Health & Fitness

 

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Important points about this video: Dr. Suzanne Humphries recorded this lecture over five years ago, and I believe there has been a consensus shift in our understanding of antioxidant benefits since then. At the time this lecture was recorded, it wasn't widely appreciated that a certain level of free radicals is necessary to achieve optimal health.

Free radicals, like nitric oxide and hydrogen peroxide, are important biological signaling molecules, and if you indiscriminately suppress them with high doses of antioxidants, you run the risk of unintentionally sabotaging your health. That is why I am not a fan of taking daily vitamin C doses, seeking instead to obtain it from whole food sources, as Humphries mentions as one option.

If you are going to use an antioxidant, in my opinion, it is far better to use a selective one like molecular hydrogen tablets, because if your body is not under excessive oxidative stress it does nothing. But if you are under stress, it will cause your body to make its own cocktail of powerful antioxidants like glutathione, super oxide dismutase, catalase and many others, in the ideal ratio by stimulating the Nrf2 pathway.

However, what hasn't changed, and has become even more clear, is that using high doses of vitamin C can be highly beneficial and frequently lifesaving in acute infections. But here vitamin C is not acting like a nutrient; it is acting more like a natural drug with virtually no side effects. This is discussed in more detail below.

Humphries has since shifted her primary focus to vaccines. Interestingly, one of the vaccines that nearly everyone is concerned about getting is tetanus. She reviews protocols in this lecture that suggest using vitamin C as a drug at high doses can virtually eliminate the risk of death from tetanus. This is discussed later in this article as well.

Last year I was able to spend some quality time with Humphries at the home of Polly Tommey outside of Austin where the Vaxxed bus was parked, which Humphries was actually living in at the time.

Humphries' Vitamin C Lecture

Unfortunately, much of the history of vitamin C as a medical treatment has been overlooked and neglected in more recent years. The featured lecture by Humphries,¹ given at the Swedish Society for Orthomolecular Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2014, summarizes the most important benefits of vitamin C in mammals, including humans. As noted by Humphries in an accompanying article:²

"Vitamin C is one of the safest medical wonders on the planet. Cumulative vitamin C information has been published in medical literature since the 1940's.

Despite the evidence of the molecule as life-promoting, therapeutic, and very safe even in high doses, vitamin C as therapy in high doses has been admonished by many medical entities. The dogma that only 75-90 mg of ascorbate per day is required by any human, is totally incorrect.

Conventional medical doctors are not taught about the mechanisms of action and benefits of vitamin C in medical school. If they knew about it, then not only would a raft of other drugs become unnecessary, but there would not be much serious whooping cough.

Vitamins A and C would render measles much easier to treat. If doctors used ascorbate regularly, meningococcal complications would plummet, and the coagulopathy issues would be rare.

Then, the ACIP wouldn't be able to use meningococcal complications and deaths to get people to vaccinate, because the general public wouldn't be so terrified of those infections causing morbidity and mortality …

Without vitamin C, the immune system is paralyzed and unable to regenerate the ability to dissolve disease-causing elements in the body. Vitamin C is also paramount in combating toxin-mediated diseases such as whooping cough and tetanus."

Myths About Vitamin C

Humphries begins her lecture by debunking a series of myths and untruths about vitamin C, including the following:

• Your body achieves vitamin C saturation at doses of 150 milligrams (mg) per day and doses above 1,000 mg are dangerous
• There's no scientific support for use of high-dose vitamin C; even when ill, you can get sufficient amounts from food
• Diarrhea from ascorbate is dangerous

While some mammals can make vitamin C internally, the gene that codes for that conversion in humans does not work. Thus, we have to get it from our diet. By looking at the vitamin C requirements of other mammals that cannot make vitamin C, Humphries believes we can get a decent estimation of human requirements.

For example, gorillas eat about 30 mg of ascorbic acid per kilo per day, and guinea pigs require 33 mg/kg/day. Interestingly, when healthy, a goat will make 185 mg/kg/day of ascorbic acid, but when stressed or ill, they can make as much as 1,400 mg/kg/day. This too gives us an indication of the importance of vitamin C during illness, and a clue about the increase in requirement.

Meanwhile, humans are told we need just 75 to 90 mg per day, which amounts to about 1.2 mg/kg/day. If we work anything like other mammals, this recommendation is likely to vastly underestimate our vitamin C requirement.

Smokers are told to add 35 mg of vitamin C per day, yet, according to Humphries, a single cigarette uses up 25 mg of ascorbic acid. If you smoke 10 to 20 cigarettes a day, you're clearly dipping deep into your vitamin C reserves.

Humphries also notes that the way the recommended daily allowance (RDA) was derived was seriously flawed. Not only did they only look at a very small group of healthy individuals, they also analyzed the wrong cell types. What's more, the RDA is for the prevention of scurvy, and that is not the same as supporting optimal health.

Indeed, Humphries discusses Canadian research showing that patients admitted into the hospital are far more likely to be deficient in vitamin C than nonhospitalized individuals. Based on her research, Humphries believes a healthy vitamin C level is around 120 to 150 micromol per liter, not 28.4 mmol/L, as used in the Canadian study.

Ascorbic Acid Is Not 'Just a Vitamin'

Vitamin C is more than just a vitamin. As explained by Humphries, vitamin C works as an:

• Antioxidant
• Antihistamine
• Enzyme cofactor for collagen, neurotransmitters, hormones and carnitine

Vitamin C is also crucial during pregnancy, as cells cannot divide without vitamin C. It's so important the fetus will deplete the mother unless she has high-enough levels to cover both of them.

Low vitamin C status can also influence the baby's risk of jaundice and brain inflammation, both of which are associated with high bilirubin. However, studies show vitamin C can ameliorate the risks associated with high bilirubin. What's more, the two seem to be connected, Humphries says, as babies with high bilirubin have lower vitamin C levels, and those with low bilirubin have higher vitamin C levels.

Diabetes and heart disease are two conditions that doctors see on a daily basis, and both of these conditions, Humphries says, are associated with low vitamin C levels, and respond favorably to vitamin C supplementation.

Humphries goes on to discuss the importance of vitamin C for the structure and integrity of the body. Contrary to popular belief, it's actually needed for skeletal health, good vision, muscles and tendons, your vascular system and more. Aneurysms, for example, are associated with low vitamin C levels, Humphries says. Ditto for atherosclerosis.

Vitamin C is also used up in the process of knitting collagen fibers together. As illustrated in Humphries' lecture, one molecule of vitamin C is oxidized for each collagen fiber "stitch." As a result, large quantities of vitamin C are used to make collagen, which in turn is essential for tissue integrity and healthy, pain-free joints.

Acute Vitamin C Needs

While your body needs a continuous supply of vitamin C for all the reasons already mentioned, there are instances in which you need far higher doses. Humphries provides the following short-list of conditions for which high-dose vitamin C supplementation is indicated. For more details on each of these, please view Humphries lecture.

Infections and inflammation (vitamin C is antiseptic and antibacterial and can be used both internally and topically)	Sepsis and critical care
Trauma, surgery and burns	Endotoxin processing
Vascular integrity	Allergies
Whooping cough	Vaccine reactions

According to Humphries, the medical literature also supports the use of vitamin C for:

Polio	Acute hepatitis
Viral encephalitis	Acute rheumatic fever
Toxic mushroom poisoning	Ebola and other hemorrhagic diseases
Tuberculosis	Infectious mononucleosis

Vitamin C for Sepsis

This is where I believe most of the value of this presentation lies. This information can actually save your life or the life of someone you love, so you need to pay careful attention.

In her lecture, Humphries specifically details the usefulness of vitamin C in the treatment of sepsis (septicemia or septic shock, also known as blood poisoning). Sepsis³ is a last-ditch effort by your immune system to fight an infection in your body, which can lead to multiple organ failure and death unless promptly treated.⁴

Each year, an estimated 1 million Americans get sepsis^5,6 and up to half of them die as a result.^7,8,9 According to data¹⁰ from two hospital cohorts, 34.7% to 55.9% of American patients who died in hospitals between 2010 and 2012 had sepsis at the time of their death (depending on which inpatient population they were in).

What these numbers tell us is that conventional treatment, which is typically focused on high doses of antibiotics, is often ineffective. The good news is intravenous vitamin C has been shown to dramatically lower mortality in sepsis. The bad news is the number of hospitals that have adopted it is limited.

Humphries' lecture, which took place in 2014, discusses research¹¹ published that year demonstrating the benefit of IV sodium ascorbate in patients with severe sepsis.

The study in question included 24 patients with severe sepsis, who were randomized to receive either "low-dose" IV infusion of vitamin C (50 mg/kg/24 hours) every six hours for four days, a "high-dose" infusion of vitamin C (200 mg/kg/24 hours) or a placebo. As reported by the authors:¹²

"Mean plasma ascorbic acid levels at entry for the entire cohort were 17.9 ± 2.4 μM (normal range 50-70 μM). Ascorbic acid infusion rapidly and significantly increased plasma ascorbic acid levels. No adverse safety events were observed in ascorbic acid-infused patients.

Patients receiving ascorbic acid exhibited prompt reductions in SOFA [sequential organ failure assessment] scores while placebo patients exhibited no such reduction.

Ascorbic acid significantly reduced the proinflammatory biomarkers C-reactive protein and procalcitonin. Unlike placebo patients, thrombomodulin in ascorbic acid infused patients exhibited no significant rise, suggesting attenuation of vascular endothelial injury."

The Marik Sepsis Protocol

Three years later, in 2017, Dr. Paul Marik, chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in East Virginia, published a small retrospective before-after clinical study^13,14,15 showing that giving septic patients an inexpensive vitamin C cocktail for two days reduced mortality from 40% percent to 8.5%.

Marik's treatment includes the addition of thiamine (vitamin B1) and the steroid hydrocortisone,^16,17 which appears to boost the effectiveness of the treatment compared to vitamin C alone. The precise protocol he used was 200 mg of thiamine every 12 hours, 1,500 mg of ascorbic acid every six hours, and 50 mg of hydrocortisone every six hours.¹⁸

Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where Marik works, has since made the protocol its standard of care for sepsis, and others are starting to join in. Unfortunately, many hospitals are still dragging their heels, waiting for more clinical trials to be completed.

This, despite the fact that the treatment is harmless in and of itself, meaning it won't make the patient any worse than he or she already is. A 2018 review¹⁹ of the available research presents a hypothetical model for why and how the Marik protocol actually works, discussing how each of the three components are known to impact the biological processes involved in sepsis.

As noted in that review,²⁰ reception of the treatment has been mixed, with some critical care leaders embracing it while others aren't using it at all. What this means is that your ability to receive this potentially life-saving treatment is dependent on the hospital where you end up.

On the upside, larger studies are underway. One of them is the VICTAS study^21,22 (Vitamin C, Thiamine and Steroids in Sepsis), sponsored by Emory University, which expects to have about 2,000 participants. The projected completion date for this study is October 2021.

If Your Doctor Refuses to Use IV Vitamin C for Sepsis

If your doctor refuses to consider Marik's protocol offhand, convince him or her to review the recent studies cited here that show this protocol works.^{23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32} Simply look up the references in the endnotes (references 23 through 32) and make copies to take to your doctor.

Alternatively, you can go to PubMed³³ directly and type in "vitamin C" and "sepsis" in the search engine and you will get a list of the available research.

These articles are completely free to download. I hope you never need to access them, but if you do, you can print them and use the information to convince your medical team to use these simple life-saving strategies. If they refuse, I would strongly suggest you take control of the situation and find another doctor and/or hospital that will.

All Wounds Should Be Treated With Vitamin C

Another valuable use for vitamin C is in the treatment of tetanus, and since any cut can develop this serious bacterial infection,³⁴ Humphries suggests using vitamin C anytime you have a cut. She cites an interesting study from Bangladesh showing just how life-saving it can be.

They gave 31 children (ages 1 to 12) and 27 adults (ages 13 to 30) with tetanus 1,000 mg of vitamin C per day. Another 31 children and 28 adults did not get vitamin C. In the vitamin C group, all of the children recovered and none died, whereas only eight of the children in the control group recovered, and 74.2% died.

In the adult group, 17 of those who received vitamin C recovered and 37% died. Only nine of those who did not receive vitamin C recovered, and 67.8% died. The reason for the higher mortality rate among adults was likely due to the fact that everyone received 1,000 mg, regardless of bodyweight.

Had the dosage been a mg per kilo dosage, the adults would have received far higher doses, which likely would have brought the death rate much lower, if not eliminated it entirely, as it did among children.

On a side note, Humphries stresses that tetanus vaccination does not eliminate your risk of tetanus. She has many case histories of fully and appropriately vaccinated individuals who have contracted severe cases of tetanus. So, in addition to carefully washing any cut or wound, Humphries strongly recommends using vitamin C on the wound itself and taking it internally right away.

Vitamin C-Rich Foods and Supplement Recommendations

A wide variety of foods are high in vitamin C, including red pepper, parsley, broccoli, kiwi, strawberries, tomato and all citrus fruits. You can get significant amounts of vitamin C from your diet If you eat these foods on a daily basis.

According to Humphries, you can further boost the effects of these foods by combining them with flavonoid-rich foods, as they work synergistically together. Examples include onions, blueberries, green tea, bananas, dark chocolate, sea-buckthorn and gingko biloba.

No amount of food outside of acerola cherries is going to give you the dosages you need when ill, however. Even though you could theoretically juice vitamin C-rich foods, you'd then have to contend with higher sugar content, which competes with vitamin C on the cell. So, when you're ill, your best bet is to use a supplement.

Humphries notes that an often-asked question is whether you can simply use a natural, whole vitamin C, such as camu camu, rose hips or acerola cherries. I have about five acerola (Barbados) cherry trees. I have several trees and can frequently harvest more than a gallon of cherries most months of the year. Each cherry has 80 mg of vitamin C, so I can easily get up to 10 grams on days that I eat the cherries.

If you're healthy, or have only mild illness, you can certainly use these types of whole foods and supplements, and they may even be preferable, but if you want to treat whooping cough, for example, your best bet is to use a synthetic vitamin C, Humphries says. She recommends sodium ascorbate and liposomal vitamin C.

Basic Recommendations for Acute Use

As for dosage, Humphries recommends starting out by assessing your bowel tolerance. Do that by taking 1 to 2 grams (i.e., 1,000 to 2,000 mg) of sodium ascorbate every two hours. Once your stomach starts to rumble or diarrhea sets in, note the total mg you've taken — that's your bowel tolerance — and back off to 50% to 90% of that dosage.

I, however, disagree with this conventional recommendation, as I believe much higher doses are needed. If you use liposomal vitamin C, the bowel tolerance issue disappears and you can take much larger doses of 2 to 4 grams every hour until you're feeling better.

Most people improve within a day or two, especially if treated early in the illness. I strongly believe that liposomal vitamin C is a must for your medicine kit to be pulled out for acute viral illnesses. Ideally, you live a healthy lifestyle with plenty of sleep, low stress and limited to no sugar or processed foods, but this is not always possible and when we stray from this we can get sick. Thank God liposomal vitamin C exists.

Conversely, I am not a proponent of taking liposomal vitamin C every day as the dose is far too high and I believe is unnecessary and potentially problematic. I personally don't take any vitamin C supplements on a daily basis as I have regular access to my fresh acerola berries. If I were to become acutely ill though, I would take 4 grams of liposomal vitamin C every hour.

Additionally, I believe there is some truth to the association of vitamin C and kidney stones, as vitamin C is metabolized to oxalate and can increase urinary oxalate excretion, thus increasing your risk of calcium oxalate stones. But even if you don't get kidney stones, excess oxalates are not good to have and you can review my interview with Sally Norton for more details.

To learn even more about vitamin C and its health benefits, see "Was Linus Pauling Right About Vitamin C's Curative Powers After All?" Additional details can also be found in "Vitamin C May Be a Potent Adjunct to Cancer Treatment."

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If you miss the taste of meat, Impossible Foods invites you to meet their definition of “meat” — their designer burgers made from genetically modified soy containing 110 times more glyphosate (herbicide) than is needed to damage gut bacteria.¹ While you may be tempted to try this newest food fad, don’t believe the hype.

Industrial agricultural practices are among the most unsustainable of modern civilization, but the answer is not to replace farm raised food with those developed in a chemistry lab. Meat substitutes often eat up other resources, including water and fossil fuels.

In 2015 researchers² demonstrated that meat grown in a lab requires more energy than what is required to run traditional concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The long-term answer lies in a transition to sustainable, regenerative, chemical-free farming practices, protecting the environment and providing healthy foods for consumers.

Impossible Foods and its meatless “bleeding burger” were intended to reduce the damaging effects of CAFOs, but the company has instead provided the perfect example of a chemical answer that may create more hazards than it solves. As the number of restaurants and grocers that carry the meatless patties continues to grow, so do questions about long-term safety for human health.

The Impossible Burger Can’t Deliver on Impossible Promises

The promises from Impossible Foods is that the burger provides a vegetable-based, healthy alternative to beef that is safer for the environment. But what the company hides from the public is that these are false promises, designed only to boost expectations from consumers, drive sales and raise profits. In other words, much like the tobacco industry, it’s all smoke and mirrors.

In her interview with Dr. Mark Hyman, Katie Couric questioned the author and columnist about the Impossible Foods claims. He first differentiated meat substitutes from vegetarian-based food products and compared Impossible Burgers to Twinkies, saying:³

“Meat substitutes, like the Impossible Burger or Beyond Meat, are highly processed foods made to replace meat in a meal and are then marketed as plant-based. We should all be eating a more plant-rich diet.

And while these products do contain ingredients that come from plants — usually derivatives of soy, which is used in Impossible Burgers, and in other products, forms of wheat or pea protein — these plants are so processed and refined they are far from a whole plant food. Remember, Twinkies are plant-based. Ideally we should eat whole plant-based foods.”

Organically grown fruits and vegetables provide you with a rich source of vitamins, minerals and essential nutrients to maintain optimal health. However, as Hyman points out, the Impossible Burger does not meet this standard.

Instead, the substitutes are a combination of a “large amount of other processed ingredients, like modified food starch, yeast extract and cultured dextrose just to name a few.”

Hyman reminds us a vegetable burger should reflect the name, made with vegetables and formed into a patty. Instead, Impossible Burgers are made of water, genetically engineered soy protein concentrate, coconut and sunflower oil.

Additionally, they contain 16 other ingredients, some of which are not identifiable as real food. The meat substitute uses technology to mimic taste and texture without the nutrient density found in real food.

Glyphosate a Key Ingredient in Impossible Burgers

The second claim is that the burger is a healthy alternative to conventionally grown beef. On their website they say that a 4-ounce serving has the same amount of protein as beef,⁴ from soy concentrate, the “only commonly consumed plant protein that’s comparable in quality to animal protein.”⁵

When the company answers the question of whether the product is processed,⁶ they say almost everything you choose to eat will be processed, including their burger, which is “processed by mixing carefully selected ingredients, derived from plants or by fermentation, to create something unique and delicious.”

Much of the negative information is conveniently left out. For instance, soybeans are high in omega-6, contributing further to an unbalanced omega-6 to omega-3 ratio and potentially promoting kidney stones in people who are prone to them. Additionally, as discussed below, the soybeans are genetically modified.

Impossible Foods claims their key ingredient is soy leghemoglobin, used to achieve the “bloody” appearance. Before release, the company sought a voluntary generally recognized as safe (GRAS) designation for which they hired and paid a panel to do the evaluation of the ingredient made from genetically engineered yeast.

U.S. Right to Know reporter Stacy Malkan identified three food researchers on the panel who had previously served on the scientific advisory board of tobacco giant Philip Morris. According to the FDA, the research included in the GRAS notification was inadequate and could not establish safety.

Importantly, the assessment of allergic potential was also lacking. As such, the FDA did not give an official blessing; the company withdrew the voluntary notification and moved forward to market the substitute meat.

In addition to the FDA’s acknowledgement that the ingredient did not demonstrate safety or address the potential risk for allergic reactions, the soy used in the patty and to develop the “heme” molecule to create the appearance of blood were genetically engineered (GE) and sprayed with glyphosate. This is the true key ingredient in the patty, linked to cancer by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.^7,8

Third Party Testing Reveals Environmental Truth

An additional claim from Impossible Foods is that the meat substitute is healthier for the environment than beef. They would like their consumers to choose their chemical patties over real meat to save the planet from a CAFO carbon footprint.

When compared to CAFO facilities where animals are often treated inhumanely, where waste damages air and water supplies and where the administration of antibiotics contributes to widespread resistance, they may have something to complain about. However, moving from one broken system to another is never a quality answer.

An analysis by the life cycle assessment company Quantis found the fake meat industry may have reduced the environmental impact between 87% and 96% in the categories the company studied.

This is due to the fact that they were comparing soy-based, fake meat production against another soy-based monoculture agribusiness (CAFOs) creating a large drain on environmental resources. During the same time period, the regenerative farm White Oaks Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, commissioned a similar analysis by Quantis.

They published a 33-page study showing comparisons to the conventional beef production industry. While the manufactured fake meat reduced the carbon footprint up to 96% in some categories, White Oaks Pastures had a net emission in the negative numbers.

Emissions related to producing beef at White Oaks Pastures were lower than the average production of soybeans, the base for the plant-based burgers. Additionally, in the report it was noted that researchers found that emissions at White Oaks Pastures included large negative soil carbon sequestration essential to protecting against air pollution and climate change. Hyman summed up the report with Couric when he said:⁹

“In fact, Quantis — a lifecycle analysis company — studied the Impossible Burger, compared to a regeneratively raised beef burger. The Impossible Burger added 3.5 kg of CO2 to the atmosphere, while the regeneratively raised burger removed 3.5 kg of CO2 from the atmosphere.

That means you would have to eat one grass-fed burger to offset the greenhouse gas emissions produced by one Impossible Burger. High-quality beef like this provides natural sources of heme iron, B vitamins, protein, zinc, and other nutrients that are added as synthetic ingredients to fake burgers.”

Alternative Meat Is Not an Alternative

Impossible Foods insists the soy products in their burgers are central components of their product.¹⁰ In part this may be related to the “heme” molecule used to create the blood-like appearance in the meat substitute burgers.

The GE soy leghemoglobin releases a heme-like protein as it's broken down. Although the company refers to this as “heme,” technically, plants produce a non-heme iron molecule. The difference between the two has to do with how well they are absorbed by the body.

Plant-based non-heme iron is not readily absorbed; this is one reason vegans are at a higher risk for iron deficiency anemia. In addition, leghemoglobin is found in the roots of the soybean plant, but the company has chosen to recreate it using GE yeast, introducing yet another step of genetically altered organisms.

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Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) may improve brain health and decrease your risk of cognitive decline, according to researchers from Temple University in Philadelphia and Sapienza University in Rome. The research was published in November 2019 in the journal Aging Cell.¹

Led by Dr. Domenico Praticò, the team tested the effects of EVOO supplementation in a diet fed to mice that were genetically predisposed to tauopathies, or neurodegenerative disorders. After six months, they noticed improvements in the animals' memory and cognition. As noted in the abstract, their findings:

" ... demonstrate that EVOO directly improves synaptic activity, short‐term plasticity, and memory while decreasing tau neuropathology in the hTau mice. These results strengthen the healthy benefits of EVOO and further support the therapeutic potential of this natural product not only for AD but also for primary tauopathies."

Praticò and the team see promising implications for their research, as quoted in Forbes.² The physician offered this statement in a press release:

"The realization that EVOO can protect the brain against different forms of dementia gives us an opportunity to learn more about the mechanisms through which it acts to support brain health."

Scientists from New York and Texas recently offered similar findings, as described in a December 2019 review article published in the Parisian journal Revue Neurologique.³ Noting studies from the last several decades, the authors cited common threads across various studies, with EVOO as a potential remediation for the types of tauopathies studied by Pratico's team:

"We therefore propose that extra-virgin olive oil is a promising tool for mitigating the effects of adverse vascular factors and may be utilized for potential prevention of late-onset Alzheimer disease."

EVOO Is Also Good for Heart Health

As one of the main components of the Mediterranean diet, EVOO has already earned an impressive health reputation for boosting both brain and heart health, improving the elasticity of blood vessels and decreasing your risk of Alzheimer's disease and age-related memory decline, according to the report.

The benefits of olive oil come from its biologically active compounds. According to Alternative Medicine Review, the key active compounds found in olive oil include oleic acid, phenolic constituents and squalene. Furthermore, the main phenolic chemicals found in olive oil include hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol and oleuropein, all of which demonstrate antioxidant properties.

In 2014, results from the PREDIMED Study were published in BMC Medicine.⁴ Physicians from Spain and the U.S. teamed up to investigate the effects of various types of olive oil on cardiovascular disease and mortality. A group of 7,216 participants, ages 55 to 80, who had high cardiovascular risk were included in the clinical trial.

They were randomized into one of three groups: Members of the first group ate a Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts; the second group ate a Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil, and the third group was assigned a low-fat diet.

Follow-up was conducted 4.8 years later. The scientists found that those whose diets were supplemented with olive oil had a 35% risk reduction for cardiovascular disease. Their risk of death related to cardiovascular problems was also reduced by 48%. "The associations between cardiovascular events and extra-virgin olive oil intake were significant in the Mediterranean diet intervention groups and not in the control group," the authors wrote.

Multiple Types of and Uses for Olive Oil

Olive oil is pressed from fresh olives and is made mainly in the Mediterranean, mostly in Italy, Spain and Greece, and is available year-round. Each grower can have a unique way of tending the trees and producing the oil. The trees are matured for several years before they produce olives. The flavor, smell and color of olive oil can vary significantly, based on its origin and whether it is extra-virgin (finest grade) or not.

It can be flavored with herbs and spices, which you can steep in the oil for 10 days or so. It can also be used to moisturize your skin, remove eye makeup or even get paint out of your hair. Some enjoy using it as a safe, natural lubricant for a close shave and as a soothing aftershave. Commonly sold varieties include:

• Extra-virgin olive oil — The highest-quality olive oil you can get. It is unrefined and contains more nutrients compared to other processed varieties
• Pure or "refined" olive oil — Made by combining extra-virgin olive oil and refined olive oil, resulting in a lower-quality product
• Light olive oil — The word "light" is a marketing term that simply refers to the oil's lighter flavor. It is refined olive oil that has a neutral taste and a higher smoke point
• Olive-pomace oil — This version of olive oil is made from leftover olive pulps, and the remaining liquid is extracted using chemical solvents. Avoid this type of olive oil

The Price of Popularity: EVOO Imposters

People everywhere are suddenly using plenty of EVOO, and the popularity of the Mediterranean diet has made olive oil a $16 billion-a-year industry. The problem is that this surge in EVOO use and sales has also led to massive fraud and corruption.

Tests reveal anywhere from 60% to 90% of the olive oils sold in American grocery stores and restaurants are adulterated with cheap, oxidized, omega-6 vegetable oils, such as sunflower oil or peanut oil, or nonhuman grade olive oils, which are harmful to health in a number of ways.

"Extra-virgin" olive oil is often diluted with other, less expensive oils, including hazelnut, soybean, corn, sunflower, palm, sesame, grape seed and/or walnut. Adding insult to injury, these are not listed on the labels.

Larry Olmsted, author of "Real Food Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating & What You Can Do About It,"⁵ says that consumers' perceptions of the product might not be accurate. He explains that while Italy is the world's largest exporter of olive oil, they're also the world's largest importer of olive oil, and that not all that comes from Italy is its finest.

This means that a label of "Bottled in Italy" may in fact be true, but that does not necessarily mean that the oil is from Italy, Olmsted says. He adds that olive oil is actually closer to fresh-squeezed fruit juice than many of the other oils we're familiar with.

So, how do you know if you are buying pure EVOO or a fake? One way to be sure you are purchasing high-quality olive oil is to buy it from specialty retailers that allow you to taste it first. Taste and smell are important factors in determining authenticity.

Ways to determine which cooking oils are best include paying attention to how the oils behave when they're heated. Studies show that fumes emitted from some cooking oils can potentially be carcinogenic.

Olive oil should only be used cold and not for cooking. Extra-virgin olive oil's chemical structure and its large amount of unsaturated fats make it very susceptible to oxidative damage when used for cooking. A better option for cooking is to use coconut oil or grass fed butter.

How to Identify Defective Olive Oil

Olmsted said that while consumers may believe that the expiration date on a bottle of olive oil is important, what we really should pay attention to is the "pressed on" or harvest date of the oil. Many of the popular brands sold at supermarkets don't have this date but for those that do, look for one that is less than 6 months old.

How can you tell superior olive oil from an inferior one, or whether or not your olive oil has gone bad? Here are four telltale signs to look out for:

Choosing the Best Olive Oil

If you're on the hunt for a new bottle, here are some tips to ensure you're getting a high-quality product:^6,7,8

Harvest date — Insist on a harvest date, and try to purchase oils only from the current year's harvest. Look for "early harvest" or "fall harvest."

Storage and tasting — Find a seller who stores the oil in clean, temperature-controlled stainless steel containers topped with an inert gas such as nitrogen to keep oxygen at bay, and bottles it as they sell it; ask to taste it before buying.

Color and flavor — Genuine, high-quality extra virgin olive oil has an almost luminescent green color. However, good oils come in all shades, from luminescent green to gold to pale straw, so color should not be a deal-breaker. The oil should smell and taste fresh and fruity, with other descriptors including grassy, apple, green banana, herbaceous, bitter or spicy (spiciness is indicative of healthy antioxidants). Avoid flavors such as moldy, cooked, greasy, meaty, metallic or resembling cardboard.

Bottles — If buying pre-bottled oil, favor bottles or containers that protect against light; darkened glass, stainless steel or even clear glass enclosed in cardboard are good options. Ideally, buy only what you can use up in six weeks.

Labeling terms — Ensure that your oil is labeled "extra virgin," since other categories — "pure" or "light" oil, "olive oil" and "olive pomace oil" — have undergone chemical processing. Some terms commonly used on olive oil labels are meaningless, such as "first pressed" and "cold pressed." Since most extra-virgin olive oil is now made with centrifuges, it isn't "pressed" at all, and true extra virgin oil comes exclusively from the first processing of the olive paste.

Quality seals — Producer organizations such as the California Olive Oil Council and the Australian Olive Association require olive oil to meet quality standards that are stricter than the minimal USDA standards. Other seals may not offer such assurance. Of course, finding "USDA certified organic" is a bonus, but not the only consideration. Though not always a guarantee of quality, PDO (protected designation of origin) and PGI (protected geographical indication) status should inspire some confidence.

Storage and use — Keep your olive oil in a cool and dark place, and replace the cap or cork immediately after each pour. Never let it sit exposed to air.

Prolonging freshness — To slow oxidation, try adding one drop of astaxanthin to the bottle. Astaxanthin is red, so it will tint your olive oil. As the olive oil starts to pale, you know it's time to throw it away. Alternatively, add one drop of lutein, which is orange in color. Vitamin E oil is another option, but since it's colorless, it will not give you a visual indicator of freshness.

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