Olive oil: composition and health benefits

The production of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) in Spain is very high, it reached 1 million tonnes in the last olive oil campaign, with over two million hectares planted with olive trees. This crop is distributed in over six different bioclimatic zones and with more than 100 cultivars, many of them native from a pomological point of view. Among the olive areas of Spain, Andalusia, Extremadura, Catalonia and Valencia stand out, next to the Central Region (Castilla-La Mancha). Each one of them is respectively dominated by Picual, Manzanilla, Arbequina and Farga cultivars alongside Cornicabra, all highly diversified. In response to this diversification of olive groves in Spain, we have studied the composition of the majority of oils of the main five olive areas, both in their saponifiable composition in fatty acids and their unsaponifiable fraction, tocopherols and polyphenols among them. The characteristics of many of these oils with a high content of oleic acid and antioxidants, make them very suitable as nutrients and healthy products. They also prevent cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and especially diabetes and other diseases that show a significant increase among the population, and more specifically, in child population. EVOO consumption is considered to be very suitable both in the prenatal period and in childhood, and there are Spanish oils that are especially convenient for these life stages because of their balance, softness and very pleasant aromas. The current use of EVOOs in food is a very suitable requirement in the face of an increase in nutrition-related diseases, since we really are what we eat and how we eat it, therefore its use is advisable both in hospital diets and catering, and domestically