In fact, recent research from olive oil experts, Filippo Berio and Glasgow University has discovered that eating 20ml of raw (meaning, uncooked) olive oil each day, has significant heart health benefits. The research also shows that no other type of oil has a positive effect on heart health (sorry sunflower and rapeseed oil!).

Ubiquitously available all across Europe, the Maghreb, and the Middle East, olive oil is an essential component of cuisines originating from around the Mediterranean Sea, from Spain to Palestine. It's so widely enjoyed that over 3 million tons of olive oil are produced every year, with most being produced by countries like Greece, Morocco, Italy, and Turkey — although Spain is by far the world's largest olive oil producer. As with many of the most widely eaten food ingredients, the reason why olive oil is consumed so widely and in such large amounts is that humans have been using it for an exceptionally long time. The thing that’s so disturbing about what’s happening with olive oil is that it’s a double fraud because people are being given something that is not healthy. Studies have found that higher consumption of olive oil is associated with a lower blood pressure in those following a Mediterranean style diet, young women with mild hypertension, healthy males, elderly people with hypertension, and those with type 2 diabetes. Whether these effects are due to the polyphenols, the monounsaturated fats or a combination of the two remains unclear. Today, virgin olive oil and extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) are still cold extracted via mechanical methods. Extra virgin olive oil is the best quality and comes from the first pressing of the fruit. It retains the fresh, olive aroma and has the highest antioxidant content (vitamin E, carotenoids and polyphenols such as peppery oleocanthal) with less than one per cent acidity. Only around 10 per cent of olive oil is of this premium grade quality. It has a distinctive green hue and often hazes at room temperature. Virgin olive oil

in Nutritional Medicine. She is best known for writing over 70 top selling health and nutrition books and, in the process, being awarded multiple prizes for her contribution to cutting-edge human nutrition. What else were they likely looking for? Trees that grow in arid areas, on poor soils, and are easy to harvest would have all been attractive. From there, the trees made their journey to the west. The Trade of Olive Trees All our formulas are crafted to work in sync with what makes the human body thrive. That's why we use ancient techniques, potent superfoods, and clinically proven ingredients which are easily absorbed by your body. What’s more, me keep everything free from fillers, artificial ingredients and synthetics, from harvest to home. In fact, there is a mitzvah for bringing olives, as well as the other fruits, to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. There’s also a special blessing to say when one eats these fruits. While the production of EVOO and virgin olive oils have hardly changed, regular olive oil and light olive oil are made with a blend of virgin olive oil and refined olive oil. (Read more about the different types of olive oil here.)

While this investigation has just come to light, fraud in the Italian olive oil industry is very old indeed. Amphorae used to store olive oil in ancient Rome display several anti-fraud measures, including clear labelling and a primitive form of "traceability". In the original Godfather novel, Mario Puzo modelled Vito Corleone on a real-life olive oil mafioso named Joe Profaci. Just this month, an American writer living in Liguria named Tom Mueller published a book about fraud in the Italian olive oil industry. The text develops an interesting article on the subject he wrote for the New Yorker in 2007. One potential upside in this global, widespread fraud endemic is that the industry is beginning to boom in the United States, where artisanal companies, particularly in California, are starting to produce very good oil. Meanwhile, the University of California, Davis recently opened an Olive Center, where they are pushing the olive oil agenda, testing supermarket oils (they conducted a test with the Australian Oils Research Laboratory and found that 69 percent of imported and 10 percent of domestic oils didn’t meet standards for extra virgin oil), and establishing new standards. This gives Mueller and others hope, because as American consumers become more adept at distinguishing good oil, and as market share increases (the US is in third place in consumption at just under 1 liter per person—hilariously, just 4 percent of the amount that the average Greek consumes), they can demand reform.

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As ancient as civilization itself, olive groves have a magical ability to endure—through frost, through fire, through drought—and in turn, their sacred fruit carries some of that power. Rife with polyphenols (powerful antioxidants that ravage free radicals and are believed to prevent numerous cancers, including breast and prostate), oleocanthal (thought to help prevent Alzheimer’s), and other anti-inflammatory compounds, many believe that the health of Mediterraneans is due in large part to their intense consumption of high quality olive oil. In fact, many shoot it straight down. Even as far north as Britain there are elderly olives to be admired. The largest is at Chelsea Physic Garden on the Embankment in London. Great uncertainty exists over the age of this tree (it is certainly more than 100 years old) but, remarkably, it often produces viable fruit in the comparatively balmy microclimate of the garden. Enough, in a good year, to make one whole jam jar full of oil.