Olive Oil : The Inside Story
Virgin olive oil is one of the few man
made products that have remained uniquely unchanged
through the centuries: The technique has existed with
out rectification for over 6.000 years.
Virgin olive oil has
particular qualities in comparison to all vegetal oils
and animal fats as it is extracted from the fruit rather
than the seed.
It seems that the origin of olive
oil can be traced back to Armenia and Turkestan, before
reaching the Mediterranean area. Remains of olive-presses
have been discovered in Palestine, dating back to 4.000
BC.
Olive trees are cultivated throughout
the island of Crete in 2.500 b.C. where an ancient ware
house has been discovered containing eight hundred thousand
liters of oil. This oil would have been used as a reserve
against famine years or readiness for export.
For Greeks, olive oil was sacred,
and to this day it is still forbidden to uproot olive
trees. Due to the mild climate there are trees in Greece
that are hundreds of years old. In Greece olive oil
is the basic ingredient for cooking and is used today
as it has been for thousand of years.
Romans discovered olive oil during
their conquest, and it quickly became an irreplaceable
ingredient in the dishes. Ippocrate, was one of the
first recorded people to realize and promote the health
giving properties of olive oil, and it is Plinio who
said "olive oil and wine are two liquids good for the
human body".During the middle Ages the largest producers
of olive oil were the monasteries, and fortress-farms
in Tuscany.
But by the 12th century, an important
change came about in agriculture. Isolated farms came
together in villages protected by walls. These urban
centers created a social and economic revolution that
created a desire to eat better and thus coincide with
a rise in the demand for olive oil.
The 16th and 17th centuries
in Italy were a time of wars and disorders, this bought
about a crisis in olive oil production. Olive trees
remained under cultivation only with in the Tuscan region.
It is during the 18th century that
we see a considerable increase in the demand for and
production of olive oil. During this period Italian
olive oil was internationally recognized as the finest
available and was exported to England, Belgium, France,
Russia and Germany.
During the 19th century, considering
the continuous increase in the market, olive groves
appeared up and down the coasts and over most of the
hills of central and southern Italy. By the end of the
century, out of 97 provinces of Italy, 67 were cultivating
olive trees.
By 1950's a wave of thought spread
through the western world contesting the health giving
properties of olive oil, despite its connotations as
peasant food.
In United States, in the 1960's a
study conducted by Ancel Keys statistically proved that
poorer persons in the Mediterranean area were not affected
by cardiovascular disease.
During a visit in Greece and Italy,
Ancel Keys, noticed that considering the high consumption
of fat (mainly olive oil) the rate of cholesterol and
cardiovascular disease is very low.
The Mediterranean diet began to gain
popularity and olive oil sales and production have been
increasing ever since.
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