Health News from OLEA FARM

Rebuilding The Food Pyramid
by Lisa Ellis
Medical Content of this article was reviewed by the Harvard Medical Board
The USDA's Food Guide Pyramid is "built on shaky scientific ground" and distorted by the department's mission to promote agriculture.

Potatoes, white bread and most pastas are bad, some fats are good, calcium isn't as important as you think, and the U.S. government's supposedly authoritative food pyramid is just plain wrong.
So says "Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy" (Simon & Schuster, August 2001), Harvard Medical School's entry into the bewildering debate over diet and nutrition. The book contends that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's widely reproduced Food Guide Pyramid - whose largest component is grain products such as bread and pasta - is "built on shaky scientific ground" and distorted by the department's mission to promote agriculture, especially dairy and grain farming.

USDA food pyramid

Instead, Harvard offers the Healthy Eating Pyramid, a guide that author Walter Willett, M.D., Dr. P.H., says should help people navigate through the confusing tangle of diet advice because it is based on decades of accumulated research, not just one or two studies.
In summary, it recommends sharply restricting red meat, potatoes and refined grain products such as white bread; limiting dairy products to one or two servings a day; replacing unhealthy saturated fat with healthier unsaturated vegetable oils; and emphasizing whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

Harvard Medical School's new food pyramid

"This book represents an effort to pull together the best available evidence on how diet influences health. Unfortunately, that hasn't been done very often," says Dr. Willett, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chairman of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. He also is one of the principal investigators of the Harvard-based Nurses' Health Study, one of the largest long-term health studies in the United States. The USDA pyramid, first published in 1992, ignored the evidence at that time, and subsequent studies have made it even more outdated, Dr. Willett says.

(A USDA spokesperson, Jackie Haven, declines comment, saying: "The department has a longstanding policy of not commenting on diet books.")

"There's an inherent problem with the USDA creating the pyramid," Dr. Willett says. "The economic interests are so strong - and beef and dairy are the most powerful - that I think it's impossible for the USDA to say that people should limit red meat consumption or limit dairy products to one or two servings a day. It's very difficult for them to be objective, so it's probably the worst possible agency to do the pyramid."

Citing both positive and negative research findings about most categories of food and nutrients, the Healthy Eating Pyramid reshuffles the ingredients into a new structure to guide daily eating. Several of the recommendations directly challenge those of the USDA pyramid.

The Healthy Eating Pyramid puts red meat, butter, potatoes, sweets, white bread, white rice, ordinary pasta and other refined grain products into a tiny compartment at the top, labelled "Use Sparingly."

The broad foundation of the new pyramid - the foods intended to provide the largest portion of daily calories - consists of whole-grain foods, such as brown rice and whole-wheat bread, and vegetable oils such as olive and canola. In the USDA pyramid, all grain products are in one category, and people are urged to eat six to 11 servings a day, the most of any food group. The USDA recommends only limited use of all oils, fats and sweets.
Both pyramids put fruits and vegetables in the middle. The new guide divides protein into categories, emphasizing nuts and legumes, followed by fish, poultry and eggs. It says that adults need only one to two servings of calcium-rich foods - not necessarily dairy products - or calcium supplement each day.

The Healthy Eating Pyramid, which is geared toward adults, also recommends a daily multivitamin "for insurance" and allows alcohol "in moderation" for people who have no history of addiction, depression or certain other medical problems.

Underpinning the entire new pyramid is a lifestyle that includes regular exercise, weight control and awareness of where your calories are coming from.

"You need to pay attention to all forms of calories, fat calories and carbohydrate calories," Dr. Willett says, because all calories can make you gain weight.

"If there are unhealthy fats, think about ways to substitute healthy for unhealthy fats." People who are already on low-fat diets might be better off replacing some carbohydrates such as white bread or pasta with healthy fats such as olive oil, he says.

Dr. Willett acknowledges that nutrition research can be confusing when the public hears about it one study at a time. This is because the research unfolds in a rhythm that is "more a cha-cha - two steps forward and one step back - than a straight-ahead march," he writes. "...Like dropping stones into an old-fashioned scale, the weight of evidence gradually tips the balance in favour of one idea over another. It is only when this happens that you should make changes in your life."

The book, which includes recipes and menus, offers a chapter on how to interpret nutrition research, and it identifies some questions about the health effects of certain foods as still unsettled.

But it states that the evidence is settled enough on these points:

Refined grains such as white bread and rice should be eaten only in small quantities. These grains are broken down quickly into glucose (sugar), which is followed by a release of insulin so the body can use the glucose for fuel, then quick hunger pangs as the glucose level drops. The digestion of potatoes is similar, although they are now the number one vegetables consumed in the United States. "A constant and heavy demand on the pancreas to make insulin appears to be a key ingredient for adult-onset diabetes ... especially when paired with lack of exercise."

Whole grains, especially if they are intact or coarsely ground, averts the glucose roller-coaster effect because they are digested much more slowly. They provide more nutrients than refined grains and may help protect against diabetes, heart disease and several forms of cancer.

"Some fats are good for you, and it is important to include these good fats in your diet." Specifically, eating unsaturated fats - found in most vegetable oils, nuts and fatty fish - instead of saturated fats such as butter and animal fats can reduce low-density lipoproteins ("bad" cholesterol) and help to protect against coronary heart disease, erratic heartbeats and blood clots.

Trans-fatty acids, found in many hard margarines and baked goods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, should be avoided because they increase the risk of heart disease. Research connects excess weight, not overall fat consumption, to some forms of cancer, and people on low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets tend to regain the weight.

It is not clear how much calcium people need. Worldwide, consumption varies, and countries with average higher calcium intake tend to have higher rates of hip fractures. There is little proof that boosting calcium to currently recommended levels will prevent fractures, the principal complication of osteoporosis, the "brittle bones" disease that is found mostly in older women. But exercise, certain medications, Vitamins D and K and sometimes hormone replacement can help to prevent fractures. There is some evidence that high levels of calcium may be associated with prostate and ovarian cancers.

Protein itself does not appear to be related to rates of heart disease, cancer or diabetes, and it is digested slowly so it does not trigger sharp increases in blood sugar. Red meat should be restricted because it tends to include more saturated fat than other protein sources.

Eating many and varied fruits and vegetables can decrease the risk of heart attack or stroke, protect against many forms of cancer, lower blood pressure, and guard against certain intestinal and eye diseases. Variety is important, because these foods include many micronutrients whose value scientists still are discovering. A vitamin pill is recommended only as insurance, not a substitute. A glass of fruit juice can add nutritional value to a diet, but consuming more than a glass per day can contribute to excessive calories.

Dr. Willett, whose family have been Michigan dairy farmers for generations, acknowledges that children need more calcium than adults do, but probably not a lot more. "If the child really likes milk, having two or three glasses a day is OK, but I wouldn't beat them over the head to drink milk," he says. One- or two-percent milk is best for children under age 5, who need the calories, he says.

The recommendations of the book are likely to be controversial in some circles, Dr. Willett says, but he thinks it is time people acknowledge that the weight of evidence justifies changing the conventional wisdom about healthy eating.

"I think within the nutrition community there are a lot of people who would acknowledge there are problems with the [USDA] dietary pyramid but are reluctant to admit it," he says. "There's this sense that we must be consistent no matter what the evidence says, and that gets us into trouble ...

But a tremendous number of people have tried the pyramid for weight reduction and found that it failed."

© Lisa Ellis 2001 Original article here
Medical Content of this article was reviewed by the Harvard Medical Board

July 5, 2002
Reuters-Health
Greek Cuisine, Sex Promote Healthy Life
-- Erik Brynhildsbakken
OSLO (Reuters) - Greek cuisine and plenty of sex help to ensure a long and healthy life, and to keep cancer and heart disease at bay, a cancer expert said on Tuesday.

"It looks like the Greek diet in many ways is the optimum diet," Harvard professor Walter Willett told Reuters at an international cancer congress in Oslo.

A Greek diet--with plenty of fruit and vegetables all year round and olive oil instead of butter and lard--was the best way to keep a range of cancers at bay, while the sturdy diet of northern Europe was like a ticking bomb, Willett said.

"The traditional northern European diet comes pretty close to a worst-case diet, and we have imported that into the United States," Willett said. "That means large amounts of red meat and dairy fat, and low amounts of fruit and vegetables."

But Willett said he was not trying to take the pleasure out of life by promoting a smoke-free lifestyle that was low on red meat and alcohol but included plenty of exercise. "Remember sex--safe sex--is a positive physical exercise," he said...

May 16, 2002
Los Angeles Times
Judges put taste buds to work on wines and olive oils
-- Pam Noles
POMONA -- Inside this quiet place, where men and women with solemn faces sit at small tables draped with white linen, the sound is so unexpected it is almost shocking. Sllluuurrrp .

It was a thick noise, with a little trill in the middle and an abrupt bite at the end. It happened so fast it was hard to tell which of them did it. They do not react at all, continuing their mostly quiet work lifting small blue jars, sniffing, sipping, taking notes. It is the first day of judging for the Los Angeles County Fair Olive Oils of the World Competition, and this is how it's done, with a few top experts, a warming pad, and the occasional burst of rude and funny noises.

Not that anyone in this room inside the Sheraton Hotel at Fairplex is laughing. It is serious and not so easy work for a dozen people to taste and judge 92 different oils over the course of three days, with little more than a bite of an apple to clean the palate between each silky candidate.

The industrial strength slurps are necessary, explains Arden Kremer, who runs Enterprise Vineyards in Sonoma County with her husband. Air must be forced through the oil onto the tongue to release the full flavor inside the mouth for proper evaluation.

"It enhances what we call the retro nasal effect so you can get the flavor inside your nose rather than outside," she said. "You want to be able to repeat the flavor of the oil."

Six months ago the California Olive Oil Council became the first American group qualified to taste oils at an international level, said Roberto Zecca, past council president and chair of the fair's oil competition. It is now one of 40 in the world to earn such a designation, each judge certified to meet strict guidelines set by the International Olive Oil Council in Madrid.

Reaching that goal helped attract more oils than ever, Zecca said, with oils arriving from Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Chile and elsewhere. "Of course now other countries feel confident sending their best to us," he said. "We just needed to tell them we were doing this."

The oils are kept on a warming pad at 80 degrees, the perfect tasting temperature. Each vial has a tiny paper disk on top to prevent flavor from drifting away on vapors, and each tasting vial is blue so that color will not influence the judge on taste.

April 19, 2002
just-food.com
EU: Olive oil reduces oxidation of bad cholesterol
-- just-food.com editorial team
Including 25ml of virgin olive in our daily diet may substantially reduce cholesterol levels after just one week.

New evidence presented in this month's European Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that olive oil helps reduce the oxidation of LDL or 'bad' cholesterol, which is linked to hardening of the arteries.

A team led by Dr M. C. Lopez-Sabater of the University of Barcelona studied 16 people who were told to avoid foods such as coffee, tea, wine and vegetables for a four-day period. This is because they contain phenols (antioxidant products which can help attack harmful free radicals) and the researchers wanted to see whether olive oil could increase phenol levels without this additional help.

After this four-day preparation period, the subjects were given 50ml of olive oil and told to continue avoiding the food listed above for 24 hours. After this they resumed their normal diet, but took a daily supplement of 25ml. They also kept away from high-fat foods such as butter, margarine, nuts and eggs.

After just one week, blood samples showed higher levels of antioxidants such as vitamin E and phenols. They also showed higher levels of oleic acid and monounsaturated fatty acids, both indicative of reduced LDL oxidation rate.

Lopez-Sabater said in the article: "In addition to the LDL-lowering effect of virgin olive oil, our results suggest that an intake of 25 ml/day could increase the resistance of LDL to oxidation because it becomes richer in oleic acid and antioxidants. These benefits could be achieved by including virgin olive oil daily in our diet."

April 9, 2001
WebMD Medical News
Now, New Reasons to Go Greek
-- By Peter Jaret
Researchers are finding more evidence that supports the traditional Mediterranean diet.
Think fish, olive oil, fruits, and vegetables.

Glittering beaches, hillsides stitched with gnarled grape vines, lemon trees glistening in the sun...There are plenty of reasons to envy life in the Mediterranean. And if the warm climate and congenial lifestyle aren't enough, here's another: The traditional Mediterranean diet continues to be the healthiest, as well as one of the most delicious, in the world.

For years, of course, nutritionists have been lauding the Mediterranean diet as a way to lower heart disease risk. Now the latest evidence suggests that it may protect people who already have had a heart attack. In the GISSI-Prevenzione Study, presented at the conference of the American Heart Association in December 2000, Italian scientists followed 11,324 Italians who had suffered heart attacks, keeping track of the amounts of Mediterranean-style foods they ate (vegetables, fruit, fish, and olive oil) as well as their intake of butter, a decidedly non-Mediterranean food. Those who slathered on butter were three times more likely to die within the 42-month study period as those who filled their plates with the four traditional Mediterranean foods.

Why? Researchers are still tallying up the virtues that make the Mediterranean diet so beneficial. Dozens of studies have shown that replacing the saturated fat in butter with the monounsaturated form found in olive oil (as well as canola and peanut oil) improves the ratio of good cholesterol (high density lipoprotein, or HDL) to bad cholesterol (low density lipoprotein, or LDL). That, in turn, can help keep blood vessels unclogged with the waxy substance.

A cornucopia of health benefits Other new findings suggest that the Mediterranean diet also may protect against heart disease by preventing LDL cholesterol in the blood stream from becoming oxidized--a process that damages the lining of blood vessels. In a study published in the Sept. 30, 2000, issue of Medicina Clinica, Spanish researchers put 41 healthy male volunteers on three consecutive four-week diets. The first month their menu was high in saturated fat. The second month they ate a diet low in both saturated and total fat. The third month their diet followed the Mediterranean model -- high in monounsaturated fat. Analyzing blood samples, the scientists found that the Mediterranean diet significantly reduced the oxidation of LDL particles.

Over time, that reduction could go a long way toward protecting blood vessels from the kind of damage that leads to heart disease. There's more to commend the Mediterranean diet. Two essential ingredients -- olive oil and onions -- have been shown to lower blood pressure, which would further decrease heart disease danger.

In a study published in February 2001 in the German journal Arzneitmittelforschung, researchers compared the effect of capsules containing macerated onion and olive oil with placebo pills. In the 24 volunteers, all of whom suffered from high blood pressure, the blood pressure significantly declined after a week on the onion-olive oil pills.

Eating like a Cretan For researchers studying the Mediterranean diet--and for those of us who would like to follow its healthy principles--there's only one problem amid all this good news: There is no single Mediterranean menu. The cuisines in this region of the world include everything from North African couscous and Greek spanikopita to pasta con tono served up in an Italian osteria. The menu isn't the only thing that varies. Heart disease risk is also very different in different parts of the Mediterranean. In the famous Seven Countries study, the risk of dying of heart disease was more than twice as high among Italians as it was among the people of Crete. The inhabitants of that tiny Greek island, in fact, had the lowest risk of heart disease--and lowest death rates--found almost anywhere in the world. If you want to choose the healthiest diet, in other words, eat like a Cretan.

Fortunately, a new study by Greek scientists, published in the December 2000 Journal of the American Dietetic Association, makes that easier. The researchers have reconstructed a seven-day meal plan showing what the typical Cretan would have consumed in the 1960s, when the Seven Countries study was done. They've also compared it to what the typical teenagers of Crete are eating today. The differences are telling. For a midmorning snack, the traditional inhabitants helped themselves to pears or melons. Today's youngsters are guzzling chocolate milk, cookies, and carbonated drinks. For dinner, the residents of old Crete ate rice with spinach, yogurt, whole-wheat bread, stuffed tomatoes, lentils, and salad. Members of the new generation, adopting Western habits, are helping themselves to pizza, cola, hamburgers, and French fries.

It's no surprise that obesity is becoming a growing problem in Greece, researchers say--or that many epidemiologists expect to see an increase in heart disease risk. That's discouraging, of course. But there's also good news. The basic principles of the traditional Mediterranean diet turn out to be simple and adaptable to almost any cuisine.

Here are six simple ways to follow the heart-healthy example of those lucky inhabitants of sun-drenched Crete:

· Eat at least one piece of fruit for breakfast or your midmorning snack..

· Choose lunches and dinners that are loaded with vegetables, especially beans, lentils, and leafy greens like spinach, arugula, and kale.

· Snack on fresh fruit, dried fruit, or nuts.

· Go very easy on meat (it shows up only as a very special treat on the traditional Cretan menu). Help yourself to fish.

· Replace butter with olive oil or canola oil.

Not sure how to put it all together? There are dozens of terrific Mediterranean cookbooks that can help you turn those principles into some of the most delicious dishes the world has to offer. Not many of us are lucky enough to live like Mediterraneans. But at least we can learn to eat like them. Peter Jaret is a freelance writer in Petaluma, Calif., who has written for Health, Hippocrates, and many other national publications.

January 25, 2001
Reuters
Olive Oil, Cancer Killer
L O N D O N, Jan. 25th, Spanish scientists added further weight to the growing body of evidence about the benefits of olive oil today with new research showing it may help to prevent colon cancer.

Researchers at University Hospital Germans Trias Pujol in Barcelona compared the benefits of olive oil, a staple of the Mediterranean diet, with safflower and fish oil on rats to determine if the type, and not just the amount, of fat in the diet had an impact on tumor growth.

Prevents Cancer in Rats "This study provides evidence that a five percent fat diet containing olive oil as compared with a five percent safflower oil diet prevents colonic carcinogenesis in rats, as occurs with five percent fish oil diets," Professor Miguel Gassul and his colleagues reported in the journal Gut.

The researchers divided 100 rats into three groups and fed them a diet rich in olive, safflower or fish oil. Each group was divided into two and half of the animals received a cancer-causing agent. Nineteen weeks after the start of the experiment, the researchers examined the animals for early signs of cancer. They found that the rats on the olive oil diet had less precancerous tissue and fewer tumors than the animals fed the other oils.

Gassull and his team said both the olive and fish oil diets reduced the amount of a chemical called arachidonate, which when combined with a substance called prostaglandin E can promote cancer. The researchers believe constituents of olive oil such as flavonoids, squalene and polyphenols may help to protect against cancer. Flavonoids and polyphenols are antioxidants which help prevent cell damage from oxygen-containing chemicals called free radicals. The scientists called for further studies to substantiate their findings.

September 19, 2000 ....
Report: Olive Oil May Prevent Colon Cancer
Tuesday, September 19, 2000

By Patricia Reaney

REUTERS

LONDON — British doctors added olive oil on Tuesday to the list of foods that may help to prevent colon cancer.

A new study by researchers at the University of Oxford adds to the growing body of evidence that shows olive oil, a staple of the Mediterranean diet, is as good as fresh fruit and vegetables in keeping colon cancer at bay. Dr Michael Goldacre and a team of researchers at the Institute of Health Sciences compared cancer rates, diets and olive oil consumption in 28 countries including Europe, Britain, the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Canada and China.

Countries with a diet high in meat and low in vegetables had the highest rates of the disease and olive oil was associated with a decreased risk. "Olive oil may have a protective effect on the development of colon cancer," Goldacre said in a report in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Meat, fish and olive oil were the key elements of the diets in terms of the cancer. Meat and fish combined were positively associated with the incidence of cancer but olive oil had a negative effect.

The researchers suspect olive oil protects against bowel cancer by influencing the metabolism of the gut. They think it cuts the amount of a substance called deoxycyclic acid and regulates the enzyme diamine oxidase which may be linked to cell division in the bowel. "The olive oil seems to reduce the amount of bile acid and increase the levels of the enzyme thought to beneficially regulate cell turnover in the gut," Goldacre said in a telephone interview. Meat has the opposite effect because it tends to increase the amount of bile acid. Earlier animal studies have shown the benefits of olive oil over safflower and fish oil on pre-cancerous cells and tumour growth.

Japanese scientists also claim that virgin olive oil applied to the skin after sunbathing could protect against skin cancer by slowing tumour growth. Colon cancer is the second most common cancer in many Western countries. It is much more prevalent in the industrialised world than in developing nations in Asia and Africa. The main treatment is surgery to remove the cancerous area of the bowel and chemotherapy if the disease has spread.

March 29, 2000
MS WebMD Medical News
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Reduces Need for Blood Pressure Medication
-- Elizabeth Tracey
People on high blood pressure medications may be able to reduce the amount of medicine they take if they substitute extra-virgin olive oil for other types of fats in their diet, a study in the March 27 issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine reports.

"The most important finding in this study is that the daily use of olive oil, about 40 grams per day, markedly reduces the dosage of [blood pressure medication] by about 50% in hypertensive patients on a previously stable drug dosage," says L. Aldo Ferrara, MD, associate professor of internal medicine at the Frederico II University of Naples in Naples, Italy, and the study's lead author.

Forty grams per day of extra-virgin olive oil amounts to about four tablespoons, Ferrara tells WebMD. That is the amount men in this study consumed, with women consuming about three tablespoons. Each study participant had high blood pressure and was on medicine to control it. Each ate a diet comprised of 17% protein, 57% carbohydrates, 35 grams of fiber, and 26% total fats with 5.8% saturated fats, per day for six months. Participants were assigned to receive the majority of their fats from either extra virgin olive oil or sunflower oil. Then each participant was switched to the other type of oil for an additional six months.

During the 12-month study, regular measurements of blood pressure were taken, and when blood pressure fell, the dose of blood pressure medication was reduced.

"Daily dosage of [blood pressure medication] was reduced by 48% during the olive oil diet and by 4% during the sunflower oil diet," reports Ferrara. "In particular, blood pressure was controlled without any medication in eight patients during the olive oil diet but none during the sunflower oil diet.

Ferrara explains that only extra-virgin olive oil contains antioxidants called "polyphenols," which he and his fellow researchers think may be responsible for the drop in blood pressure seen in this study. Polyphenols are completely absent from sunflower oil, according to Ferrara and colleagues.

Alice Lichtenstein, DSc, professor of nutrition at the Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, reviewed the study for WebMD. "This is an interesting finding, but there are lots of interesting findings," she tells WebMD. "I'm not aware of a relationship between polyphenols and [high blood pressure], and from a public health perspective I'm not sure it has much utility. I just saw a study recently where a diet containing 600 calories of chocolate a day had health benefits the authors are also attributing to the polyphenols in chocolate. But does this mean we should all be consuming 600 calories a day of chocolate or 40 grams a day of extra-virgin olive oil? This study needs to be followed up, and I hope that no one reduces their [blood pressure] medicines and starts consuming extra-virgin olive oil based on this one study."

Lichtenstein also cautions that not all extra-virgin olive oils are the same, and that more complete characterization of exactly what is in each brand of oil also needs to be done before its health benefits can be assured.

Patricia Darragh, a spokeswoman for the California Olive Oil Council, says council members have heard anecdotal reports of a beneficial effect of olive oil on blood pressure. "I believe there are studies underway, but we're not including this in our educational materials yet," she tells WebMD. "We do support the findings of an American Heart Association study comparing rates of cardiovascular disease and types of fats consumed around the world suggesting that consumption of olive oil has clear health benefits. Olive oil still has calories, of course, so substitution for other types of fats is necessary."

Vital Information: Patients with high blood pressure who substitute extra-virgin olive oil in their diets for other types of fat can reduce the amount of medication they need by half, according to a new study. Researchers suspect that substances in extra-virgin olive oil known as antioxidant polyphenols are responsible for the reduction of blood pressure in these patients. One expert cautions that these results need to be followed up with more research before advising patients to consume 40 grams per day of extra-virgin olive oil.

January 13, 1999
San Francisco Chronicle, Food Section
The 'Noses' Know About California's Olive Oil
-- Janet Fletcher, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sense of smell. Now the California olive oil industry has noses too. In November, two dozen people passed a rigorous sensory test to become the first official evaluation panel for the fledgling California Olive Oil Council, a private group of growers and producers.

These supersmellers will pass judgement on the oils submitted to the council for evaluation, awarding seals to those that meet the international standards for extra virgin olive oil. Panelists say the program will promote equality among California's olive oil producers and bring the oils international respect.

Not a moment too soon, says Paul Vossen, the University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Sonoma County. Vossen had been working for several years with olive growers and oil marketers in his county, most of them newcomers to this adolescent industry. All saw a niche for high-quality oil from California, but few knew how to produce it.

"Some (oils) were quite awful, to be honest with you," admits Vossen, who spent a 1996 sabbatical in Spain and Italy looking for guidance. "We were going to get an industry started off on the wrong foot. Producers couldn't identify rancidity or any of the other common defects. So I said, "Let's learn what these defects are and learn how to make oils that conform to international standards."

Two years ago, Vossen organized a three day class at the University of California at Davis to begin educating growers, marketers, retailers and others about oil quality. A professional taster from the International Olive Oil Council in Madrid taught the 35 attendees how to recognize defects, which is the focus of professional oil tasting. So many people were turned away that Vossen organized a second class a year later, hoping he might find, among the two groups, enough great palates to form a professional tasting panel.

Last September, Vossen and Roberto Zecca, who owns Frantoio restaurant in Mill Valley, went to Greece to be trained by the council as tasting panel supervisors. In October, they invited the previous class participants to three practice sessions, a sort of cram course for a final tasting exam. The participants practiced how to discern, by smell alone, the four dreaded defects in olive oil: rancidity, mustiness, fustiness, (think dirty gym socks) and a vinegary or winy aroma that results from an undesired fermentation.

But as the sniffers learned, it's not enough to find the defect. They also must evaluate its intensity. In the final exam, modeled after the council's technical tastings, tasters faced three flights of 11 oils each.

In each flight, one oil had no defects but the other 10 had the same flaw, and they were lined up in order of the flaw's intensity. The challenge? To put a 12th sample in its proper place in the lineup.

. . .[Thomas] Oden [a chef at Jordan Winery in Healdsburg] and his co-chef, Franco Dunn, were among the 12 top scorers, earning them a place on the California Olive Oil Council panel. . . "I think people who cook for a living have an advantage", Oden says, "because we spend so much time and energy trying to make focused perceptions. Does this need more salt, more garlic? Is this satisfactory, or is it lacking something?". . .

. . .the panelists [began] meeting regularly to certify California oils and to continue their training. Vossen's goal is to have the tasters recognized by the International Olive Oil Council as an official international panel. . . . . . Now, Vossen says, consumers can have more confidence in the COOC seal. Although producers don't have to submit their oils and no federal or state laws define "extra virgin". COOC-certified oils will meet IOOC standards for that term: They will have less than 1 percent acidity, no defects and some positive attributes such as pungency and fruitiness. . .

Research Study Shows Positive Effects of Olive Oil on Hypertension

People on high blood pressure medications may be able to reduce the amount of medicine they take if they substitute extra virgin olive oil for other types of fats in their diet, a study in the March 27, 2000 issue of the journal, Archives of Internal Medicine, reports. "The most important finding in this study is that the daily use of olive oil, about 40 grams per day, markedly reduces the dosage of (blood pressure medication) by about 50% in patients on a previously stable drug dosage" says L. Aldo Ferrara, M.D., Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the Frederico II University of Naples in Naples, Italy and the study's author.

During the 12 month study, "daily dosages of blood pressure medication was reduced by 48 % during the olive oil diet and by 4% during the sunflower oil diet" reports Ferrara. Ferrara explains that only extra virgin olive oil contains antioxidants called "polyphenols", which he and his fellow researchers think may be responsible for the drop in blood pressure seen in this study. Polyphenols are completely absent from sunflower oil, according to Ferrara and his colleagues. Continued research in this area is expected.

Health Benefits of Olive Oil

For centuries, olive oil has been used to maintain the suppleness of skin and muscle, to heal abrasions, to give body and sheen to hair and soothe the drying effects of sun and wind. Additionally, olive oil has been utilized in folk remedies for an array of uses; strengthening weak nails, aiding in digestion, curing the effects of alcohol consumption, relieving aching muscles, lowering blood pressure and many other uses.

Recently, research has provided proof that a Mediterranean style diet, including olive oil, is a healthy diet and that olive oil may reduce cholesterol levels. The American Heart Association found that in researching the modern day diet that Greece and especially the island of Crete had the lowest mortality rate due to cardio-vascular illness. Finland and the United States had the highest mortality rate. The only notable difference between the countries was the type of fat ingested. In countries with high incidents of cardio-vascular disease, saturated fats were most often consumed. Saturated fats are high in cholesterol. Monounsaturates, on the other hand, contain no cholesterol.

Fats and lipids are essential to a well balanced diet. They divide into saturates and unsaturates depending on whether they have simple or double bonds between their carbon groups. Fatty acids that have one double are monounsaturates. Polyunsaturates have several double bonds. Olive oil contains unsaturated fatty acids. Oleic acid and linoleic acid are two unsaturated fatty acids. Olive oil is 80% oleic acid, placing it at the top of the list of monounsaturated fats. Saturated fatty acids are found in animal fats such as butter and lard.

There are 2 types of cholesterol; low density (LDL) and high density (HDL). LDL's transport and deposit cholesterol in the tissues and arteries. LDL levels increase with a high intake of saturated fatty acids and is harmful. HDL eliminates cholesterol from the cells and carries it into the liver where it is passed through the bile ducts. While polyunsaturates reduce both the LDL and HDL, monounsaturates reduce LDL while increasing HDL. HDL is often referred to as the " good cholesterol". An increase in the levels of HDL will not only provide protection against cholesterol deposits, but it will actually reduce cholesterol levels in the body. Research has proved that using olive oil significantly increases HDL levels and that olive oil is the main source of monounsaturated fatty acids.