Notes on olive oil & taste
Section
The essentials of olive oil, and the food culture around it.
A growing body of research explores the relationship between dietary patterns and Parkinson's disease, with the Mediterranean diet and extra virgin olive oil at its center. Polyphenols such as oleocanthal are drawing particular attention for their potential association with neurological health.
OLEA Editorial
The vivid green color of freshly pressed extra virgin olive oil comes from chlorophyll — a pigment that doubles as a photosensitizer, generating highly reactive singlet oxygen when exposed to light. Understanding this mechanism makes light-blocking storage a matter of chemistry, not convention.
Peroxide value (PV) is the quality figure that appears alongside acidity on premium olive oil labels, measuring how far oxidation has progressed. Read together, PV and free fatty acids tell a fuller story about freshness than either number alone.
Dietary fat plays a recognized role in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins — the same vitamins that help the body put calcium to use. This guide examines what happens in the gut when dairy and extra-virgin olive oil share a meal, and what that means for a bone-conscious diet.
From chrononutrition studies to comparisons of fasted and post-meal intake, OLEA reviews the current state of academic research on taking olive oil close to bedtime — and what it does, and does not, show.
The years before menopause bring gradual shifts in estrogen and progesterone that can affect body composition, insulin sensitivity, and bone density. Mediterranean diet research suggests that the monounsaturated fats and polyphenols in extra virgin olive oil may contribute to dietary balance during this transitional decade.
Dietary fat consumed during breastfeeding has been reported to influence the fatty-acid profile of breast milk. A review of current research on what oleic-acid-rich extra virgin olive oil may mean for a nursing mother's diet.
Pediatric nutrition researchers are paying closer attention to when and how dietary fats are introduced in infancy. Here is a guide to what the current evidence says about olive oil's fatty-acid profile and its place in early feeding.
Vitamins A, D, E, and K require dietary fat to reach the bloodstream, and the oleic-acid-rich structure of extra virgin olive oil makes it a nutritionally coherent vehicle for that process. A look at what the research actually reports.
Research is accumulating on how combining extra virgin olive oil with carbohydrate-rich foods — rice, potatoes, pasta — may alter the speed of post-meal blood sugar rise. Here is a look at the mechanisms involved and how to apply the findings at the table.
After menopause, falling estrogen shifts fat storage toward the abdomen. Here is what the latest research says about olive oil, monounsaturated fats, and the Mediterranean dietary pattern in relation to visceral fat.
Extra virgin olive oil's monounsaturated fats and polyphenols have drawn growing interest from nutrition scientists studying hunger hormones and satiety signaling — but the picture is more complex than any single headline suggests.