Health Resource Gold Liquid: Olive Oil - Makri Magazine - Ferhan Tolga Özen
from the industry
Ferhan Tolga Ozen
TLOS OLIVE: Fenolive / Zeytin Hanım / Zeytin Hanım Gold / Zeytin Hanım Beauty
"Golden liquid, a source of health, no different from breast milk"
Olive oil
Olive oil, which is produced from the fruit of the olive tree, which is known as the "immortal tree" in mythology, is the only oil that can be produced directly from the fruit itself without undergoing any chemical treatment or refining. In this sense, it is actually a fruit juice. The olive tree is also the oldest known fruit tree in the world.
The Mediterranean climate is the most ideal climate due to the tree's need for special climatic conditions. The homeland of olives is Anatolia, Iran, Syria and Palestine. History BC It goes back to the 6000's. All over the world, countries with a coast on the Mediterranean have the most suitable lands for olive production due to their climates. Nearly 90 percent of the world olive production, which is about 13 million tons, is made in 6 Mediterranean countries. Respectively, 26 percent of the production is provided by Spain, 23 percent by Italy, 15 percent by Greece, 9 percent by Turkey, 8 percent by Tunisia and 5 percent by Morocco. The rest is made in Latin American countries with a Mediterranean climate, Australia, China and other countries. It is estimated that there are approximately 1 billion olive trees in the world. Only 5 percent of the oil produced in the world is olive oil.
Throughout the ages, people have not only consumed many nutrients as food, but also benefited from the healing properties of these foods. Olive is also one of the nutrients used as a source of healing. It has been widely used for therapeutic purposes in many parts of the world, especially in the Mediterranean.
So, what makes this golden liquid valuable for health? To better understand the benefits of olive oil, it is necessary to look at its major and minor components. Major components make up 98 percent of the total oil weight, also called saponifiable fraction. The most famous of these is, of course, Oleic Acid. It makes up 70-80 percent of our olive oil. It is monounsaturated fat. The most important feature of monounsaturated oils is that they are more resistant to oxidation. Reactive oxygen species (in simple terms, harmful substances) formed with oxidation are less formed. Thus, the oxidative balance of our body remains intact. With this feature, oleic acid also ensures that the antioxidant substances in olive oil stay healthy longer.
I would like to briefly touch on one major component, without further describing the well-known benefits of olive oil. Linolenic acid…
Olive oil contains the closest amount of linolenic acid to breast milk. Linoleic acids are very important in the development of babies. Too little may delay their development as well as cause metabolic disorders. If we mix skimmed cow's milk with olive oil, we get a natural food source like breast milk (Although cow's milk is similar to breast milk in terms of other acids, there is almost no linoleic acid in it). Therefore, it is said that olive oil is like breast milk.
Let's come to the minor components and the most popular topic for today's olive oil producers; Polyphenols…
Polyphenols are found in many plants. It is part of antioxidants, a large group of compounds that prevent cellular wear in the body. Antioxidants, in the most superficial terms, are those that allow the free radicals formed in our body to be removed from the body. Free radicals are substances that cause oxidation, as in the apple example. There are around 8,000 identified polyphenols, many of which are of plant origin. Olive oil contains many valuable polyphenols, such as lycopene in tomatoes, carvacrol in thyme, and curcumin in turmeric. Although there are many polyphenols, the important thing is that it can be absorbed by our body. While more than 90 percent of olive oil can be absorbed by our body, it has been determined that the polyphenols in it can be absorbed between 40-55 percent in trials conducted on human groups. This is a very high rate. The most important feature that makes olive oil valuable in terms of health is this absorption rate. For example, the lycopene in tomatoes can be absorbed very little by our body when eaten directly, while it can be absorbed more when it is eaten by pouring oil on it or eaten by heating. In summary, it is not the fact that there are many polyphenols in a plant, but how much of these polyphenols can be taken up by our body. In this respect, olive oil has a very high value.
Unfortunately, olive and olive oil, which are so valuable, has not been given the necessary importance in our country for years, the right studies have not been carried out and our sector has remained in place. Especially Spain, Italy and Greece gave great value to the sector, and as a result, they showed extraordinary developments. Although we are one of the countries with the highest number of olive trees in terms of the number of olive trees, these countries have a much greater say in the world market than we do. As of 2020, our country aims to be the second in the world with 650 thousand tons of olive oil production and the world leader with 1 million 200 thousand tons of table olive production. However, we have serious shortcomings in the field of branding and marketing.
The star of the Southern Aegean is shining…
We see that this liquid, which is so valuable, has not been given the necessary importance in our region until today. When it comes to olive and olive oil, the North Aegean in Turkey; Ayvalık, Edremit, Gemlik come to mind. In parallel with the increase in the number of conscious producers and users in the recent period, with the fact that olive oil has started to be used more for health, the South Aegean said, "I am also here".
The oils made with the local olives for olive oil, memecik, dilmit and rabbit heart of the South Aegean made us proud with the awards they received in our country and abroad. Due to the fact that the major players of the sector are in the vicinity of Ayvalık and Edremit, the oil obtained from the South Aegean olives, which has not seen the value it deserves until today, is very valuable in terms of health and its awareness throughout the country has increased with the increase in the number of factories that make conscious production.
Manufacturer should be aware
We have a long way to go to do better as a country. We need to increase quality production. Quality is an end-to-end process. Quality production is not possible only with the improvement of the factories themselves. We must raise awareness of our villagers, collectors and producers… Now we have people who know how to produce quality oil, we have award-winning brands. We should know the value of our olives, which used to be beaten with poles in the past. We must teach our peasants to care for trees. We should explain what causes oxidized olives falling to the ground. We should teach that it is not good to keep the collected olives in the sacks for a long time.
What does early harvest mean, what is its benefit, what does mature harvest mean? We must show the difference between cold pressed and hot pressed to the producer… Our primary goal should be to produce quality oil from South Aegean olives. We must produce quality oil and bring the South Aegean to the place it deserves in Turkey, and more importantly, we must bring our country to a better place in the world market in this sector.
In order to do all this, it will be necessary to show that they earn more money from quality production, from the villagers to the people who produce the oil, in order to achieve this goal locally. The first thing to do is to make the value of our olives to be determined by the people of the region. The statements of olive and olive oil producers coming from outside our region that reduce the quality of our olives as well as determining the price of the product cause great distress. Therefore, it is very important to become a local unity. If we unite and increase our quality, the quality of olives in our region is already known, so everyone will benefit more from this business. The peasant who earns more money will take better care of his tree, the producer will improve the quality of his production.
We regret to observe that most of the olive trees planted in the region lately are of the Gemlik type. Gemlik is not a local olive type of this place. It is the colder region olive. However, our region has udder whose oil is very valuable, there is a rabbit's heart and a tongue. The oil that comes out of all of them is very successful when it is produced with the right methods. They will add color to our country's olive oil taste spectrum.
How can I procure polyphenol olive oil?
https://www.tlosolive.com/kategori/yuksek-polifenollu-zeytinyaglarimiz
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