Kalamata Olives — Revered for Centuries
Health Heroes of the MED Diet and What that Means to You.
Guest Writer: Nick Sakellaropoulos
Chemical Engineer M.Sc.
Production Manager
Sakellaropoulos Organic Farms
The Mediterranean Diet, followed in Greece for centuries, is a modern object of study and analysis. Its main ingredients are olive oil and table olives. It is now characterized as a diet with an extremely positive effect on human health. (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 60 (29): 7081–95).
Mediterranean populations appear to have low rates of chronic degenerative diseases, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and highly improved cognitive function, as confirmed by a large number of tests and epidemiological studies (Molecules 2019, 24 (10), 2001).
Consumption of extra virgin olive oil and table olives, key ingredients of the Mediterranean diet, offers significant benefits to human health. Their positive effect, based on modern research studies, is attributed mainly to polyphenols, and more specifically to phenols such as hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol and their derivatives.
“Tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol are two characteristic phenolic compounds present in olives and olive oil as free or…
