Olive Oil Lesson #5

Dear Reader,

I’m still in Europe, mostly off the grid.

Similar to last week, the 3 points of information below are derived mostly from my early blog posts of the 2022 Europe Trip.

To get the most of this blog post, please read these at ½ your normal email scanning speed to better understand the concept

Stop Shaming Blended Oils

Let me start with the fact that I prefer monovarietals.

Now that the elephant is out of the room…

Brands claim that blended oils are bad, but this is an overgeneralization. Pretend we live in a world where restaurants served house red wine, no grape type revealed. Brand X comes out and says blended are bad and counters with "hey we have a Cabernet Sauvignon, the best grape in the world!" That’s unique enough compared to the market of red wines derived from unknown grapes.

However, this excludes a world of blends which compound the flavors of multiple grape varietals.

So while the blended 3-year-old olive oils from 6 different countries are bad, but a miller’s Tuscan blend could be one of the finest Olive Oils on the market.

Stop Buying Extra Light Olive Oil

Extra Light (or "refined") Olive Oil is not healthy. Olive Oil is not like Ice Cream vs Frozen Yogurt. Or Coke vs Diet Coke.

Extra Light Olive Oil is processed lower quality Olive Oil.

Non-fat Olive Oil doesn't exist (to my knowledge) as Olive Oil literally is liquid unsaturated fat (liquid gold!). Compromising the Olive Oil is compromising antioxidants. Healthiness ~ oil quality.

Smoke Point Does Not Matter

Age-long criticisms of using Olive Oil to cook cite a low smoke point as potential damage to food. Smoke Point is the point at which free fatty acids smoke. But free fatty acids are only 1% of Oil's Composition.

Oxidative stability is resistance to Oxidation (remember oxidation = bad).

Olive Oil's high oleic acid levels help stabilize it at high temperatures (high oxidative stability). Refining Levels (think extra light oils) and high polyunsaturated fat levels ~ low oxidative stability.

The bigger health issue with oil for cooking is degradation into polar compounds.

For more info, read the Smoke Point Wikipedia..

I am not (even close to) a health expert - this is not health advice. For more health-related questions or concerns, please consult your doctor.

As always please comment any questions about this article or about olive oil in general.

If you think this article was useful for you, please share with a friend or on social media!

I’ll drop another lesson next week.

-Jack (@extravirginguy)