Just Two Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil A Day

Is Your Olive Oil Really Extra Virgin?

One characteristic that sets extra virgin olive oil apart from other oils is its extremely high levels of polyphenols. These compounds act as antioxidants and protect cells against unwanted inflammation and disease, including various types of cancer and atherosclerosis. Extra virgin olive oil contains more polyphenols than other olive oils. In these uncertain times, health is at the forefront of everyone’s thoughts so we’ve been sharing a few helpful tips about various ways to maintain a healthy diet. Many studies have found that a diet rich in monounsaturated fats, like those found in olive oil, nuts, and seeds, plays a protective role against many diseases, including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome as well as helping battle depression and promote skin health and bone health.

According to the FDA, all it takes is as little as 2 tablespoons a day to gain these benefits!

Is Your Olive Oil Real?

As important it is to make sure you’re consuming organic EVOO, it’s also important to take note of how that EVOO was actually processed. There are various ways to extracting olive oil.  For example, at the bottom of the spectrum, refined olive oil undergoes additional processing compared to extra virgin olive oil, like being exposed to high temperatures and chemicals in order to remove flaws from otherwise sub-par olive oil. The best label to look for is “Extra Virgin” but even within that, there are no federal regulations for EVOO, which means that the organic EVOO you take home from the store could be from a supply that's been adulterated and made of a mixture of olive oil and less expensive seed oils, or sometimes leftover stale olive oil.

One of the best ways to know you’re getting an actual EVOO from a trusted source is to look for the COOC logo, which means that it’s been tested and practices approved of by the California Olive Oil Council, a label you can trust to find a pure olive oil that has been processed in a natural and organic way. You should also be able to find a harvest date so you know how fresh the olive oil actually is. 

At 123 Farm, our Estate Olive Oil is pressed from the olives we hand-pick each fall. The flavored olive oils from our shop are COOC olive oils that we’ve sourced and infused with fresh organic herbs.