• Investing in the value of our country’s tradition and the natural product it so richly provides us with…. olive oil.

 

Olive oil or, according to Homer, ‘pure liquid gold’ is in the list of the 10 most nutritious kinds of food.  Its food, nutritional and biological values are very important for the human body. Hippocrates called olive oil the ‘great healer’.

Generally, olive oil has been used since antiquity as a nutrient, a drug or drug carrier and as a cosmetic.

In modern times, it is the elixir of life, the most important ingredient to human health and the human body, as now also confirmed by medical science.

The addition of olive oil to a meal helps:

• Reduce the concentration of gastric juices. (a reduction of indigestion and pain through the administration of olive oil with orange juice has been ascertained)
• Have a therapeutic effect on duodenal ulcers and improvement of bowel movements.
• Prevent certain liver diseases and have considerable beneficial effect in treating diabetes. (Christakis, 1980)
• Favourably affect the development of the central nervous system, the structure of skull bones and the vascular system, and natural development in children.
• Protect the body against thrombosis due to its high monounsaturated fatty acid (oleic acid) content.
• Have a particularly beneficial effect in that it reduces cardiovascular diseases in humans.
• Prevent chronic diseases and slow down the aging process because it contains the proper amount of antioxidants needed by the human body and is rich in Vitamins A, B, C, D and E.

It has also long been used in topical applications to treat skin diseases with satisfactory results. It seems that its role in this case is due to the action of vitamin E. Olive oil is also known for the role it plays in protecting the skin from solar radiation and in soothing pain from various insect bites (Hurley 1919).