More Olives, Please!

In a continuation, it appears, of a post I did a while ago about why olive oil is good for your health, here is why olives are as well. The University of Granada and the University of Barcelona have teamed up to discover that a certain compound in olive skins, maslinic acid, actually significantly contributed to death of cells and inhibition of new cell growth in colon cancer. This acid, while found in many other medicinal plants, is in concentrations of up to 80% in olives.

According to another study, olives are also being considered in HIV treatments. The maslinic acid is also good, it appears, at inhibiting receptors in the virus that allow it to spread throughout the body. This study was also done by the University of Granada.

You can find the source articles here and here.

Olives are quite the wonder-fruit. This is quite exciting for those of you, like myself, who absolutely love olives of all types. Nothing like a good kalamata to go with your hummus!

Looking for more ways to use olives? A very easy way I like is simple, too. Make tapenade!

Easy Tapenade Recipe:

all kinds of pitted olives (about 8 ounces)
olive oil (eyeball it, I guess about 1-2 tbsp)
anchiovies or anchiovy paste (I use about a teaspoon of paste)
garlic (however much you like)
handfull of capers
juice of one lemon
some basil

Now you blend it all. Easy and so yum! What a great way to get your olive intake and this post was about science and food!

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Olive Oil For Your Health

In an article posted earlier today on ScienceDaily, it was revealed that there are anti-cancer components to olive oil. According to the article, good quality olive oil contains "phytochemicals" which can kill off cancer cells. The research was done to determine if Mediterranean diets were the reason breast cancer rates were lower in the region. Researchers were from the Catalan Institute of Oncology and the University of Grenada in Spain. It was found that Extra Virgin Olive Oil is best for these "phytochemicals" as the oil is extracted from pressed olives. No heat is involved therefore leaving the chemicals in tact. The oil was tested on cultured breast cancer cells and really worked; however, no testing has been done on humans and the researchers are uncertain of how it would work since the human body is more than a few cancerous cells.


In other good olive oil related science, it is just good for you. Olives have great fatty acids and good cholesterol too! Pair this with some wine high in resveratrol (and good at determining climate change) and you have one heart healthy snacking opportunity. I love food and science so this is perfect! Doesn't Alton Brown have the best job? A food scientist! Nice.

Photo is licensed under Creative Commons to Grace on Flickr.

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