Extra virgin olive oil: properties and benefits

The Extra Virgin Olive Oil obtained by cold pressing, such as the one produced by the Azienda Scollo Sebastiana, is a food that preserves all its organoleptic properties intact. To learn about the benefits it brings to our body and to learn more about its extraordinary properties, continue reading this article!

1. It helps to lose weight.
It is a food that can be included in slimming diets as it contains healthy fats and improves metabolism. The good fats contained in EVO oil, with which we season our food, in fact, decrease the glycemic load of a meal and in doing so generate an “anti-insulin” effect, the hormone that causes the accumulation of fat in the abdomen .

2. Acts as an anti-inflammatory.
Oleocanthal is a compound naturally present in virgin olive oils and its main feature lies in its anti-inflammatory action, very similar to ibuprofen, which as we know is one of the most used non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. EVO oil, therefore, can help reduce joint and muscle pain. For those who practice sports, a massage with a little extra virgin olive oil on the parts most subject to physical effort can give immediate relief, it can also relieve any pain and swelling.

3. Promotes brain health.
Extra virgin olive oil helps protect the brain from Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of senile dementia, which causes memory problems, difficulty carrying out normal daily activities and behavioral disturbances. In people with Alzheimer’s disease, a buildup of amyloid-beta plaques (precursor proteins of amyloid-beta) has been found in parts of the brain. A study conducted on mice and published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology showed that extra virgin olive oil eliminates these proteins from the rodent brain, thus helping to prevent Alzheimer’s disease. In humans, the Mediterranean diet in general is a panacea that protects against various pathologies and the constant consumption of extra virgin olive oil, which is the main ingredient of this diet, according to some American researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia, promotes cognitive function.

4. Has anticancer properties
The incidence of cancer in the Mediterranean countries is lower than that of the Scandinavian countries, the United Kingdom and the United States, a fact which supports the thesis according to which diet plays a very important role in reducing disease. Olive oil is rich in antioxidants, in particular oleocanthal has been shown to kill cancer cells in less than an hour, according to a 2015 study published in the journal Molecular & Cellular Oncology: https://www. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23723556.2015.1006077

5. Has antibacterial properties
Several polyphenols contained in extra virgin olive oil such as oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol have antibacterial properties. Some in vitro tests https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17263460/ have shown that they are able to counteract Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium responsible for the majority of peptic ulcers and some types of gastric cancer. It has also been shown that even when olive oil is used as a condiment in mayonnaise and salads, it reduces the amounts of Salmonella and Listeria that may be present in food.

6. Reduces cholesterol
As stated by various authoritative sources, including the Veronesi Foundation: https://www.fondazioneveronesi.it/magazine/articoli/cardiologia/olio-extravergine-doliva-elisir-di-lunga-vita, EVO oil protects our body by reducing bad cholesterol (or LDL), often responsible for cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart attack, without altering the good cholesterol (or HDL)

The Extra Virgin Olive Oil of the Azienda Scollo is obtained from drupes (stone fruits) of local native varieties such as Nocellara dell’Etna and Tonda Iblea, located between Pedagaggi (SR) and Buccheri (SR), on the slopes of the volcano Etna that make the extra virgin olive oil particularly valuable and unique in its kind.

We remind you that our olive oil is obtained without chemical procedures, but only with physical systems: milling of the olives, pressing of the olive paste, separation of the oil from the vegetation water present in the drupes, which give it all its genuineness, the goodness and the unmistakable scent that characterizes it.