Olive oil: a health food, or a health hazard

We have been hearing for years if not decades how extra virgin olive oil is good for you in a vast variety of way. IT is one of hte commonly available foods that we can all feel good about adding to our diet, right? Well.. perhaps not as much as we think. There seems to be a major problem with olive oil much the same as honey (see another blog post about bees being fed honey and the lack of pollen / honey in .. honey). What can possibly be wrong with olive oil?

I recently ran across several articles such as this one : http://www.npr.org/2011/12/12/143154180/losing-virginity-olive-oils-scandalous-industry  which basically says the olive oil you find on the shelf may be too old to be healthy, and may not even be olive oil at all! Now this is upsetting.  I mean, this is a universally accepted healthy food, and in teh name of profits foreign producers are "cheating" in any number of ways. We , the consuming american public, do not know the difference so we spend our lives consuming what we think is a healthy food product when in reality it is harmful because of this cheating for profit. One article claimed that the cheating could bring profits similar to the cocaine trade! We are talking serious money here!

The claim is that olive oil can be mixed with other cheaper unhealthy oils without labeling, and that eve if it is pure,  cheaper shipping and handling makes it old before it arrives art your store. Olive oil looses half its nutritional benefit at 6 months after pressing. Most oils in the store are not labeled for date, because they can be over a year old! At that age the oil becomes a health negative instead of a health positive.  One way to tell the age is apparently to taste the oil. The taste should be obvious in fresh oils.

So, to test these claims, we decided to try some oilive oil form an american company that grows, presses, bottles, and dates the oil.  We ordered a few bottles to try.  When they arrived, the bottles were imprinted with the pressing date, about 6 months ago. Ok... that's marginally acceptable.  then the aroma... OH MY! IT was absolutely amazing the difference. The fresh oil did not smell like any olive oil I have ever encountered, anywhere.  And the taste absolutely blows you away. THIS is what olive oil taste like? There is absolutely no comparison to the stuff we have been buying at the store for years.  NO COMPARISON WHATSOEVER!

So now I must conclude that we have never, not even once, bought oilive oil from the local stores that was either pure or fresh.  and that is very upsetting! Here we thought there is at least one thing that we have had right in our diet all these years, but no... due to greed, it has never been beneficial. Considering the health problems that we were treating with things like olive oil, it is VERY upsetting indeed. This isnt about flavor alone, this is about health, and health issues.

So, I urge you, if you have never tried DATED olive oil from a company you trust, please do! you will be amazed.   No, we are not planning on putting in olive trees.... as much as i'd love to we simply dont have the room. What I will do is share with you where we bought the oil from:

http://www.apollooliveoil.com

It isnt cheap... but it is real.