” olive oil that contains higher levels of beneficial compounds. Actors Brie Larson and Chloe Grace Moretz use it to clean their faces, and Jennifer Lopez credits olive oil, not Botox, for her age-defying glow. Earlier this year, Starbucks introduced a line ofOlive Oil and Health: The Big Picturecalled attention to the Mediterranean Diet and its generous use of olive oil, researchers have been examining the health benefits of that golden fluid. And there are many.
“Inflammation is the base of any disease,” said Kristin Kirkpatrick, a registered dietitian nutritionist at the Cleveland Clinic. “So if we look at inflammation as the base, then we can see that olive oil can help with the reduction of a lot of different conditions.” “There really isn’t a good drug to bring the level up, and I don’t love to take medicine if I don’t have to,” she said. “I read about some foods that help. I couldn’t eat salmon or sardines daily, but olive oil you can incorporate into your everyday life, so I did.”
Kyriakides, too, has researched olive oil’s effects on the brain. One small study produced promising results: Daily consumption significantly improved dementia symptoms in people with mild cognitive impairment.
You can absolutely buy polyphenol-rich olive oil at the supermarket. Expensive doesn’t necessarily mean best, but cheap almost certainly means you won’t get the benefits. “Think of the work involved in picking olives, producing the oil, bottling it, and sending it to be sold,” says Flynn. “With all that, a standard bottle of 500 ml can’t cost less than $10 for American oil, and from Europe more like $12-15.
Can you have too much EVOO? In terms of calories, perhaps – each tablespoon has 120 of them. But in terms of it harming your health in some way, the answer seems to be no.