 What makes a great olive oil so for me freshness is is definitely key when you talk about health benefits and polyphenols and all The high levels of antioxidants that you want in a really healthy olive oil something you really want to have in your as part of your Healthy diet you want to look for fresh oil, which means I follow the global harvest So I'm one of those rare breeds that every quarter I travel whether we're in the Mediterranean, which would mean Italy and Greece and Spain and Portugal and then I Travel south of the equator for their season their fall, which is opposite of the Mediterranean in our summer time So I'm there in Chile and Argentina, which Chile has beautiful fruit I mean the the climate the Mediterranean like climate zone in Chile is beautiful and then my I'm just home Actually, if I have bags under my eyes, you'll you'll know why I've got jet lag. I'm just home from Australia And you know hanging out with the kangaroos and the olive grows over there where they also grow wonderful olive oil So freshness and following the seasonality Those polyphenols and healthy antioxidants they decline rapidly over time So about six months they start to deteriorate after the pressing So for me, you know, I'm on the global quest of freshness Which is a high-quality? Indicator of course picking the fruit very green that makes a great olive oil So if an olive is green when it's harvested it will have about 10% yield inside the fruit 10% oil if you let that same olive paint on the tree until it's completely black You could get up to 30% olive oil so Unfortunately, the oil quality and the health benefits of the higher levels of oil are not there like you it's a healthy fat Yes, but you're not getting the antioxidants the polyphenols all the plant sterols then and you know All the health benefits you could be getting from a very early harvest oil So that's why kind of like the Tuscans early on were very big Like people would say a Tuscan style olive oil or the olive oil from Tuscany is the best Because they had a tradition in Tuscany to pick the green the very green fruit They were one of the first people to do that and harvest that very green flavorful antioxidant powerhouse, so in general I Tend my palate goes toward that fresh green powerhouse style of oils as you're used to like in the trio You know that I send you Yeah, so You know, I think that's a good point now sometimes in America. We see the words Nouveau Olio or Nouveau olive oil is is that a sign that these were picked greener? It can be a sign usually it's a sign of freshness But you know, I have some issues with that because sometimes they'll bottle it in clear bottles You know to show off its fancy color Which is great if you can consume it within the first few months of harvest But unfortunately with these these some olive oils people think like unfiltered They look for really cloudy olive oil and that can be good the first few months of harvest after harvest So first of all always looking at harvest date single estate farms But what happens is in an unfiltered oil and if you lightly filter the oil or let it naturally settle before you bottle it What can happen if there is sediment in the bottom of the bottle that starts to ferment so there's water in there There's vegetable yeast and that causes defects in the oil So a high-quality olive oil from a professional taster standpoint should have no defects in the oil to be considered extra-virgin it shouldn't be non-defective so You will get those defects if the if all that was sediment was on the bottom and starting to ferment over time But typically that is an early harvest style oil That is a category and you know some marketers have kind of latched on to that term But it's not novello Or no ovo if it's nine months old and you know, so you got to check your harvest date. That's key I think that's a great point. It's a point. I make in all my podcasts and videos that you really need to see a harvest date on on the label and the other thing that I warn people is that the sell by date or use by date is It's horrible number one I mean tell me why that is Sure, that's a super great question because really that is placed on there at the time of bottling Not the time of pressing especially if you're buying from one of the big bottle bottlers Which has a lot of Where they import a lot of different oils from a lot of different countries And you can see on there when it says like sourced from and you see the Initials of eight different countries how much micro management do they really have of that product? I mean olives after all are fruit, right? So we have to think of them like fresh fruit juice Yes, it unfortunately Yeah, it's based on a lot of times on bottle date not on when the fruit was harvested or it was actually pressed So yes, yeah, it's best to always look for harvest date, you know dark bottle Single estate those sort of tips for sure Yeah, I've been shocked even going into gourmet grocery stores or gourmet wine shops and seeing these what appear to be, you know gorgeous expensive olive oils and in fact I was in one last weekend and You know, I always pick up and look on the back and many of these were pressed in 2015 and 2016 They're selling for fifty and sixty dollars a bottle and I've gone What the heck are these doing here in you know this high-class store? Yeah, that that is absolutely true And it you know Americans have been kind of tricked into buying like fancy bottles with nice cut glass and beautiful labels and honestly, you know It's tough, you know, it's really tough the American the big Bottlers are doing a better job than they were there They're transitioning away from the clear plastic bottles and over to at least tinted glass light or Tinted plastic the pet bottles does keep some of the light out fluorescent lighting and grocery stores not ideal for olive oil light destroys olive oil So, you know, the big bottlers are trying to do better You know and and are succeeding on some fronts and and there's a place in the olive oil market for everyone Whether you're the everyday consumer or if you're really focused on your health and want to use olive oil as a conduit And backbone to your healthy lifestyle, which is where we fall we fall in that camp So we want the best we can get our hands on All right, you brought up extra virgin olive oil What the heck is extra virgin? Okay, so extra virgin is the highest category of olive oil that's contained It's produced using solely mechanical means. So that means there's no heat involved. There's no chemicals involved It's really the highest category. So it's got to have a very low level of acidity and Acidity in olive oil is not something you can taste so people, you know consumers can't really identify acidity What acidity tells you? When you're doing a chemistry panel is the quality level of the fruit. So it's all about the quality level of the fruit So Where they picked immediately and taken to the mill immediately or did they sit around for 48 hours? Where they really ripe fruit and they were placed in the back of a dump truck to produce bulk oil Or were they placed in small crates and carried to the mill Where they left in the sun was their fly damage. So all these things deteriorate the fruit and will Raise your acidity level. So you want a very low Acidity level in the olive oil and to be extra virgin and honestly the extra virgin category is actually pretty wide like for example in my my oils are third-party tested by a lab in Italy and the to be considered extra virgin and needs to be 0.8% or less of acidity so the lower acidity the better So for example, I'm just pulling up a couple of my my recent labs Mine were not even at the point two level. So very you know very very low acidity So that's what you want to you know look for and some Bottlers who actually put that on the label if they're super quality, you know minded And you know look look at sources like flow sole a look at national competitions Look at the California Olive oil competition that happens at the LA County fair That those are some good tips for identifying and and just educating your palate and tasting olive oil and understanding What to look for are the best things you can do? Yeah, a few years ago I had the opportunity to talk with the the minister of olive oil in Italy Yeah, he makes a very good point. He said there is absolutely no Proof that olake acid, which is the mono unsaturated fat in olive oil And olive oil is not just a lake acid, but it's the major Fat in olive oil. He says there's no proof that olake acid is has any major benefit over Over any other oil or mono unsaturated fat. He said it's a carrier for the polyphenols and the antioxidants And and he said we have to understand that and I I think that was a very important point There there's nothing unique about this fat Right, it's what it's carrying to us It it's a carrier and you know when you put high quality extra virgin olive oil like like my oils on food you actually Can your body accepts the new accepts the nutrients even even higher at a higher level? you know if you Drizzle it so when my wife and I my wife's a great cook in our family and when she sets a table with salt and pepper The olive oil goes on the table at the same time because we're splashing it on the way some people would you know Who we catch up we would be drizzling it on our broccoli or green beans or you know Whatever whatever whether it's pork or whatever, you know, it's always drizzled with mother nature sauce, right? So for us, you know, we use it that way You know to I to I guess absorb more nutrient to get more nutrient value of the foods We're already eating for their health value You know, that's a great point and it's something I just absolutely first thing I tell my patients is Yeah, cook with olive oil But olive oil has to come to the table and you're absolutely right It's right next to the salt and pepper and in any you know in any home in Italy in any Trattoria in Italy they bring the bottle to the table and it's right. It's the foods to deliver olive oil Absolutely, and and you know, I I don't decant mine into like a clear crew it where sunlight can get to it and things like that Like I prefer to store it, you know in the cabinet with my salt and pepper We like a really clean, you know clean area more minimalist look in our home So we keep things away, but when it's time to set the table It's the same as putting silverware on the table. It comes out, you know, and that that's our habit So I'm not a big fan of you know clear crew it's and that sort of thing for you know and buying big jugs of olive oil, you know oxygen Kills olive oil light kills olive oil and high temperature kills olive oil now the nice thing you mentioned You know cooking with olive oil, and I think that's something we that's our next subject. Okay. Good. Good. So go ahead you Alright, so we've actually had a fat expert on our program and one of the myths that is out there that I tried to spell on And hopefully you'll join me on this Olive oil everybody says well heat damages olive oil because you can't cook with it because it smokes and that's proof that it's damage Olive oil has a high a low smoke point. It starts smoking fairly early But it turns out it is the least Oxidizable oil there is it actually oxidizes less than coconut oil, which is kind of the gold standard And so can you cook with olive oil? Absolutely, I walk into every Italian Spanish Kitchen and that grandmother who's in her 90s is you know cooking everything whether it's the You know chicken parmesan or whether you know what she fries in it She sautees in it. She roasts her peppers in it like there's nothing that they're not using olive oil for in the Mediterranean And getting all the benefits of fresh oil there at least once a year Even if you were to live in Italy, you would only have access to fresh oil once a year. So You can cook with olive oil I would say that the higher level of Antioxidants in the and polyphenol level in the oil to begin with Actually protects the oil when you're cooking with it. So in my home, I love fried eggs for breakfast So Megan will make some fried eggs for me and she knows to cook my eggs over and she she's like I said a great cook but she cooks my eggs over medium low heat and she does that in the fresh fresh olive oil and Honestly, I can't tell the difference between the fresh oil that would put in was placed into the pan And what's on my plate after the fact that I you know because I were pretty heavy users in our household like you Taking one from your playbook. And yeah, so, you know, I you know It doesn't break down if you cook at a lower temperature and and just respect like one tip would be You know, don't heat the pan with the oil inside Heat the pan on the stove Then add your oil then add your other component and that just keeps your oil from sitting there Oxidizing and breaking down. So that's just one little, you know, take away. Yeah, great. Yeah. All right