Nutritional and Biological Properties of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The nutritional benefits generally recognized for the consumption of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) are based on a large number of dietary trials of several international populations and intervention studies. Unfortunately, many authors in this field used questionable analytical methods and commercial kits that were not validated scientifically to evaluate the complex bioactive constituents of EVOO and lipid oxidation and decomposition products. Many questionable antiradical methods were commonly used to evaluate natural polyphenolic antioxidants, including an indirect method to determine low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Extensive differences were observed in experimental design, diet control, populations of different ages and problems of compliance intervention, and questionable biomarkers of oxidative stress. Analyses in many nutritional studies were limited by the use of one-dimensional methods to evaluate multifunctional complex bioactive compounds and plasma lipid profiles by the common applications of commercial kits. Although EVOO contains polyphenolic compounds that exhibit significant in vitro antioxidant activity, much more research is needed to understand the absorption and in vivo activity. Many claims of in vivo human beneficial effects by the consumption of EVOO may be overstated. No distinctions were apparently made between in vivo studies based on general health effects in large populations of human subjects and smaller scale well-controlled feeding trials using either pure or mixtures of known phenolic constituents of EVOO. More reliable protocols and testing methods are needed to better validate the complex nutritional properties of EVOO.