Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Looking for the Perfect Food for Taste and Health

ROME, December 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Olive Oil - The Good Fast Has Arrived 

"Looking for the Perfect Food" is the theme at the heart of "Olive Oil, European High Quality", a project promoted by the European Union and Italy and carried out by Unaprol, the largest association of Italian olive oil producers. The aim is to increase awareness of controlled and guaranteed European olive production, which, thanks to the special territorial and environmental conditions prevailing in the Mediterranean, offers exceptional nutritional and organoleptic characteristics. Tasty, healthy, suitable for cooking and as a raw dressing, it can be used as an ingredient for beauty products and is sustainable from an environmental point of view. This is high quality European olive oil: a multi-tasking food, perfectly suited to modern times. The Phoenicians used to call it liquid gold, and recent research has highlighted its nutraceutical properties, providing, that is, important benefits for health.

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A study conducted for Unaprol by the Ixè research institute shows a basic knowledge of extra virgin olive oil is almost universal among European consumers (94% of the sample). But only 64% of interviewees were aware of the typological variations resulting from the different areas of production and their influence on quality. The figure is lower when it comes to use: only 42% of consumers use the product frequently. It is used mainly as a dressing for raw and cooked vegetables (87%), meat, fish, pasta or rice (67%), for cooking and frying (43%), and for preparing desserts, biscuits, bread (17%).

Drops of good health - The multi-tasking character of extra virgin olive oil emerges from an analysis of its health properties, which have been demonstrated by numerous scientific studies. That's down to the mix of 230 different substances that it contains, their presence preserved by the use of exclusively mechanical extractive techniques, carried out at low temperatures. New information about the fundamental health benefits of these substances emerges every day. For a start, they protect the arteries by helping to maintain normal levels of cholesterol in the blood. Olive oil is a rich source of antioxidants, including vitamin E, tocopherol and various phenolic compounds. These are all molecules that protect our bodies against premature ageing by combatting free radicals. A completely natural fount of well-being always at our disposal that can be incorporated in a balanced way into a correct regime of daily nutrition.

Returning to the Ixè study, 20% of world consumers buy extra virgin olive oil for aesthetic and curative purposes, with particular interest from Asia. Thanks to its vitamin content, olive oil is perfect for skin treatments, as its nutrient properties favour cell regeneration, increase elasticity and heal blemishes.

SOURCE Grapho s.r.l.