Category: Health and food

Nowadays it is considered as a fact, supported by solid scientific evidence: extra virgin olive oil is healthy. Its properties are numerous and varied, scholars maintain that there is still much to discover about the benefits it can bring to the human body. However, there are some cornerstones on which everyone agrees, which make EVO the best oil to use for your diet.

A cornerstone of the Mediterranean diet

It is no coincidence that extra virgin olive oil is one of the cornerstones of the Mediterranean diet, one of the most used elements in the kitchen for cooking and eating food. The Mediterranean Diet Foundation claims that it is a food rich in vitamin E, beta-carotenes and monounsaturated fatty acids, which give it cardiovascular protection properties. Moreover, extra virgin olive oil is mostly made up of fats, which supposes that it gives an important contribution of energy to man. In particular, EVO oil is rich in oleic acid, an unsaturated fat that guarantees an antioxidant effect, important for human health, especially in older age.

The benefits: because extra virgin olive oil is healthy?

But what are these benefits that extra virgin olive oil would bring to human health? We list them for your convenience.

• It protects against the development of cardiovascular diseases: we are talking about a product with anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic properties.
• According to science, it prevents cancer, in particular breast and colon cancer formations.
• Delays the development of arteriosclerosis, a common disease in old age, which leads to hypertension and causes heart attacks in people.
• Prevents the development of diabetes mellitus and helps to delay its debilitating effects
• Hinders macular degeneration of the eye, a condition in which the central portion of the retina (the macula) deteriorates or does not function properly.
• Helps people in the fight against cellular aging
• Extra virgin olive oil, according to experts, exerts a positive influence in the delay of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.
• It would reduce the risk of suffering from depression
• It is an excellent ally in the fight against bad cholesterol: in parallel, it helps to increase good cholesterol
• Thanks to EVO oil it is possible to improve digestion by stimulating the biliary vesicle.
• It can create a “barrier” against gastritis and ulcers.
• It is an excellent ally of the body to promote intestinal transit, a natural remedy against constipation.
• Hydrates and tones the skin, keeping it young for a long time

One teaspoon of oil a day…

In particular, a study by the Italian Society of Diabetology has shown that consuming olive oil on a daily basis allows the control of glycaemia changes, especially in people with type 1 diabetes. Apparently, in fact, EVO oil keeps the level of sugar in the body under control, then acts as a shield for the cardiovascular system. This is why nutritionists and dieticians advise to eliminate as much as possible the use of butter and derivatives for condiments, using extra virgin olive oil in a calibrated way.

You may have wondered at least once in your life what the olive oil density. EVO oil is probably one of the most important products for our diet and without a doubt there are few of us who know its characteristics and quality. So let’s try to shed some light on how dense extra virgin olive oil is, what the density is and what it depends on.

Knowing everything about the olive oil density – and here perhaps for many people the first useful information comes – is fundamental to understand which is the highest quality oil and avoid buying products closer to water than to a good oil. Not all oils have the same density: there is certainly a big difference between that of a sunflower seed oil, for example, and that of extra virgin olive oil. But to better understand what we are talking about, let’s try to understand first of all what the olive oil density.

What it is the olive oil density

Have you ever tried mixing oil and water? If so, you have certainly noticed that these two liquids cannot be mixed together. This depends on the consistency of the oil, which is denser than water. This is certainly an interesting starting point to try to understand what we are talking about.

Density is a unit of measurement used to know the amount of mass contained within the volume of a substance. In the case of olive oil, knowing this unit allows us to understand, as we have previously pointed out, how good (or bad) the quality of an oil is. We can say that we need to know how much solid matter the oil has in relation to the total content of the bottle. This is the property that allows the water and the oil to remain separated for a long time and consequently obtain an EVO oil of the highest quality.

According to the international system established by the UN, the weight that the best olive oil must have is 0.916 kg/litre; its temperature must be 16 degrees. To know this information about the oil, when we are at the supermarket shopping, simply read the table on the back label of the product bottle. You have to keep in mind, however, that depending on the temperature the density of the oil changes: it is not strange, therefore, that the right fluidity is in the spring season, when temperatures are more likely to settle between 15 and 17 degrees, the perfect ones to have the perfect EVO oil density. When the temperature of the oil increases, its consistency decreases and the oil tends to acquire more volume.

What does the olive oil density depend on?

Among the factors that undoubtedly influence the olive oil density is its origin and the type of oil itself. In the case of vegetable oils, olive oil is much denser than, for example, coconut oil, while it is less dense than soya oil.

Looking closely at extra virgin olive oil, we can see that the consistency may depend on the type of olive used for its preparation. Some olives make it possible to produce a thicker and therefore higher quality oil. In order to control the density and obtain a perfect oil, it is important to work it in a workmanlike manner, following all the chrisms, starting from the attention to the olive harvest. Olives are made from a certain amount of water as you know for sure, but if an EVO oil contains even a minimum percentage of water it cannot be considered of quality. Today it is very simple to separate oil from water, thanks to the centrifugation process that follows that of extracting oil from olives.