Olive Trees Remove Carbon Dioxide for a Healthier Environment
“It is the natural behavior of the olive tree to capture carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, absorb it, and then store it firstly in the biomass and finally, into the soil in a permanent way,” according to Juan Antonio Polo Palomino, the head of the International Olive Council’s (IOC) olive oil technology and environment department.
“Thus, taking into account the total life cycle of olive oil, it can be maintained that the production of one kilogram of olive oil removes 10 kilograms of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” the IOC concluded in a 2017 study.
In a recent study by project OLIVEN, a research team from the University of Jaén concluded: “traditional olive groves absorb significantly more CO2 than those using intensive (high-density or super-high-density) farming methods. … [These groves] allow 5.5 kilos of CO2 equivalent to be removed from the atmosphere for each kilo of oil finally produced. … The application of organic fertilizers and facilitating temporary spontaneous cover crops achieve a positive carbon balance and reduce the negative impacts of olive cultivation”
Olive Oil’s Many Health Benefits
“[T]he positive health effects of olive oils have been the determining factors for the increase in worldwide demand over the last three decades, during which consumption has doubled (from 1.5 million to more than three million tons” Tassos C. Kyriakides, Yale School of Public Health
The results of the first long-term investigation into the impact of olive oil consumption in the United States demonstrate that most Americans could greatly benefit from replacing the saturated fats in their diets with olive oil and extra virgin olive oil.
The latest research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology by a team of scientists from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s nutrition department investigated the impact of olive oil on a large sample of the American public for the first time.
“In two large cohort studies with up to 30 years of follow-up, people who ate higher amounts of olive oil showed a lower risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality compared to people who never or almost never eat olive oil. … Replacing 10 grams of margarine, butter, mayonnaise or dairy fat with the same amount of olive oil was associated with eight to 34 percent lower risk of total and cause-specific mortality. … Common causes of illness or death, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, diabetes, cancer and neurodegenerative disorders connected to brain aging, are curtailed up to 20 or 30 percent by the long-term use of healthy unsaturated olive oil.” Marta Guasch-Ferre, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discussing this research in an interview with Olive Oil Times.
New article: 28-Year Study Reveals Olive Oil Stops Cancer Deaths