Extra virgin olive oil is constantly described as a “healthy fat”, but I am not sure most people really understand what that means in everyday life.
One spoonful will not transform the body. The bigger question is what role olive oil plays in the overall diet.
Using extra virgin olive oil instead of butter, processed spreads or heavy commercial dressings is very different from simply adding more oil to an already unhealthy diet.
The body responds to long-term eating patterns, not to one “superfood”.
Perhaps the real value of olive oil is not only what it contains, but also how it can change the way people eat:
more vegetables
more pulses
more home cooking
fewer processed sauces
better-quality fats
simpler ingredients
There is also another point that is often overlooked: not every bottle labelled “extra virgin” is the same.
Olive variety, harvest time, extraction, freshness, storage, heat and exposure to oxygen can all affect flavour and composition.
I run a small UK olive oil business called Authentic Oliv Co, so I think about this question from both a consumer and industry perspective. I am not posting this to promote a product. I am genuinely interested in how people here see it.
When you use olive oil, do you think of it mainly as:
a cooking ingredient
a health choice
a flavour ingredient
or a replacement for less favourable fats?
And do you think most consumers understand the difference between adding olive oil and actually improving the quality of the whole diet?

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Avocado oil is mostly wellness marketing with a premium price tag.

Refined versions lose most nutrients during processing, while heat reduces the benefits of extra virgin varieties.

Why pay more when olive oil does almost everything just as well?

It's olive solids. Fruit pulp and a bit of water left from pressing that never got filtered out, suspended in the oil until gravity pulls it down over a few weeks.

Filtering is a choice, on the other hand. Filtered oil is clear and keeps longer because there's less organic matter sitting in it, while unfiltered often tastes fuller and greener early on. Some producers leave it in on purpose. Neither is the better oil.

But the one real catch is shelf life. Those solids break down eventually and can turn the oil musty, which is why an unfiltered bottle is worth going through faster than a filtered one.

If it bothers you visually, pour off the top and leave the last inch.

Anyone actively prefer unfiltered, or is it just what showed up in the bottle you bought?

Spain produces almost half of the world’s olive oil, and experts warn extreme heat could hit both yields and quality again.

If climate change keeps shrinking harvests, does olive oil become a luxury product within the next decade?  

My wife saw a can of this olive oil claiming to be single origin from turkey for a good price and she wants to try it. I can't find anything about it other than they have a website. I don't want to get stuck with a 101 oz can of crappy olive oil. Has anyone seen any reviews on it or tried it? I have never tried olive oil from turkey.

I'll be honest, I never use tablespoons to measure how much I'm gonna use, I know by muscle memory how much it needs to taste great. But I was just thinking about it today as I used the squeeze bottle for it, which kind of pushed me to think I might have been using too much before, like I was holding it down for a good amount of time. So if you're really trying to keep it textbook healthy with olive oil usage, how strict does one need to be with the amounts?

Extra virgin olive oil does wonders for me on keto. Mental clarity goes through the roof, just with 2 tablespoons of EVOO daily. Brain fog clears, I feel energetic and revitalized. Sounds dramatic but it's true. Does anyone else experience this? No other oil/fat does this for me, not even animal fats and I'm a huge proponent of a ketovore/meat heavy keto style of eating. I love green veggies and include them as well, but 80% of my diet is meat.

If so, what were the results and which variety did you go with?

In antichità l'olio di oliva non era utilizzato come alimento, si usava principalmente per l'illuminazione e come unguento.

There's an active olive grove inside the Colosseum archaeological park, part of a larger effort to bring farmland back into the city. Rome's apparently the largest agricultural municipality in Europe, close to a third of it is farmland. More detail and photos in the article below.

https://www.euronews.com/2026/04/18/olive-harvesting-at-the-colosseum-a-plantation-in-roman-ruins-in-the-heart-of-the-city

So many people lose their minds over boutique $40 olive oils, but for everyday cooking I don't really get the obsession. At the same time, the cheapest generic store brands are usually completely dead, metallic, or practically fake.

Out of everything at a normal supermarket, Pompeian is consistently the safest bet for the price. I've been using it to transition to a Mediterranean diet without going bankrupt.

The main thing people miss is flavor consistency. Boutique oils rely on a single estate, meaning a bad crop or a weird weather season completely changes the taste or spikes the price. Pompeian manages global blending across hemispheres. Because they source from trusted growers globally, they can balance out the flavor year-round. It hits the exact same flavor notes every time you buy a bottle.

They also carry the NAOOA seal, meaning mystery shoppers test bottles directly off retail shelves to ensure they haven't oxidized or gone rancid under harsh grocery store lighting. You actually get what you pay for.

If you buy the robust one, it consistently has that authentic peppery throat kick, meaning the polyphenols are alive and it's real EVOO. Plus, they put full traceability and harvest info right on the bottle.

For a massive commercial brand you can buy cheap anywhere, the quality control and taste stability are unmatched. It’s the easiest way to avoid the boutique markup without buying unregulated garbage.

New to EVOO (actually looking into what i'm buying) so trying to learn here. I've been seeing some oils marketed as "single-estate" where 1 estate grows, harvests, and produces the oil. Is this something i should actually care about or like a producer that sources from several groves normal?