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What olive oil is recommended?
Olives have quite a lot of beta-carotene and some of it ends up in the oil. Seems like the olive oil can have from around 800 iu/liter to over 6000 iu/litre, probably depending on cultivar and climate conditions and such, according to this study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5409313/
I had to go through a few hoops to convert the ppm to a iu/liter metric so it's possible that i calculated it incorrectly but the numbers seem fairly reasonable to me as according to regular nutritional readings olives have about 400 iu/100g. I didn't count the lutein, which it also has.
All of the oil in that study was extra virgin olive oil, is that not recommended? What olive oil is recommended? Do cheaper oils have less carotenoids? Why if that's the case? Are carotenoids destroyed with heat or other processing techniques? What breakdown products are produced?
My guess would be to go with refined/light colored ones.
If I’m reading the numbers correctly in that study, it looks like the maximum was about 26 parts per million of total carotenoid content, at least of the ones they tested for. 1 ppm = 1 mg per 1000 mL. Since a teaspoon has roughly 5 mL, a teaspoon of olive oil shouldn’t have more than 0.005 mg, or 5 micrograms of carotenoid content, and that seems to be worst case for evoo.
Please correct my math if I made any errors. I don’t do these types of conversions often, and did these on my phone with no paper, so very well may have made a mistake.
Quote from Guest on December 15, 2018, 7:32 amIf I’m reading the numbers correctly in that study, it looks like the maximum was about 26 parts per million of total carotenoid content, at least of the ones they tested for. 1 ppm = 1 mg per 1000 mL. Since a teaspoon has roughly 5 mL, a teaspoon of olive oil shouldn’t have more than 0.005 mg, or 5 micrograms of carotenoid content, and that seems to be worst case for evoo.
Please correct my math if I made any errors. I don’t do these types of conversions often, and did these on my phone with no paper, so very well may have made a mistake.
4.23 ppm with a solute density of 0.93 g/cm3 gives me almost 4 mg/l equals 4000µg/l which is about 6600 iu/l -> 660 iu/100ml -> about 33 iu per teaspoon
Those calculations are beyond my comprehension, but I’ll take your word for it. According to https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/articles/units/convert-ui-to-mcg.php
- Vitamin A: 1 IU is the biological equivalent of 0.3 mcg retinol, or of 0.6 mcg beta-carotene
33 iu = 33 x 0.6 = 19.8 micrograms. That’s still pretty low, and that is the worst of the evoo. Most, and refined especially are probably much lower.
Quote from Guest on December 15, 2018, 4:18 pmThose calculations are beyond my comprehension, but I’ll take your word for it. According to https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/articles/units/convert-ui-to-mcg.php
- Vitamin A: 1 IU is the biological equivalent of 0.3 mcg retinol, or of 0.6 mcg beta-carotene
33 iu = 33 x 0.6 = 19.8 micrograms. That’s still pretty low, and that is the worst of the evoo. Most, and refined especially are probably much lower.
it's not a ton but it's definitely significant. Especially when it's so concentrated. There has to be a better source of fat. I would love to see an analysis of a more processed and "lower" grade olive oil.
Antonella de Leonardis - Virgin olive oil : production, composition, uses and benefits for man - 2014 - pg. 10:
"The concentrations of carotenoid pigments decrease very markedly during ripening, as reported by Baccouri et al., with values coming down from 11.33 to 1.23 mg/kg of oil. The concentrations observed by Salvador et al. for commercial virgin olive oils varied between 2.3 and 14.0 mg/kg. Torres and Maestri reported a range of values of 1.55 – 3.61 mg/kg while Manai-Djebali et al. found values varying between 1.07 and 3.82 mg/kg and Arslan and Schreiner reported values in the interval 5.3 – 12.6 mg/kg.
Olive fruits are green at first but as ripening process they darken to purple-black at the same time as the oil content increases. As ripening progresses, photosynthetic activity decreases and the concentrations of both chlorophylls and carotenoids decrease progressively. At full ripening stage, the violet or purple color of the olive fruit is due to the formation of anthocyanins.......pigments are also involved in autoxidation and photooxidation mechanisms. Studies have demonstrated that chlorophylls act as prooxidants under light storage, whereas beta-carotene minimizes lipid oxidation due to its light-filtering effect."
Olive oil has Vitamins E & K polyphenols which I think would balance the small amount of carotenoids. Liquid coconut oil (mct oil) would be another option to try.
I am wondering again about the content of VA in olive oil. All databases say it's 0 or so. I usually react bad to it.
However, my database indicates that whole olives contain 231 mcg of beta-carotene and 20 mcg of retinol per 100g:
https://fitaudit.ru/food/114034
And here is 510 mcg of lutein in addition:
https://www.traditionaloven.com/foods/specific-nutrient/fruits-juice/olives-pickled-can-or-bottle-green/lutein-zeaxanthin.html
Suppose olive oil contains as many carotenoids as are contained in a similar amount of olives (logically it should be more, because to get 100 grams of olive oil, you need a lot of olives, and VA is fat-soluble).
So it looks like olive oil contains 700+ mcg of carotenoids per 100g, which makes it a product with a fairly high VA content. This is similar to butter, which no one eats here.
If I'm missing something, please point out the mistake to me.
Mature olives are indicated not much less, 204 mcg of beta-carotene and 17 mcg of retinol:
https//fitaudit.ru/food/114031
Here is also quite lot:
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169094/nutrients