Valamar Blog

Homemade oils made in the colder regions are more essential and healthier (the fatty acid ratio is better) than oils produced in southern parts of Europe or Africa. It is the afore-mentioned high content of unsaturated fatty acids, oleic acid and large quantities of antioxidants (polyphenols) that make olive oil a proven necessity for a healthy way of life. Frequent research carried out over the past years keep confirming the fact that the Mediterranean diet, based on dishes containing a significant amount of olive oil, is the healthiest.

The quality of olive oil depends on many things; the sort, the soil olive trees have been growing on and the way the olive fruit is picked and treated afterwards. Istrian olive oil has an extremely high content of useful substances because of the way olives are processed. Two basic categories of oil are the sweet and green oils which are determined primarily according to the sort, level of ripeness and the olive grove’s geographical position. The oil can taste sour, bitter, sweet and spicy or like grass, olive fruit, almonds and artichoke. The Greek doctor Galen, also known as the father of medicine, said that olive oil has a beneficial effect on stomach ache.

It is important to emphasize that olive oil was used in beauty treatments to maintain skin elasticity, as s preventive antidandruff lotion and nowadays it is recommended as a cure for treating arthritis and an anti-aging treatment. While visiting the magnificent land of Istria certainly taste the magical olive oil and see the oldest olive tree located on the Brijuni Islands, which is, according to the scientific reports, 1600 years old.