"Olive oil is the healthiest in the world"

Javier Sánchez Perona, CSIC researcher at the Institute of Fat, author of Olive Oil and Health

Olive oil is one of the essential elements of the Mediterranean diet and culture. It has a distinctive flavor and aroma, and stands out for its presence in millions of home kitchens as well as in top restaurants. Since antiquity, it has been revered as an elixir of the gods and credited with healing properties, but it was not until the second half of the last century that its health benefits were scientifically demonstrated for the first time.

Olive juice is a source of compounds that prevent or slow the development of some of the most common diseases worldwide, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disorders. In fact, “studies in recent decades have shown that olive oil is the healthiest in the world,” says Javier Sánchez Perona, a researcher at the CSIC Institute of Fat. After more than two decades studying how dietary fats influence the development of chronic diseases and a long career as a science communicator, he presents Olive Oil and Health (CSIC–Catarata).

In this new volume of the What Do We Know About? collection, the scientist describes how the different oils derived from the olive fruit are produced, highlights their sensory and nutritional values, and compares them with seed oils such as sunflower or palm oil. The book also covers the most notable scientific studies on the benefits of olive oil and explains the components that have attracted the scientific community’s attention in recent decades.

The Oil Ranking

What is the healthiest edible oil? This is one of the questions Javier Sánchez Perona has been asked most often throughout his career. “I have never had any trouble replying that, according to current scientific evidence, it is virgin olive oil—and also extra virgin olive oil,” he says. “However,” he confesses, “the truth is that I used to say it a bit lightly, based of course on everything I had read and researched, but without an actual specific study demonstrating it.”

In 2023, a team from the Institute of Fat, including Perona, created a ranking of 32 edible oils and fats using their chemical composition along with consumption recommendations and nutritional claims approved by prestigious international institutions such as the WHO. The results left no room for doubt: on a scale of 0 to 100, virgin olive oil ranked first with 100 points, followed by flaxseed oil, regular olive oil, and olive-pomace oil, which each received 86 points.

Most vegetable oils scored above 50; fish oils, such as salmon or sardine oil, surpassed 68 points; animal fats—lard, tallow, and butter—scored below 50. The lowest score, 0 points, went to coconut oil. “The study revealed that the concentration of saturated fatty acids and phytosterols was what most influenced the nutritional quality of oils and fats—saturated fatty acids being harmful and phytosterols beneficial,” Perona explains.

One Olive, Many Types of Oil

Olive oil is one of the few edible oils obtained from a fruit—the olive—and not from a seed, as is the case with sunflower, soy, rapeseed, peanut, or sesame. Depending on the production process, several types of olive oil exist, ranging from virgin and extra virgin olive oil to refined olive oil and olive-pomace oil, among others.

Although they all originate from olive juice, the resulting oils can differ significantly in composition, especially in relation to health. “The highest-quality oil is extra virgin, which differs from virgin olive oil mainly in having lower acidity and, above all, in the absence of defects in aroma and flavor, as well as the presence of fruitiness,” Perona explains, recommending extra virgin for raw consumption.