What do you make of this? He is basically knocking olive oil, in an infuriating sort of way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zheiZX0_Z2w

Be interested to hear how you get on foraging in your cousins book. I think if we iteratively find studies on the different cultivars – trends should start to emerge. Well I have made good progress learning how to leverage google to the maximum searching multi lingual queries: managed to stumble on this. Variety Coratina seems to be highest from my research so far…. In March 675 mg / kg in the Coratina variety. I have spoken to some farms in the region and they are sending me some samples.

Next, the taste test as per your last quote on seeing how pungent they are!

I am wondering if I am overdosing on olives now after seeing you only go through 4-6 per day. I personally consume 1 whole jar of olives per day but, that is instead of consuming any oil. I imagine the body has to work a lot harder to get any fat out of the olives though. Just a theory. My only fat sources come from avocado, olives and almonds and of course oily fish…. and lots of it!

Philip

See what you make of this piece (scroll down the page): http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&langpair=es|en&u=http://www.inta.gov.ar/catamarca/info/documentos/caract_producc_olivo.pdf

I am also wondering if you have a function on your website where every time you post a reply people get an email update ? I am sure your traffic would sky rocket if you could embed this feature.

Regarding your question of whether it is worthwhile to eat the whole olive, I have often wondered about that myself. I keep jars of three different kinds of olives in the frige and typically eat 4-6 every day. I also have an unusual habit which is to drink the water-based juice from jars of commercial olives when most of the oilves are eaten and nobody is looking. I like the stuff which has a strong flavor and imagine it could be possibly beneficial. I do recall reading once that it is high in polyphenols but don’t want to take the time now to track the quote down.
Vince

I looked at the table of olive oil polyphenol content according to cultivars of olives. Good first step of research. Next step is to see what blends of EVO are produced by cultivars with high polyphenol content such as Frantorio and Pictual. Final step is to determine where they are sold in the US. Then, to order and hope the data in the table is not too obsolete. A good clue for buying is probably the observation in the paper that the highest polyphenol-containing brands are the most bitter and pungent and have the shortest shelve lives.

Vince

Vince

Found a nicely layed out table with a Polyphenol index (see below)… I am wondering if its better as part of the anti aging-plan to consume the whole olive ‘instead of’ or aswell as the olive oil itself? In theory this would reduce oxidation further – or would I be missing out on some benefits of consuming the oil itself?

I understand time of year for harvest affects the level of polyphenols – I will continue my research and keep you informed.

http://books.google.com/books?id=dlBydJrbI1MC&pg=PA9&dq=olive+oil+variety+polyphenol&hl=en&ei=PYl7TKegO4Hi4AaPi8TCBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=5&ved=0CEwQ6wEwBA#v=onepage&q=olive%20oil%20variety%20polyphenol&f=false

Your question is a good one I wonder about myself. I am sure there are major differences. I try to buy good brands of extra-virgin olive oil but am not at all sure what I am getting except when I travel to Calabria and bring back cans of EVO packaged by my cousin who has an olive-tree orchard and olive oil extraction plant. He sells only locally.
Vince

Long time… I was wondering if you know which variety of olive oil has a reputation for the highest polyphenol count?

Thanks a lot

Philip