What is simply called OLIVE OIL or PURE OLIVE OIL is "oil consisting of a blend of refined olive oil and virgin olive oil." Refined Olive Oil is virtually devoid of nutritional value, flavor, and smell. It's just oil.
To give it some semblance of a nutritional product and to make it salable, it must be mixed with virgin oil. Also, it's not generally mixed with the extra virgin oil to get some of the benefits of the higher quality oil but with some lesser grade of virgin oil. At the last pressing, chemicals are added to the mash to extract the last bits of very poor quality oil.
This is even a lesser grade of oil called: --- REFINED OLIVE-RESIDUE OIL. .. which is "crude oil obtained by treating olive residues (the remains of Refined Oil pressings) with solvents (chemicals). (It is) intended for subsequent refining for human consumption." There are no micro-nutrients in this olive oil. This is "the type (of oil) used largely in the commercial packaging of foods." In other words, for the most part, the commercial food industry is using the poorest quality, cheapest, most nutritionally devoid form of olive oil (and the most likely to contain abundant trans-fatty acids) for the foods it provides consumers in the form of "packed in olive oil." There seems to be no attempt to give this form of olive oil even minimal nutritional value by mixing it with some virgin oil.
The dictionary definition of "pure" is: 1. Not mixed with anything else; unadulterated; genuine. Free from anything that adulterates, taints, impairs, etc.; unmixed, clear. 2. Perfectly clean; spotless. 3. Without defects; perfect; correct. .. In the context of food, "pure" seems to refer to the removal of the micro-nutrients - the parts of the food that makes it usable and useful in maintaining our health (phytochemicals -- enzymes, flavinoids, etc.) - and leaving only the macro-nutrients (protein, carbohydrate, fat) - the calories.
Nothing in Nature is "pure"! Ordinarily we automatically think of "pure" as a good thing, so when discussing "pure" in relation to things we put in our mouths and swallow, it may be difficult to turn our thinking 180° and realize that, if we need edibles to be as close to Nature as possible, and we do, we don't want "pure." "Pure" = no health benefits - no enzymes - no phytochemicals - no micro-nutrients. In other words, to borrow a concept from my other book (How to Eat Healthy - foods to eat. .. foods to avoid), "pure" = pica, a non-nutritious edible that may change how the cells use food. Various companies are offering olive oil (Virgin as well as Pure) for sale in plastic bottles. Olive oil has the propensity for 'soaking up' the flavors of things that it comes into contact with; e.g., infusions (flavored oils). In general, plastics have a way of 'giving up' certain of the chemicals that make up their composition to the foods that they come in contact with. Eating oils infused with the chemicals that are given up by the plastics does not sound very appetizing to me. The recommendation is to purchase cold pressed extra virgin olive oil packaged in glass containers only.
Credit to Samantha Knowles
