These millennia of human experience plus modem research indicate that olive oil is beneficial to health and that we can safely include it in our diet. In fact, olive oil has been singled out as contributing to the health of Greek centenarians. But, to get the same health effects as the Greek centenarians, the oil has to be made the way they made it. The problem is most of the olive oil on the market does not duplicate what our ancestors were eating, and people are not getting what they think they are buying. Almost all olive oil is processed in ways that result in the loss of nutrients which are essential to health.
Olive oil is almost unique among oils in that it can be consumed in the crude form without refining.
This has the effect of conserving all its vitamins, essential fatty acids, and other nutrients. Because it contains all these nutrients, including powerful antioxidants, real extra virgin olive oil is beneficial to health and protects us from damage by free radical oxidation. Cell membranes contain fatty acids that are highly susceptible to free radical damage. This damage produces lipid peroxides that can kill the cell. Real olive oil contains polyphenols, vitamin E, and other natural antioxidants that prevent this damage.