Olive oil - properties, uses and advantages

What is olive oil?

Olive oil is the oily fat from the fruits of the olive tree, Oliva Europea, a tree originated in the Mediterranean region. The commercial qualities of olive oils are of three main types:

Virgin oil -  is produced solely by pressing or centrifugating  the crushed and then macerated olive fruits. There is a whole range of "virgin qualities". The oil obtained from the initial gentle pressing is the best and the most expensive, and this oil has a lot of good taste.

Refined Oil -  has been pressed or centrifugated and then treated with chemicals to neutralize bitter tasting components, for example free oily acids. Usually oils obtained by hard pressing or centrifugating are treated this way before being used in order to remove bad tasting components.

Olive Pomace Oil -  is gained from the rest remaining after the pressing by heating or by chemical extraction.

The chemical structure of olive oil

Olive oil is mostly a kind of fat. Fat is a chemical composition, called an ester, of the alcohol glycerol and fatty acids. A fatty acid has a molecules consisting of a long hydrocarbon chain and a carboxylic group.

The most abundant fatty acid in olive oil is oleic acid which is a mono-unsaturated acid, meaning that the hydrocarbon chain has one double bond. 76 % of the fatty acids in olive oil is oleic acid.

Oleic acid has 18 carbon atoms in the hydrocarbon chain, and the double bond between the 9th and 10th carbon atoms in the hydrogen chaine, counted from the non-carboxylic end in the molecule.  It is therefore called an omega-9 monounsaturated fatty acid.

8 % of the fatty acids in olive oil is linoleic acid, which is a poly-unsaturated acid, meaning that there are more than one double bond in the hydrocarbon chain. Linoleic acid has two double bonds.

Linoleic acid has 18 carbon atoms in the hydrocarbone chain, a double bond between the 3th and 4th carbon atoms in the hydrocarbone chain, and a double bond between the 6th and 7th atom, counted from the non-carboxylic end in the molecule.  It is therefore called an omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid.

15 % of the fatty acid content of olive oil is stearic acid, which is a saturated fatty acid with 16 carbon atoms in the hydrocarbon chain. A saturated fatty acid has no double bonds.

Olive oil also contains some other fat-like substances. One of these is squalane. This is a saturated  hydrocarbon with 30 carbon atoms. Squalane is good for the skin health and is often used in cosmetics and skin care products.

Possible uses of olive oil

Used in salads and other dishes - Olive oils can be used to ad taste and fat content to salads. Good qualities of virgin oil will give the best taste in salads.

Olive oil used on bread - Virgin olive oil of good quality  fixes well to the bread, and has a taste well suited for applying on bread. The olive oil gives the bread a rich taste and flavour.

Used as fryer oil-  You can use olive oil when gently frying meat, fish and other dishes. Here you can use cheaper refined oil. However, if you heat too hard, the oil gets chemically altered, gets a bad taste, and the fried dish is glued to the frying-pan.

Cosmetics and skin protection - Olive oil can be used as the fluid base of cosmetics. Cosmetics produced this way are generally more healthy to the skin than cosmetics based on synthetic oils.

Used as a medicine for prevention or cure - Olive oil can be used for disease prevention, or as a contributing agent to cure diseases. Used this way it can be taken by spoon. Two tablespoons a day is often the recommended dose.

Protection of the blood vessels and the heart - Olive oil contains mono-unsaturated fatty acids. This type of fat helps  prevent atherosclerosis and thereby helps prevent coronary heart disease. People in countries where olive oil is used regularly have less heart disease than people in north of Europe and north of America. When adding olive oil to the diet to protect the heart and the circulatory system, one must reduce the consumption of other types of fat with the same amount as the olive oil added, since olive oil is a type of fat. If one consumes much saturated fat, this is the fat type of which one must reduce the intake

Help against inflammatory conditions - Olive oil seems to have anti-inflammatory properties. People suffering from inflammatory ailments, for example rheumatism, will generally gain from including oilve oil in their diet. However, olive oil should be combined with fish oil or fat fish to optimize the anti-inflammatory effct. Olive oil contains omega-9-poly-unsaturated acids, while fish oil contains- omega-3-poly-unsaturated acids. Both of these seem to reduce inflammation.

Help against rheumatism, like joint pain and arthritis - The anti-inflammation properties of olive oil can probably reduce rheumatic problems of most types, especially when used together with fish oil or fat fish.

Prevention and cure for digestive trouble and digestive diseases - Olive oil makes the intestinal content softer and smoother. Therefore it helps prevent and cure sluggish digestion, constipation  and intestinal pain. it also helps to prevent and cure inflammatory processes in the digestive system, especially if used together with fat fish or fish oils.

Skin protection and healing - Taken by mouth oilve oil  helps prevent wrincles, thin skin  and other signs of aging, it can also help to reduce manifest wrincles, make the skin grow thicker and help the skin heal from damage. Olive oil applied on the skin may protect the skin from external irritation and help the skin to regain from damage done by irritating agents.

Cancer prevention  - It seems that olive oil can contribute to prevention of  cancer. Also this affect seems to be due to its anti-inflammatory actions.

Slowing down the aging process and regaining properties of youth - Olive oil helps to slow down the aging process of the whole body, and may help regaining a youthfull body.

Help for the development of muscle mass - Many body-builders and athletes claim that oilve oil contributes to muscle development.

About olive oil and weight loss - Since olive oil is a type of fat, you should reduce your consume of other types of fat when you increase the consume of olive oil. The fat you should reduce most, is usually saturated fat like that in milk, read meat, cheese and coco nut. If you consume much oils containing omega-3-poly-unsaturated fat, like soy oil, sunflower oil and safflower oil, you should reduce this consume too. You should also reduce the amount of chemically processed fat, like that in margarine, fat cookies or fat snacks.

To read more about fat types, please go to this site: