Only virgin type of olive oil consumption reduces the risk of mortality: study

Like for most nutrients, both too much and too little are bad.

The olive oil and the other vegetable oils with high content of oleic acid, e.g. high oleic sunflower oil, avocado oil and others, also include adequate amounts of linoleic acid, which is an essential nutrient (e.g. when the daily intake is too small, various skin problems appear).

The cheaper vegetable oils, e.g. classic sunflower oil, corn oil, soy oil and others, contain far too much linoleic acid (which can cause liver problems). The use of such vegetable oils in human food has begun very recently, only in the 19th century, after their industrial production has been developed.

For example, I choose carefully the sources of fat in my food and in a typical day the fat comes from 54 g (60 mL) of olive oil + 33 g of almonds + 9 g (10 mL) of cod liver oil. (That started after being diagnosed with some incipient heart problems, which seem to have been corrected after a year of more careful food choices.)

Both olive oil and almonds contain fat where oleic acid is the most abundant fatty acid. Their quantities are computed so that they also provide adequate daily intakes of linoleic acid and vitamin E. The fish oil adds an adequate amount of omega-3 fatty acids.

I read several times 2 stories in the past 5 years: the exported quantity of olive oil in Italy is bigger than the entire country's production and the global sales of Motul engine oils is 3 to 5 times bigger than their production capacity. I am not 100% of these stories, but at the time I read these they were from multiple reputable sources.

I believe that the question of whether saturated fat is unhealthy is still an open question.

I am an olive oil producer, in Portugal, and we're harvesting as I type.

I have made some remarks about olive oil production on HN in the past, but here are some remarks about olive oil quality, grading, and production:

Olive oils do degrade with time, which means triglycerols break into free fatty acids and glycerol (E → F + _ ). Of course aroma also changes with time, but this is more subjective, and decided by actually tasting samples.

So olive oil freshness comes in three gradings, defined by free fatty acid content: extra virgin (2%). These grades will generally decide the market value, but differentiation can change this (special varieties and a good aroma allow for a better price). Extra-virgin can, in principle, be sold as virgin (e.g. if aroma is not good enough for some reason) but not the other way around.

All my production is extra virgin. That is 100.00% extra virgin. I have never, nor my family has ever, produced anything but extra virgin olive oil. The worst I have seen around me was a producer getting 0,4% free acidity, which is still extra virgin.

Today, olive oil is industrially extracted by crushing the olives and separating water and fatty phases in a centrifuge, at cold temperatures.

Olives have around 20% w/w directly extractable oil, but the fatty content of the pomace contains around 40% fat. This oil can be further extracted in centrifuges, up to a point were some temperature will be needed. This fat won't be completely extracted, and that is up to the plant processing it, that usually keeps the pomace for itself. Heating does lower the quality of olive oil, and as such its price, but some data is good to put things into perspective.

Around 95% of Portugal's production was virgin/extra virgin, followed by the US (~90%), Greece (~75%), and Italy and Spain (both ~65%) the latter being the largest producer (~35% of world total). Portugal now ranks 7th in production volume, and is the first to put olive oil in the market, although the market is controlled by Spain. Future markets usually keep prices down for the starting weeks, and I hope this will change in the following years as Portuguese production increases.

Having this objective measure in mind, and without disregard for other characteristics that can improve olive oil general quality, one can say that Portuguese olive oil is the best, modesty aside.

But it does seem the US know what they're doing, although in smaller quantities!

Italy is one of the largest importers of Portuguese olive oil. I have no idea what they do with it.

Only if the original manufacturer does the shipping, which is not always true. If it says "prime" it's warehoused by Amazon, original manufacturer or not, and subject to commingling.