I have started using a mild EVOO in my baking replacing butter. I find my cakes & muffins are more tender & just as moist as using butter. A great swap in MHO.
That’s great to hear, Nancy, and hopefully it will reassure others who might think baking with olive oil is just ‘weird’!
I’ll be interested to see what you think after next week’s issue, which looks at which olive oils are best from a health perspective. It turns out the healthiest ones are those with the stronger, more peppery taste, which might be a harder fit for baking - depending on what you’re making.
Either way, swapping olive oil for butter or margarine is definitely a great swap healthwise.
Fantastic article. And thanks for addressing the issue re cooking at higher temperatures. I’d stopped using evoo for cooking because of the conflicting advice from chefs and self-styled health experts on this issue. I’ll be swapping all oil for evoo going forward ! Keep up the great work -it’s rare to find d such well researched unbiased advice these days.
I know what you mean. Everyone repeats the same message that EVOO isn’t suitable for cooking - yet the data is all there; it’s great for cooking. Maybe they never looked!
I suspect we’ll get lots more regurgitated wrong information as more and more people use AI to pull from the web and write their content.
This was really helpful! I’ve been confused for a bit on how much EVOO is ok since I’ve grown up on the “too much fat is bad” approach. It’s helpful to read that in combination with reducing other fats, using EVOO liberally (which I really do) isn’t a bad thing!
I’m glad to hear your an EVOO glugger and not a spritzer!
For years we were told that all fats are bad - remember all those low-fat cookery books? So now we have an obesity epidemic from an over reliance on refined (but ‘low-fat’) carbs!
Next week’s issue is about what’s the best EVOO to buy. Just out of curiosity, can I ask how you pick you EVOO - same every time, best value, fancy label, high polyphenol content?
Definitely best value. I try to pick brands that are from Italy for the most part. Looking forward to your guide though, would absolutely want guidance on how to make the best choice healthwise.
Italian olive oils are good. I recently bought a bottle of Moroccan olive oil. It turns out the very arid conditions there lead to higher polyphenol levels - the mighty antioxidants and anti-inflammatories.
Let me know next week if the next issue makes you re-think which one you buy!
Thank you for this thoughtful piece. The evidence around high-quality extra virgin olive oil is certainly fascinating, especially when we look at its polyphenols and their interaction with metabolic and cellular pathways.
At the same time, nutritional epidemiology always raises the question of causality versus correlation. People who regularly consume high-quality olive oil often differ in many other ways as well — in overall diet quality, food sourcing, lifestyle, and social context.
Another practical consideration is quality: truly high-polyphenol extra virgin olive oil may be far less common in standard supermarket supply than many assume.
And perhaps the broader question is this: if olive oil is indeed so protective, does that unintentionally make it a benefit mainly accessible to those who can reliably obtain high-quality products?
I would say: you can’t oil a diet that fundamentally doesn’t fit the system it is meant to support.
Still, I appreciate the effort to look beyond calories and toward the regulatory and molecular effects of foods.
You’re absolutely right, people who consume EVOO typically eat better overall, are wealthier and better educated, all of which are associated with better health outcomes.
Most studies do their best to account for these confounding factors. While you can never be sure you’ve accounted for everything else that may be playing a role, the results are pretty consistent, and there are clear underlying mechanistic reasons why polyphenol-rich olive oil can positively affect our health.
Health inequality is a huge problem, and given the wealth of the societies in which most readers here live, quite shameful.
You have pitched EVOO against the usual suspects like butter, lard, w-6 oils ( seed oils why ? ), mayonnaise etc. It is not a fair comparison, even granting that EVOO is a miracle and works in some many difficult conditions. You seem to be giving credit for all these goodies to the phytonutrients present in EVOO, whereas I would give more weightage to its high oleic content. Well, both of them matter. If the high oleic content is the key, you have other oils, including high oleic sunflower oil, canola oil, even peanut oil, their limited w-6 content must be regarded as an essential need. If you are looking at phytonutrients, look at Avacado oil which is available largely as unrefined. And as I have argued in many places, against misplaced views about seed oils and refined oils, the nutritional and metabolic value of any edible oil comes mainly from its fatty acid composition. The phytonutrients are only a bonus. That must be the first consideration, not its source. So it is fine to look at oleic rich oils as the ‘gold’ standard. As I said, there are a few others that would fit this bill, not just EVOO. Second, one’s normal free oil consumption daily would be about 15 gms. If you take that as refined oil, you will miss about 200-300 mg of phytonutrients, that would have got eliminated while refining. But many countries, by mandate, compensate this to an extent with additions of vit A & D in refined oils before packaging. And you get lot of phytonutrients from your daily consumption of fruits, vegetables, greens and herbs, even dairy, meat and eggs. Put together, these will be more than what you lose in refined oils. And if you use lot of Avacado oil, you get to have substantial amount of phytonutrients, much more than what you would get from your daily course EVOO. Yes, EVOO is one good, healthy option. But there are others too, as I have explained here. This exclusivity about EVOO is overstated, if not misleading.
Thanks for the prompt, informative response. I agree that EVOO is a very superior option on the health scale. On a general note, compared to the dietary fat practices in the modern West, I would say any other options available in the established culinary practices around the world would be better. But then, EVOO is one option, time tested one, but has its limitations - cost, suitability for every type of kitchen use…. This is a set of studies on EVOO only. There are very good anti oxidant, anti inflammatory properties available from a few other edible oils, especially combined with other food ingredients like fruits and vegetables. In isolation, quite a few of these are also hailed as superior options. Researchers must study them in detail, including cohorts studies, and bring them to public awareness and use. More options.
You’re absolutely right, Moro. The problem is we have very little data on many of the other options.
EVOO has been extensively studied because of it’s intrinsic links to the Mediterranean diet. Earlier, you mentioned unrefined avocado oil. Here in the UK, you can sometimes buy cold-pressed rapeseed/canola oil. The problem is those unrefined forms, likely with lots of polyphenols are expensive and hardly anyone uses them, so they never get studied in the big studies you need to demonstrate if they have real health benefits rather than theoretical ones. Similarly with oils used primarily outside of the ‘Western world’ in which so much of the published research is based.
It's great to have you weigh in, as someone who spent many years working in the edible oils industry.
You're right to say that monounsaturated fats, like the oleic acid in EVOO, are beneficial to our health. Most people eating a Western diet get much less monounsaturates than the amounts most closely linked to better long-term health outcomes, so I agree that this is a factor in the benefits of EVOO.
However, I'm convinced by the evidence that the polyphenols in EVOO play a greater role than the monounsaturates. If the monounsaturates were key, you'd see similar health effects with refined olive oil, which lacks the polyphenols, and EVOO. But that's not what the studies show.
- In the EUROLIVE randomised crossover trial, 25 mL/day of higher‑phenolic EVOO (366 mg/kg) reduced oxidised LDL and lipid oxidative damage (important in cardiovascular disease causation), whereas refined olive oil (≈3 mg/kg phenols) actually increased LDL oxidation.
- For non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, EVOO consistently improved liver fat, ALT/AST and inflammatory markers, whereas refined oils of similar MUFA content produced limited or no benefit.
- High‑polyphenol EVOO lowers systolic BP by ≈2–3 mmHg, whereas low‑polyphenol olive oil shows no such effect.
- The European Food Safety Authority’s approved health claim specifically attributes protection of blood lipids from oxidative damage to olive-oil polyphenols, requiring ≥5 mg hydroxytyrosol and derivatives per 20 g oil - levels typical of good-quality EVOO but not refined oil.
- Reviews on cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, CKD and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease repeatedly identify phenolic-rich EVOO as the active form linked to reduced inflammation, oxidative stress, and improved endothelial function, beyond MUFA alone.
- To your point that we already get plenty of polyphenols from fruit and veg in our diet, the PREDIMED study showed that those adding extra EVOO to their Mediterranean diet (already far richer in polyphenols than the typical Western diet) had such greater health outcomes than the Mediterranean diet without EVOO that the study had to be stopped on ethical grounds.
So, across randomised trials, meta‑analyses and mechanistic data, EVOO - through its higher polyphenol content - shows superior effects on oxidative stress, inflammation, vascular function, liver health and some lipid parameters compared with refined olive oil of similar fat profile.
I do think there's lots of evidence to support the idea that EVOO is 'special'.
I’ve been baking, cooking, roasting and making salad dressing with EVOO for years. Maybe because I’m Italian. 😉 Loved this newsletter and can’t wait to hear more.
Thanks, Jan. I’m so pleased you enjoyed it. Those Italian culinary genes are clearly serving you well!
I’m curious about your EVOO baking - and excited at the prospect be (almost) guilt free cakes! Do you cook traditional Mediterranean baking recipes, or amend regular recipes to use EVOO instead of butter or margarine?
I substitute EVOO for any oil 1:1. For butter, it’s a 1:3/4 ratio. If the recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, I use 3/4 cup of EVOO. I am gluten free and this works well with all gluten free flours, especially almond flour. If you use a fine regular flour, it may need some tweaking.
Thanks, Jan. I’m going to have to experiment. I rarely bake as when I see all the butter and sugar that goes into cakes and biscuits it saps some of the pleasure from eating them. Now, if I know they’re made from EVOO, a lot of that guilt slips away!
Thanks Ben. Another myth (smoke point) dies. I look forward to next week's article. Decades ago we were taught "foundational" 'facts' like higher smoke point is better and that non-heme iron is poorly absorbed vs heme iron. That's another myth I believed for decades. A few days ago, I read a great paper about vegan women and non-heme iron absorption. The body adapts over time and as blood iron levels drop more non-heme iron gets absorbed. I'm always open to new research that conclusively shatters these old myths.
I remember reading that Sir Isaac Newton was probably the last person who ever knew ‘everything’ in the academic sense. Since then, we’ve had no chance!
I dread to think how much that I learned as fact has now changed! But then, thats what makes life fun, right? I can imagine Newton writing the last page of his Principia and thinking, ‘Hmm, what now?’ That will never happen to us!
They should teach that "facts" are only true until proven false by new data. It was a "well known fact" that the earth was flat, that the sun revolved around the earth, that leeches should be used to drain "bad blood' to cure the patient. I suspect that in the future chemo therapy for cancer treatment will be viewed as barbaric when something more benign, and effective, replaces it.
Exactly right. I remember in history classes thinking I was learning facts. Now I realise I learned one side’s perspective on what might have/probably happened.
The more you dig, the more fascinating the world becomes!
The point here that most people will not get (as reflected in the glowing comments) is not that EVOO is so good for you it’s just that it’s better than what it replaces. For those of us with CAD no oil of any kind is “good” for us, just some that are less bad.
Hi Mark. I think the evidence supports that it’s both. The polyphenols in EVOO offer significant benefits, but those benefits are compounded when EVOO substitutes for other fats, and even more so when they’re part of a Mediterranean-style diet.
There have been a number of studies looking at the effects of EVOO in people with established CAD, the CORDIOPREV study for example. This showed that a Mediterranean diet with plenty of EVOO was more beneficial than a low-fat diet. Other studies have also shown the benefits of EVOO in CAD, with most researchers saying it’s the polyphenols in EVOO that are the key players.
The cardioprotective effects are thought to come from:
anti-inflammatory effects
anti-oxidant effects
slowing the progression of atherosclerosis
improved endothelial function
improvements in blood lipids
I do agree with you, the current social media craze for slugging a shot glass of EVOO with breakfast rather misses the point - but then social media usually does!
I've been using EVOO for decades in my salads and baking but my go-to cooking oil is not EVOO, it's avocado oil. The reason why is that EVOO has a significantly lower smoke point ( the temperature at which it begins to break down and release potentially harmful compounds) than avocado oil. That makes avocado oil superior for high-heat searing, grilling, and roasting. EVOO is best suited for zero-to-medium heat, in salads, sautéing, baking and finishing dishes.
The smoke point for avocado oil is 250-270 C (480-520F) versus EVOO smoke point of 175-210C (350-410F) . Both oils are healthy.
I think the smoke point for EVOO is a red herring. What we should really be concerned about are the toxic pro-inflammatory and carcinogenic chemicals produced when fats are oxidised at high temperature, and that’s measured by its thermal stability.
Of all the usual, and some more unusual cooking fats, EVOO has a greater thermal stability than any other cooking oils, being beaten only by butter, coconut and palm oils - all three of which are mostly saturated fat. The polyphenols in EVOO protect it from oxidation.
Bravo, Ben. This is an exceptional review of the health benefits of olive oil. So clear and compelling to make the switch.
I read long ago that Ancel Keys, the cardiologist from the Univ. of Minn., first coined the term 'Mediterranean Diet' caring for a large US Scandinavian and German immigrant population whose diets high in animal fats were associated with a tenfold higher CVD incidence. He began recommending Mediterranean-style olive oil based cuisine to his patients.
He and his wife, Margaret, retired in Salerno, Italy to cook and eat, ultimately publishing a book, “Eat Well and Stay Well.” Their housekeeper and personal chef said in an interview that Keys made it a habit to eat two dried figs and a spoon of olive oil before retiring to bed each night. Margaret lived until age 97 and Keys to age 100.
Perhaps I shouldn't be swayed by anecdotal evidence. Since learning of them, I use extra virgin olive oil almost exclusively in my kitchen...one greener and more robust for cold applications and one more neutral in flavor for sautéing, roasting, and baking...even Asian stir frys.
Thank you (and honored) to have you spotlight my recipes. I think you are quite right that folks underestimate how luxurious olive oil-based cooking can feel once you have a simple repertoire of strategies and recipes to apply in your kitchen.
Thank you for those very kind words, Ellen. Thank you so much for letting me include your recipes. These are two I’ll be serving up soon!
The problem is that looking through your wonderful recipes to find a few that highlight EVOO left me with a large collection I now want to try!
Ancel Keys has come in for a lot of ire from keto/carnivore aficionados in recent years due to criticisms of the Seven Countries Study. I didn’t know he had retired to the Med. It sounds like a great retirement plan. I’ll forgo the figs, they’re too gritty for me, but I’m going all in on EVOO!
I keep one spray bottle of evoo and one of avocado oil near my cooking area. It simplifies getting oil into a pan or over veggies without getting oil on my hands or utensils that then have to be washed. I don't use evoo for long sauteeing in a fry pan because it's hard to avoid hitting the smoke point, at which (I've read) turns evoo into something unhealthy. So I've been using avocado oil for sauteeing. Is there a huge health difference between avocado oil and evoo?
Hi Bill. That’s a good way to keep things clean and tidy!
There’s no need to worry about cooking with EVOO. The smoke point is a red herring. What’s important are the toxic compounds produced when oil combines with oxygen at high temperature. The polyphenols in EVOO greatly reduce this to the point that EVOO is more stable than any other vegetable oil at high temperature, including avocado oil. I use EVOO for all cooking, including stir fries.
There’s a big difference between avocado oil and EVOO. Most avocado oil is refined, so there’s nothing in there apart from the fat. It’s a good fat profile, mostly monounsaturates, but has none of the polyphenols you find in EVOO, and that’s what protects our long-term health.
In studies that have compared the health benefits of people using refined olive oil with EVOO, the benefits are much greater for people using EVOO, even though the fats are the same. This shows it’s the polyphenols that we need.
Great advice, Ben. We use EVOO in all of our homemade salad dressings and oven-roasted vegetables. I use it to fry eggs with feta cheese and in baking as a sub for butter whenever possible.
Thanks, David. Just reading that list is making me hungry!
I also use EVOO for pretty much everything, but I’ve not experimented much with it for baking. How have you found it for baking? What works, and what doesn’t?
I look for baking recipes that specify using EVOO, like an Italian olive oil cake. I also use the 3/4 rule. Thus, if the recipe calls for one cup of butter, I would use 3/4 cup of EVOO. I make my own granola, but do not use EVOO for it, as I prefer a more neutral flavor, like avocado oil.
I have started using a mild EVOO in my baking replacing butter. I find my cakes & muffins are more tender & just as moist as using butter. A great swap in MHO.
That’s great to hear, Nancy, and hopefully it will reassure others who might think baking with olive oil is just ‘weird’!
I’ll be interested to see what you think after next week’s issue, which looks at which olive oils are best from a health perspective. It turns out the healthiest ones are those with the stronger, more peppery taste, which might be a harder fit for baking - depending on what you’re making.
Either way, swapping olive oil for butter or margarine is definitely a great swap healthwise.
Fantastic article. And thanks for addressing the issue re cooking at higher temperatures. I’d stopped using evoo for cooking because of the conflicting advice from chefs and self-styled health experts on this issue. I’ll be swapping all oil for evoo going forward ! Keep up the great work -it’s rare to find d such well researched unbiased advice these days.
Thanks for such generous comments!
I know what you mean. Everyone repeats the same message that EVOO isn’t suitable for cooking - yet the data is all there; it’s great for cooking. Maybe they never looked!
I suspect we’ll get lots more regurgitated wrong information as more and more people use AI to pull from the web and write their content.
This was really helpful! I’ve been confused for a bit on how much EVOO is ok since I’ve grown up on the “too much fat is bad” approach. It’s helpful to read that in combination with reducing other fats, using EVOO liberally (which I really do) isn’t a bad thing!
I’m glad to hear your an EVOO glugger and not a spritzer!
For years we were told that all fats are bad - remember all those low-fat cookery books? So now we have an obesity epidemic from an over reliance on refined (but ‘low-fat’) carbs!
Next week’s issue is about what’s the best EVOO to buy. Just out of curiosity, can I ask how you pick you EVOO - same every time, best value, fancy label, high polyphenol content?
Definitely best value. I try to pick brands that are from Italy for the most part. Looking forward to your guide though, would absolutely want guidance on how to make the best choice healthwise.
Italian olive oils are good. I recently bought a bottle of Moroccan olive oil. It turns out the very arid conditions there lead to higher polyphenol levels - the mighty antioxidants and anti-inflammatories.
Let me know next week if the next issue makes you re-think which one you buy!
Thank you for this thoughtful piece. The evidence around high-quality extra virgin olive oil is certainly fascinating, especially when we look at its polyphenols and their interaction with metabolic and cellular pathways.
At the same time, nutritional epidemiology always raises the question of causality versus correlation. People who regularly consume high-quality olive oil often differ in many other ways as well — in overall diet quality, food sourcing, lifestyle, and social context.
Another practical consideration is quality: truly high-polyphenol extra virgin olive oil may be far less common in standard supermarket supply than many assume.
And perhaps the broader question is this: if olive oil is indeed so protective, does that unintentionally make it a benefit mainly accessible to those who can reliably obtain high-quality products?
I would say: you can’t oil a diet that fundamentally doesn’t fit the system it is meant to support.
Still, I appreciate the effort to look beyond calories and toward the regulatory and molecular effects of foods.
You’re absolutely right, people who consume EVOO typically eat better overall, are wealthier and better educated, all of which are associated with better health outcomes.
Most studies do their best to account for these confounding factors. While you can never be sure you’ve accounted for everything else that may be playing a role, the results are pretty consistent, and there are clear underlying mechanistic reasons why polyphenol-rich olive oil can positively affect our health.
Health inequality is a huge problem, and given the wealth of the societies in which most readers here live, quite shameful.
You have pitched EVOO against the usual suspects like butter, lard, w-6 oils ( seed oils why ? ), mayonnaise etc. It is not a fair comparison, even granting that EVOO is a miracle and works in some many difficult conditions. You seem to be giving credit for all these goodies to the phytonutrients present in EVOO, whereas I would give more weightage to its high oleic content. Well, both of them matter. If the high oleic content is the key, you have other oils, including high oleic sunflower oil, canola oil, even peanut oil, their limited w-6 content must be regarded as an essential need. If you are looking at phytonutrients, look at Avacado oil which is available largely as unrefined. And as I have argued in many places, against misplaced views about seed oils and refined oils, the nutritional and metabolic value of any edible oil comes mainly from its fatty acid composition. The phytonutrients are only a bonus. That must be the first consideration, not its source. So it is fine to look at oleic rich oils as the ‘gold’ standard. As I said, there are a few others that would fit this bill, not just EVOO. Second, one’s normal free oil consumption daily would be about 15 gms. If you take that as refined oil, you will miss about 200-300 mg of phytonutrients, that would have got eliminated while refining. But many countries, by mandate, compensate this to an extent with additions of vit A & D in refined oils before packaging. And you get lot of phytonutrients from your daily consumption of fruits, vegetables, greens and herbs, even dairy, meat and eggs. Put together, these will be more than what you lose in refined oils. And if you use lot of Avacado oil, you get to have substantial amount of phytonutrients, much more than what you would get from your daily course EVOO. Yes, EVOO is one good, healthy option. But there are others too, as I have explained here. This exclusivity about EVOO is overstated, if not misleading.
Thanks for the prompt, informative response. I agree that EVOO is a very superior option on the health scale. On a general note, compared to the dietary fat practices in the modern West, I would say any other options available in the established culinary practices around the world would be better. But then, EVOO is one option, time tested one, but has its limitations - cost, suitability for every type of kitchen use…. This is a set of studies on EVOO only. There are very good anti oxidant, anti inflammatory properties available from a few other edible oils, especially combined with other food ingredients like fruits and vegetables. In isolation, quite a few of these are also hailed as superior options. Researchers must study them in detail, including cohorts studies, and bring them to public awareness and use. More options.
You’re absolutely right, Moro. The problem is we have very little data on many of the other options.
EVOO has been extensively studied because of it’s intrinsic links to the Mediterranean diet. Earlier, you mentioned unrefined avocado oil. Here in the UK, you can sometimes buy cold-pressed rapeseed/canola oil. The problem is those unrefined forms, likely with lots of polyphenols are expensive and hardly anyone uses them, so they never get studied in the big studies you need to demonstrate if they have real health benefits rather than theoretical ones. Similarly with oils used primarily outside of the ‘Western world’ in which so much of the published research is based.
We may well be missing out on some great options.
Hi Moro
It's great to have you weigh in, as someone who spent many years working in the edible oils industry.
You're right to say that monounsaturated fats, like the oleic acid in EVOO, are beneficial to our health. Most people eating a Western diet get much less monounsaturates than the amounts most closely linked to better long-term health outcomes, so I agree that this is a factor in the benefits of EVOO.
However, I'm convinced by the evidence that the polyphenols in EVOO play a greater role than the monounsaturates. If the monounsaturates were key, you'd see similar health effects with refined olive oil, which lacks the polyphenols, and EVOO. But that's not what the studies show.
- In the EUROLIVE randomised crossover trial, 25 mL/day of higher‑phenolic EVOO (366 mg/kg) reduced oxidised LDL and lipid oxidative damage (important in cardiovascular disease causation), whereas refined olive oil (≈3 mg/kg phenols) actually increased LDL oxidation.
- For non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, EVOO consistently improved liver fat, ALT/AST and inflammatory markers, whereas refined oils of similar MUFA content produced limited or no benefit.
- High‑polyphenol EVOO lowers systolic BP by ≈2–3 mmHg, whereas low‑polyphenol olive oil shows no such effect.
- The European Food Safety Authority’s approved health claim specifically attributes protection of blood lipids from oxidative damage to olive-oil polyphenols, requiring ≥5 mg hydroxytyrosol and derivatives per 20 g oil - levels typical of good-quality EVOO but not refined oil.
- Reviews on cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, CKD and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease repeatedly identify phenolic-rich EVOO as the active form linked to reduced inflammation, oxidative stress, and improved endothelial function, beyond MUFA alone.
- To your point that we already get plenty of polyphenols from fruit and veg in our diet, the PREDIMED study showed that those adding extra EVOO to their Mediterranean diet (already far richer in polyphenols than the typical Western diet) had such greater health outcomes than the Mediterranean diet without EVOO that the study had to be stopped on ethical grounds.
So, across randomised trials, meta‑analyses and mechanistic data, EVOO - through its higher polyphenol content - shows superior effects on oxidative stress, inflammation, vascular function, liver health and some lipid parameters compared with refined olive oil of similar fat profile.
I do think there's lots of evidence to support the idea that EVOO is 'special'.
I’ve been baking, cooking, roasting and making salad dressing with EVOO for years. Maybe because I’m Italian. 😉 Loved this newsletter and can’t wait to hear more.
Thanks, Jan. I’m so pleased you enjoyed it. Those Italian culinary genes are clearly serving you well!
I’m curious about your EVOO baking - and excited at the prospect be (almost) guilt free cakes! Do you cook traditional Mediterranean baking recipes, or amend regular recipes to use EVOO instead of butter or margarine?
I substitute EVOO for any oil 1:1. For butter, it’s a 1:3/4 ratio. If the recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, I use 3/4 cup of EVOO. I am gluten free and this works well with all gluten free flours, especially almond flour. If you use a fine regular flour, it may need some tweaking.
Thanks, Jan. I’m going to have to experiment. I rarely bake as when I see all the butter and sugar that goes into cakes and biscuits it saps some of the pleasure from eating them. Now, if I know they’re made from EVOO, a lot of that guilt slips away!
I substitute honey for the sugar and use less.
Thanks Ben. Another myth (smoke point) dies. I look forward to next week's article. Decades ago we were taught "foundational" 'facts' like higher smoke point is better and that non-heme iron is poorly absorbed vs heme iron. That's another myth I believed for decades. A few days ago, I read a great paper about vegan women and non-heme iron absorption. The body adapts over time and as blood iron levels drop more non-heme iron gets absorbed. I'm always open to new research that conclusively shatters these old myths.
I remember reading that Sir Isaac Newton was probably the last person who ever knew ‘everything’ in the academic sense. Since then, we’ve had no chance!
I dread to think how much that I learned as fact has now changed! But then, thats what makes life fun, right? I can imagine Newton writing the last page of his Principia and thinking, ‘Hmm, what now?’ That will never happen to us!
They should teach that "facts" are only true until proven false by new data. It was a "well known fact" that the earth was flat, that the sun revolved around the earth, that leeches should be used to drain "bad blood' to cure the patient. I suspect that in the future chemo therapy for cancer treatment will be viewed as barbaric when something more benign, and effective, replaces it.
Exactly right. I remember in history classes thinking I was learning facts. Now I realise I learned one side’s perspective on what might have/probably happened.
The more you dig, the more fascinating the world becomes!
The point here that most people will not get (as reflected in the glowing comments) is not that EVOO is so good for you it’s just that it’s better than what it replaces. For those of us with CAD no oil of any kind is “good” for us, just some that are less bad.
Hi Mark. I think the evidence supports that it’s both. The polyphenols in EVOO offer significant benefits, but those benefits are compounded when EVOO substitutes for other fats, and even more so when they’re part of a Mediterranean-style diet.
There have been a number of studies looking at the effects of EVOO in people with established CAD, the CORDIOPREV study for example. This showed that a Mediterranean diet with plenty of EVOO was more beneficial than a low-fat diet. Other studies have also shown the benefits of EVOO in CAD, with most researchers saying it’s the polyphenols in EVOO that are the key players.
The cardioprotective effects are thought to come from:
anti-inflammatory effects
anti-oxidant effects
slowing the progression of atherosclerosis
improved endothelial function
improvements in blood lipids
I do agree with you, the current social media craze for slugging a shot glass of EVOO with breakfast rather misses the point - but then social media usually does!
I've been using EVOO for decades in my salads and baking but my go-to cooking oil is not EVOO, it's avocado oil. The reason why is that EVOO has a significantly lower smoke point ( the temperature at which it begins to break down and release potentially harmful compounds) than avocado oil. That makes avocado oil superior for high-heat searing, grilling, and roasting. EVOO is best suited for zero-to-medium heat, in salads, sautéing, baking and finishing dishes.
The smoke point for avocado oil is 250-270 C (480-520F) versus EVOO smoke point of 175-210C (350-410F) . Both oils are healthy.
Hi Tom. You pre-empting next week’s article!
I think the smoke point for EVOO is a red herring. What we should really be concerned about are the toxic pro-inflammatory and carcinogenic chemicals produced when fats are oxidised at high temperature, and that’s measured by its thermal stability.
Of all the usual, and some more unusual cooking fats, EVOO has a greater thermal stability than any other cooking oils, being beaten only by butter, coconut and palm oils - all three of which are mostly saturated fat. The polyphenols in EVOO protect it from oxidation.
I happily use EVOO for all my cooking.
There’s a good discussion of thermal stability of a range of oils here: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=685VCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&ots=Rh66UUkkxF&sig=774bIXNx3zBzTgPYtFdrls3iynw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Bravo, Ben. This is an exceptional review of the health benefits of olive oil. So clear and compelling to make the switch.
I read long ago that Ancel Keys, the cardiologist from the Univ. of Minn., first coined the term 'Mediterranean Diet' caring for a large US Scandinavian and German immigrant population whose diets high in animal fats were associated with a tenfold higher CVD incidence. He began recommending Mediterranean-style olive oil based cuisine to his patients.
He and his wife, Margaret, retired in Salerno, Italy to cook and eat, ultimately publishing a book, “Eat Well and Stay Well.” Their housekeeper and personal chef said in an interview that Keys made it a habit to eat two dried figs and a spoon of olive oil before retiring to bed each night. Margaret lived until age 97 and Keys to age 100.
Perhaps I shouldn't be swayed by anecdotal evidence. Since learning of them, I use extra virgin olive oil almost exclusively in my kitchen...one greener and more robust for cold applications and one more neutral in flavor for sautéing, roasting, and baking...even Asian stir frys.
Thank you (and honored) to have you spotlight my recipes. I think you are quite right that folks underestimate how luxurious olive oil-based cooking can feel once you have a simple repertoire of strategies and recipes to apply in your kitchen.
Thank you for those very kind words, Ellen. Thank you so much for letting me include your recipes. These are two I’ll be serving up soon!
The problem is that looking through your wonderful recipes to find a few that highlight EVOO left me with a large collection I now want to try!
Ancel Keys has come in for a lot of ire from keto/carnivore aficionados in recent years due to criticisms of the Seven Countries Study. I didn’t know he had retired to the Med. It sounds like a great retirement plan. I’ll forgo the figs, they’re too gritty for me, but I’m going all in on EVOO!
I keep one spray bottle of evoo and one of avocado oil near my cooking area. It simplifies getting oil into a pan or over veggies without getting oil on my hands or utensils that then have to be washed. I don't use evoo for long sauteeing in a fry pan because it's hard to avoid hitting the smoke point, at which (I've read) turns evoo into something unhealthy. So I've been using avocado oil for sauteeing. Is there a huge health difference between avocado oil and evoo?
Hi Bill. That’s a good way to keep things clean and tidy!
There’s no need to worry about cooking with EVOO. The smoke point is a red herring. What’s important are the toxic compounds produced when oil combines with oxygen at high temperature. The polyphenols in EVOO greatly reduce this to the point that EVOO is more stable than any other vegetable oil at high temperature, including avocado oil. I use EVOO for all cooking, including stir fries.
There’s a big difference between avocado oil and EVOO. Most avocado oil is refined, so there’s nothing in there apart from the fat. It’s a good fat profile, mostly monounsaturates, but has none of the polyphenols you find in EVOO, and that’s what protects our long-term health.
In studies that have compared the health benefits of people using refined olive oil with EVOO, the benefits are much greater for people using EVOO, even though the fats are the same. This shows it’s the polyphenols that we need.
Great advice, Ben. We use EVOO in all of our homemade salad dressings and oven-roasted vegetables. I use it to fry eggs with feta cheese and in baking as a sub for butter whenever possible.
Thanks, David. Just reading that list is making me hungry!
I also use EVOO for pretty much everything, but I’ve not experimented much with it for baking. How have you found it for baking? What works, and what doesn’t?
I look for baking recipes that specify using EVOO, like an Italian olive oil cake. I also use the 3/4 rule. Thus, if the recipe calls for one cup of butter, I would use 3/4 cup of EVOO. I make my own granola, but do not use EVOO for it, as I prefer a more neutral flavor, like avocado oil.
I'd not heard of the 3/4 rule. That's very helpful.
I can imagine a more neutral oil would be better for granola, or maybe EVOO granola is a taste you can acquire!