Olives are a staple of Mediterranean cuisine, having been consumed and used to create oil for centuries. While most people in the United States are familiar with simple black and green olives, there are actually more than 2,000 varieties of olives found throughout the world. Olives are a great source of monounsaturated fatty acid, which has been shown both to help reduce LDL cholesterol (often referred to as “bad” cholesterol) and also lower a person’s risk of heart disease and stroke. While olives are low in sodium when eaten raw, they are naturally bitter and need to be cured in order to be palatable. The curing process increases the sodium content, but without the curing process, few of us find olives so tasty.
There are several curing processes that may be used for olives:
Brine curing - Immersing olives in a water and salt solution for one to six months
Dry curing - Layering olives with salt in drums that are rolled weekly to dehydrate olives; the process is finished by rinsing and coating olives with oil
Oil curing - Soaking olives in oil for several months
Lye curing - Washing olives in a lye solution to speed the debittering process, then rinsing and soaking them in a brine solution
The water-curing method was the first method used to cure olives, followed by the brine-curing method, which helped to ripen olives a little more quickly. The Romans found that supplementing the brine solution with lye from wood ash helped olives ripen in a matter of hours instead of months. This method may have helped make olives more readily available to enjoy, as they began being incorporated into the Roman’s regular diet.
While it took centuries of trial and error to perfect the curing process for olives, olive oil, by contrast, has been used for 6,000 to 8,000 years for cooking, cosmetics, medicine, and lamp burning. Today, olive oil is used across the globe as a healthy source of fat for cooking.
Consuming extra virgin olive oil may help to protect against the development of cardiovascular disease due to the monounsaturated fatty acids and polyphenols found in the oil. Olive oil polyphenols—naturally occurring antioxidant chemical compounds—may decrease the concentration of LDL particles in plasma. These antioxidants may also prevent LDL particles from oxidizing. When that happens, small, dense LDL particles—which can move around more easily to cause damage to your body—are less likely to form. Consequently, increasing your consumption of extra virgin olive oil may reduce the risk of atherosclerosis, which is the narrowing and hardening of blood vessels.
When choosing olive oil, it is important to note the difference between extra virgin olive oil (EEVO) and refined olive oil. While each variety possesses a similar concentration of monounsaturated fatty acids, refined olive oil loses many of its naturally occurring polyphenols during the refining process. Therefore, the healthiest choice is to opt for extra virgin olive oil.
There are many ways that olives and olive oil can be incorporated into your diet. Here are just a few suggestions that you might enjoy!
- Add olives to a salad for added texture and taste.
- When in need of a salty snack, reach for a couple of olives instead of chips.
- Roast some chicken breast with olives, tomatoes, onions, and a little olive oil for a healthy Mediterranean dinner.
- Use extra virgin olive oil when cooking. Drizzle over vegetables before roasting them or sauté vegetables in a tablespoon of olive oil.
- Create homemade vinaigrettes using extra virgin olive oil with the vinegar and seasonings of your choice.
- Use olive oil as the base for bread dips or pesto.
- Make homemade hummus with olive oil, tahini, garbanzo beans, lemon, and garlic.