatial Expression of the Receptor of Oleocanthal]

  • by thecoppinger on 10/24/22, 8:24 PM

    Edit: reading this back, it sounds somewhat like an attempt to shill a product. So, disclaimer: I have absolutely no affiliation with Jeff or the Cultured Oils, I’m just fascinated by it.

    Serial entrepreneur Jeff Nobbs recently launched a new product in the food oil space: Cultured Oil*

    I came across his writings* on the perils of seed oils earlier this year and it radically changed the way I eat.

    After becoming aware of the danger high linoleic acid diets pose, as well as the climate implications of other oils, Jeff’s Cultured Oil looks incredibly impressive, albeit I haven’t had the chance to try it yet as they don’t ship to New Zealand.

    In summary, from their FAQ:

    “Cultured Oil is cooking oil made by fermentation, resulting in high levels of healthy fats, a small environmental footprint, a clean taste, and a high smoke point!

    Fermentation describes the process of microorganisms (or "cultures") consuming natural sugars and converting those sugars into entirely new foods. Just as there are sourdough and wine cultures, there are also oil cultures. An oil culture converts sugar into the healthy delicious fats that make up Cultured Oil.

    Cultured Oil is primarily monounsaturated fat, the heart-healthy and heat-stable fat also found in olive and avocados.

    In every serving of Cultured Oil (1 Tbsp - 14 grams), there are about 13 grams of monounsaturated fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, and 0.4 grams of polyunsaturated fat. Olive oils and avocado oils contain between 55-83% monounsaturated fat, and up to 21% polyunsaturated fat. Cultured Oil contains over 90% monounsaturated fat and less than 4% polyunsaturated fat

    * https://www.zeroacre.com/

    * https://www.jeffnobbs.com/posts/what-causes-chronic-disease

  • by Matthewiiv on 10/24/22, 9:06 PM

    It's almost as if human nutrition and mortality are complex systems and a single foodstuff doesn't have any significant effect.

    Not only that but surely nobody is surprised that the people who can afford the more expensive version of a product live longer.

    Why have we not given up on this nonsense idea of miracle foods already?

  • by ryanwaggoner on 10/24/22, 8:18 PM

    Seeing a lot of comments about how supposedly a lot of EVOO sold on store shelves isn't actually pure olive oil, and I'm curious where this belief comes from. Any data or studies you can point me to?

    Here's an FDA report of 88 EVOO bottles purchased from supermarkets that were tested, three of which were identified as impure enough to possibly indicate they were adulterated: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286479191_Authentic...

  • by DeathArrow on 10/24/22, 9:02 PM

    If one tablespoon of virgin olive oil a day is reducing the mortality risk to half, immagine the effect of two tablespoons of virgin olive oil.

  • by arcticfox on 10/24/22, 7:42 PM

    I’m kind of bad at parsing these studies so maybe someone can help:

    Did they control for people opting for virgin OO having other confounding lifestyle factors that would cause the effect?

    I certainly lean towards virgin OO when I’m feeling that I want to be healthy.

  • by chicob on 10/25/22, 10:05 AM

    I am an olive oil producer, in Portugal, and we're harvesting as I type.

    I have made some remarks about olive oil production on HN in the past, but here are some remarks about olive oil quality, grading, and production:

    Olive oils do degrade with time, which means triglycerols break into free fatty acids and glycerol (E → F + _ ). Of course aroma also changes with time, but this is more subjective, and decided by actually tasting samples.

    So olive oil freshness comes in three gradings, defined by free fatty acid content: extra virgin (<0,5%), virgin (<2%), and lampante (>2%). These grades will generally decide the market value, but differentiation can change this (special varieties and a good aroma allow for a better price). Extra-virgin can, in principle, be sold as virgin (e.g. if aroma is not good enough for some reason) but not the other way around.

    All my production is extra virgin. That is 100.00% extra virgin. I have never, nor my family has ever, produced anything but extra virgin olive oil. The worst I have seen around me was a producer getting 0,4% free acidity, which is still extra virgin.

    Today, olive oil is industrially extracted by crushing the olives and separating water and fatty phases in a centrifuge, at cold temperatures.

    Olives have around 20% w/w directly extractable oil, but the fatty content of the pomace contains around 40% fat. This oil can be further extracted in centrifuges, up to a point were some temperature will be needed. This fat won't be completely extracted, and that is up to the plant processing it, that usually keeps the pomace for itself. Heating does lower the quality of olive oil, and as such its price, but some data is good to put things into perspective.

    Around 95% of Portugal's production was virgin/extra virgin, followed by the US (~90%), Greece (~75%), and Italy and Spain (both ~65%) the latter being the largest producer (~35% of world total). Portugal now ranks 7th in production volume, and is the first to put olive oil in the market, although the market is controlled by Spain. Future markets usually keep prices down for the starting weeks, and I hope this will change in the following years as Portuguese production increases.

    Having this objective measure in mind, and without disregard for other characteristics that can improve olive oil general quality, one can say that Portuguese olive oil is the best, modesty aside.

    But it does seem the US know what they're doing, although in smaller quantities!

    Italy is one of the largest importers of Portuguese olive oil. I have no idea what they do with it.

  • by sul_tasto on 10/24/22, 7:47 PM

    How do we know that the olive oil we buy from the grocery store is actually authentic? I thought most of the olive oil in the US contains cheaper seed oils, just like most of the honey contains corn syrup.

  • by OgAstorga on 10/24/22, 7:49 PM

    The less Linoleic Acid in your oil the better[1]. This image[2] is a good reference. Also, and as opposed to common beliefs. You can cook on olive oil[3]

    [1] https://openheart.bmj.com/content/5/2/e000898

    [2]. https://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/LA-in...

    [3]. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092422442...

  • by some_furry on 10/24/22, 7:43 PM

    This isn't surprising; cold-pressed virgin olive oil has a much lower oxidation rate than other vegetable oils

    Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGnfXXIKZM

  • by ozim on 10/24/22, 7:45 PM

    Italian mobs selling "virgin olive oil" likes that article.

    My main point is that I am not able to tell real virgin olive oil from scam one. From what I understand most of "virgin olive oil" on supermarket shelves is scam.

  • by lalaithion on 10/24/22, 9:25 PM

    Aka "Good job finding a class-correlate you didn't manage to control for"

  • by UncleOxidant on 10/24/22, 7:48 PM

    There's so much rampant mis-labeling of olive oil (see [1]) in many cases it's adulterated with other oils and in some cases it's not actually virgin olive oil.

    [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10955085-extra-virginity

  • by nanna on 10/25/22, 8:06 AM

    I buy Palestinian olive oil as it tastes the best and it supports a people living under apartheid and occupation.

  • by jesuscript on 10/24/22, 11:20 PM

    At this point these studies sound like the ticker on Sim City 3000.

    https://simcity.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_news_ticker_messages

    “All Raccoons Cheat At Poker, Animal Researchers Say”

  • by senand on 10/24/22, 10:21 PM

    You simply won't be able to find world-class olive oil in supermarkets or on amazon. I can wholeheartedly recommend https://villahumbourg.it/en-index.html, 100% oil from one farm in Tuscany, for sure no Mafia infiltration and the new oil is just being harvested these days.

    How I know that? It's from my mother, who I just visit for my holidays. I know I'm biased, but it's just the truth ;-)

  • by Kaibeezy on 10/25/22, 7:48 AM

    The paper concludes, in part: “Our results also suggest a negative synergism between high virgin OO consumption and total physical activity on all-cause mortality.”

    I take this to mean that to some extent, either virgin olive oil and/or physical activity reduce all-cause mortality; they overlap. Am I reading this correctly?

    Also, I was disappointed at the extent the discussion degenerated to a procurement hearsay scuffle. Not our usual standard of discourse.

  • by ck2 on 10/25/22, 3:51 AM

    It's crazy to me all the weird games people play with food names and sources and content that can vary from batch to batch even from "reliable" sellers when we know it's simply the polyphenols providing antioxidant mechanisms.

    You can get polyphenols/antioxidants from much cheaper, easier, reliable consistent sources.

    This isn't 1822 or 1922 but 2022, we should use technology to have real nutrition labels for things we eat.

  • by 19h on 10/25/22, 1:30 AM

    Weirdly enough I haven't seen non-virgin olive oil in German stores.. is that an American thing?

  • by silexia on 10/25/22, 5:13 AM

    Warning on all studies published in Nature: they changed their policies recently to only publish studies that agree with their political opinions. This is now an opinion mag, not a science publication.

  • by iguana on 10/25/22, 1:01 AM

    If you're interested in increasing EVOO consumption for the health benefits based on polyphenols, look into Moroccan olive oil, as it has very high polyphenol levels - as high as 30x regular EVOO.

  • by jpfdez on 10/24/22, 7:51 PM

  • by pessimizer on 10/24/22, 11:27 PM

    Sounds like another study discovering that wealthy people are healthier.

  • by denton-scratch on 10/25/22, 7:27 AM

    The "risk of mortality" is 100%. Perhaps there are some foodstuffs that increase expected lifespan; but youcan't reduce the risk of mortality. We're all mortal.

  • by leobg on 10/24/22, 8:14 PM

    Risk of mortality? I thought mortality was a fact. :)

  • by danjoredd on 10/24/22, 7:39 PM

    Good thing I put that in practically all my food anyway. I always thought extra virgin olive oil tastes better than vegetable oil

  • by bilsbie on 10/24/22, 11:48 PM

    Man this oil stuff is exhausting. I’m now trying to avoid seed oils but they put them in everything.

    Now I have to worry about olive oil?

  • by faizan-ali on 10/24/22, 11:27 PM

    I wrote a small post explaining why the EVOO industry is rampant with fraud and ho to go about looking for good olive oil: https://medium.com/@faizan_ali/extra-virgin-olive-oil-9c9cf1...

  • by bhk on 10/25/22, 5:06 AM

    The obvious confounder of income/wealth was apparently not accounted for.

  • by deandublin on 10/24/22, 9:49 PM

    the main point of this comparison is - you should choose the best quality food that you can - so unheated OO over the heated stuff, for example. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

  • by WitCanStain on 10/25/22, 12:24 AM

    Fortunately all the oil consumption I do is of the virgin type

  • by teleforce on 10/25/22, 4:59 AM

    Obligatory link mentioning 80% of olive oils are fake (fake virgin & extra virgin grading, country of origin, etc) [1].

    I wish there is reliable and rapid in-situ testing, but not lab based sample testing that is not reliable and slow (companies can always send the good samples for testing and still selling the fake versions).

    My hypothesis is that hyperspectral camera imaging technology can perform the in-situ reliable and rapid testing for screening the fake expensive foods namely virgin olive oils, honey, etc.

    [1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2016/02/10/the...

  • by clumsysmurf on 10/24/22, 8:09 PM

    Is there something for Olive Oil like IFOS for fish oil?

  • by canjobear on 10/25/22, 1:08 AM

    My conclusion is that olive oil consumption has no effect on mortality. Finding an effect in 1/2 of your data, and not in the other half, is a classic sign of p-hacking.

  • by Maursault on 10/25/22, 3:59 PM

    Olive oil consumption is unsustainable. What we need is wide adoption of electric olives.

  • by cellu_cc on 10/25/22, 3:16 AM

    Obligatory Fat Gold plug: https://fat.gold/

    It's incredible. If you can afford it, the subscription is always great and an excellent chance to try oil from different olives that typically don't get pressed.

  • by ilkke on 10/24/22, 10:38 PM

    Virgin type of consumption? Risk of mortality?

    Is it me or is that title extremely oddly phrased?