January 1, 2025 • 61 mins
Description:
Is your extra virgin olive oil actually toxic? Greek olive oil expert and certified Sommelier Marianna Devetzoglou reveals shocking truths about olive oil fraud and adulteration.
Learn how to identify real from fake, proper storage techniques, and why most 'healthy' olive oils are anything but. Plus: The surprising temperature that destroys olive oil's benefits, and why harvest dates matter more than expiration dates.
Time Stamps:
04:17 - Health Benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
06:59 - The difference between grocery store olive oil and quality olive oil
14:29 - How to recognize quality extra virgin olive oil
18:32 - International Olive Oil Certification Counsel in Spain
22:52 - Why real olive oil is healthier
31:43 - Why Greece is such a good place to produce olives
38:48 - Oleosophia's quality control processes
48:24 - How to consume quality olive oil
55:50 - How to order from Oleosophia
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Marianna Devetzoglou (00:00):
I think the most important thing is that
(00:02):
you can't really trust lots oflabels and food, especially in
grocery shops. And it's veryimportant to look beyond that,
learn about your food, where itcomes from, who makes it. It's
what you put in your body, andit's your fuel. Some people say,
Oh, my car, they said in my carthat they would never put a low
quality fuel into their car,right? Why would you put a low
(00:25):
quality fuel into your body, andyou only have one body for this
lifetime, at least
David Sandstrom (00:31):
Amen, sister,
Marianna Devetzoglou (00:33):
exactly. So try to look beyond that.
Learn who makes your food andsupporting small producers, not
just all involved producers,small producers of food is
really critical for the wellbeing and our health. And after
all, our health is our wealth atthe end of the day,
David Sandstrom (00:56):
Welcome to the Christian Healthy Lifestyle
podcast. If you're new to theshow, this is where I help
Christians over 40 maximizetheir health potential so they
can age gracefully and liveabundantly. I'm your host. David
Sandstrom, naturopathic doctorand biblical health coach, and
this is episode number 165 todaywe have in the show Mariana
Devetzoglou with a physicsbackground. Mariana created
(01:19):
Oleosophia, a company thatproduces award winning extra
virgin olive oil, a certifiedolive oil taster. She hosts
tastings, experiences andseminars. Her journey was
powered by a personal lovestory, and through Oleosophia,
she guides us into the amazingworld of olive oil. Marianna,
welcome to Christian healthylifestyle.
Marianna Devetzoglou (01:39):
Hello, David. Thank you very much for
inviting me, and it's so nice tobe here with you to discuss all
things olive oil.
David Sandstrom (01:46):
Absolutely it's a pleasure having you on. You
know, my wife and I were there acouple of months ago, and we did
a tour of your your olive oliveoil farm. And it was just
fantastic. And I learned somuch. And I said, Man, I've
would really love to have you onthe on the show, make an episode
out of it, because I learned somuch, and I'm sure the listeners
are going to learn a lot toofrom this conversation.
Marianna Devetzoglou (02:08):
Thank you. I hope so too. So
David Sandstrom (02:11):
tell us a little bit about your
background. You have a degree inphysics, right? Yes,
Marianna Devetzoglou (02:17):
I have an urban background, meaning I was
born and raised in Athens, sonothing to do with agriculture,
and I studied physics in Athensand London. I got involved into
the olive oil industry when Imet George. George, now he's my
husband, so I was a horribleolive oil consumer, and I
learned a lot of things whenmeeting George and his family.
(02:40):
Through meeting the family, Ilearned about the problems in
the olive oil industry, and thatintrigued me to learn more and
improve my lifestyle and myquality of food. So I decided to
pursue an olive oil education.So apart from being a physicist,
I'm also a certified olive oilsommeriaAnd taster, and last
(03:00):
year, I finished my master'sdegree with the Spanish School
of olive oil as well. So wefounded Oli Sophia. I'm the
founder, and it's a woman ledbusiness. And we take the
family's olive oil and wecommunicated directly to fine
food stores and deli shops, and,of course, directly to our
community of oleosophers. We dothis because the previous
(03:23):
business model for the family,George's family, Abby was to
sell bulk and traders, so allthe beautiful quality
characteristics were lost in thevast sea of olive oils. Yeah. We
started our journey in 2018 theyear that we got married, and we
continue with our journey.
David Sandstrom (03:44):
Excellent. Well, you know, a few episodes
ago, in episodes 141 and 142 Italked about saturated fat and
vegetable oils, or seed oils,and I was discouraging people
from consuming excessive amountsof polyunsaturated fatty acids.
But olive oil is different. Itis. It's not an animal based
product. It still is a plantbased product, but it's very low
(04:08):
in polyunsaturated fatty acidsand high in monounsaturated
fatty acids, which reallytransforms the properties of
that oil and it becomes a healthfood.
So can you talk to us a littlebit about the health benefits of
consuming quality extra virginolive oil?
Marianna Devetzoglou (04:24):
Yes, of course. First of all, I know
that there are lots ofinternational trains for fat
free diets and things like that,but we do need fat in our life,
just in moderation and the righttype of fat. So extra virgin
olive oil, which basically isthe natural fruit juice that
comes from the fruit of theolive tree. That is the olive
(04:47):
Okay, contains more healthy fat,unsaturated than unhealthy fat.
It is reaching high. It is richin antioxidants, as vitamin E,
vitamin A, polyphenols. That arevery good against inflammations,
so that helps protect our heartreduce inflammation within our
(05:08):
body. If Polyphenols are a typeof antioxidants, and also they
seem because there are ongoingresearch to help shield
ourselves and slow down thedevelopment of new
neurodegenerative diseases.That's Alzhiemers, Parkinson's
dementia, multiple sclerosis,things that we get because, you
(05:32):
know, we get older, and as weget older, of course, more
things are starting to work, notas good as they did before, and
that is inevitable. Yeah. So italso protects us against high
blood pressure. It helps us haveit more reduced, but pressure
(05:55):
and all that is that's somethingthat I emphasize always. It's if
we consume it on a daily basis,it's proactive. I'm building up
my shield. Rather than I gotsick, I'm gonna get some extra
virgin olive oil to get better.It's part of a holistically good
(06:17):
and well rounded and balanceddiet, a little bit of
everything, basically,
David Sandstrom (06:21):
yeah, yeah. I really like that approach. Now
this is Christian healthylifestyle, because our lifestyle
choices have a lot to do withhow we how well we age, and how
resilient our bodiesare topreventing things like cognitive
decline and wrinkled skin andyou know, all of those things,
any chronic degenerative diseasecan be addressed much more
(06:43):
effectively with lifestylechoices than they can with
drugs. So you know, I totallyagree with what you just said,
that olive oil is a part of ahealthy lifestyle, but we got to
make sure we're getting qualityolive oil and we're consuming it
in the right way.
So talk to us a little bitabout, if you would the
difference in, you know,everyday grocery store variety
(07:07):
olive oil and your extra virginolive oil. I mean, there's a lot
to talk about there, but goahead, you got the floor.
Marianna Devetzoglou (07:13):
Well, thank you. Well, the olive oil
industry is a huge industry andhas no borders, which means that
on a global level, there's lotsof money involved.
Unfortunately, olive oil is oneofthe most popular products for
mislabeling and adulteration andfraud. That being said, our
(07:35):
chances of finding authenticextra virgin olive oil at a
supermarket are quite slim,okay, everywhere, including
Greece, actually anotherproducing country.
David Sandstrom (07:47):
I thought that was just United States. Go over
there as well, huh?
Marianna Devetzoglou (07:52):
No, you're not alone in that. We'll keep
you company. Olive oil.Countries are not an exception
to that, unfortunately. So hereas well the olive oil education
needs to grow more and morecustomers have to get to know
more about what we actuallyconsume. Overall, olive oils
that end up in large groceryshops tend to be mislabeled or
(08:16):
old and adulterated mixed withother oils. This means that
sometimes we buy what is labeledas extra virgin olive oil,
thinking it is extra virginolive oil, and it ends up being
something completely different.Yeah. I do respect people that
want to purchase something else,but as long as you know it that
(08:38):
it is something else, yeah, sothe extra virgin olive oil that
we make as artists andproductions, because we work
with a small production that weonly sell to our philosophers
and do some select fine foodstores around the world, is
produced from healthy fruitsthat are harvested in the best
way and are pressed within 12 tomaximum 24 hours from
(09:03):
collection. This is so crucial,because the olive fruit,
unfortunately, once picked fromthe tree, it's dead, so it
starts decomposing, and unlikeOranges and Lemons, and
decomposes very quickly. So youcannot make a fresh fruit juice
with all the nutritional valuefrom a fruit that is decomposed.
(09:28):
And this is a main reason whyExtra Virgin Olive Oil of high
quality is not an abundantproduct and not a very cheap
product, because harvesting inthe morning and going to the
press at nights. Okay? Every daymeans more labor, more
itineraries. I'm losing moreolive oil every time I go
(09:49):
through the pressing facilityversus, let's say, a more mass
oriented production, I willcollect for several days, and at
the end of those days, I'mgonna. Patch everything up in my
truck and go once to the milk.So think of your olive oil like
your orange juice. You wantfresh oranges to make an amazing
(10:10):
orange juice. You want freshhealthy olives to make an
amazing extra virgin olive oil.Extra Virgin Olive Oil has a
beautiful chemical composition,amazing aromas that connect to
the variety of the olives thatdepressed and no defects. So
it's born in perfection.
David Sandstrom (10:33):
Yeah, that's great. That's a great summary,
you know. And I've known aboutthe the problem with olive oil,
ordinary, grocery store varietyolive oil being adulterated for
quite some time. Why do youthink that? Is that it's such a
common practice, it would seemthat there would be some type of
legislation that would preventthat. But if there is, they're
not effective. What are yourthoughts on that?
Marianna Devetzoglou (10:54):
Well, money is big, so big
corporations, they need to feedthe masses and have a lot of
food available. So you cannot gowith an artisan small
production. You have tocultivate more super
intensively. You have to mix,maybe olive oils from different
(11:14):
years and different places inorder to increase your
quantities and have them readilyavailable for the supermarket.
So this is a food crisisstarting from the grove and the
soil all the way to consumereducation and consumer behavior.
There are legislations in theStates and also in the in the
(11:37):
European Union. But that doesn'tmean that all companies abide to
these legislation. Controls arerandom, so if and when I get
caught, there might be a penaltyto pay, which is not so big
compared to the revenues.Therefore it's worth the risk.
That's the cost of doingbusiness sometimes, whereas a
(11:59):
smaller producer, not only isfinding it difficult to pay that
penalty, but also it's our nameout in the market. And sadly,
sometimes consumers mightbetrade or misguided, and you
walk into a shop and then thereis buy two, get free, and
(12:21):
everyone forgets everything,
David Sandstrom (12:23):
right? Yeah, well, you know, I like to think
of it this way, and that is,these people are trying to make
a living, right? They want tohave a company that's
profitable. Issue, becauseyou're not profitable, you're
not going to be around, right?And because they don't know an
awful lot about nutrition, theydon't see a problem with
adulterating the oil would, youknow, it's something like, I
don't know what they would putin there, but it's, I know it's
(12:44):
a seed oil. Canola oil is verypopular here in the States and
Canada. Soybean oil is anothervery, very popular large crop,
much less expensive here in theStates, because those crops and
corn oil as well, are heavilysubsidized by the federal
government, so they can get thatproduct really inexpensively.
(13:04):
And it's, as we talked about onyour tour, a highly processed
really, you could call it atoxic product, and they
adulterate their extra virginolive oil with it because it
dramatically reduces the cost,and because they don't know
enough about nutrition andanatomy and physiology, how that
those oils will react in ourbodies. They don't see any
(13:26):
ethical problem with it. Sotherefore, it is rampant in the
industry. And I really thoughtthat if I went to some of the
big health food store chainshere in the US, I was going to
be safe. I thought that for awhile, but after doing your
tour, and when you taught mywife and I How to taste real
olive oil, I tasted yourproduct. And by the way, I have
(13:47):
your product right here. This,this is, this is Oleoophia.
Olive oil came from Greece. Weordered by the case with some
friends that are like minded andunderstand the value in paying a
little bit more for quality.This is quality, folks. And I'm
telling you, if you taste thisoil, this olive oil alongside
your your high, you ah, quote,extra virgin olive oil from all
(14:09):
right, I'm just going to use thename Whole Foods or Trader Joe's
that are promoting themselvesas, you know, a health food
store, there's a big difference.You know, right away, all you
got to do isget that olive oilnear your nose and you can tell
that there's a difference, letalone tasting it. I mean, so
anyway, I want a little bit of arant or rant there.
But can you talk to us a littlebit about how you can
(14:35):
distinguish between low qualityand high quality? Extra virgin
olive oil.
Marianna Devetzoglou (14:42):
Of course, it takes some practice and some
education, but overall,consumers are used to low
quality olive oils, and theythink that this is what extra
virgin olive oil feels, tastesand smells like when we taste an
extra virgin olive oil, ah. Weshould keep in mind that it's a
fruit juice, therefore it has tosmell fruity. So fruitiness is
(15:07):
the first characteristic thatwe're lookingfor in an extra
virgin olive oil. Thisfruitiness can refer to all the
aromas that we can smell. Andthe aroma range is a huge has a
huge spectrum we're talkingabout fresh fruits, vegetables,
herbs, almonds, nuts. We havegreen aromas, meaning aromas
(15:30):
that reminds us of fruits andvegetables when they are unripe
and therefore usually green. Wehave sweet aromas, aromas that
remind us of fruits andvegetables when they're more
mature. Think ofthe tomatobasically, when it's green and
ripe. That's a green aroma. Whenit turns more mature, becomes
redder and softer. That's sweetaroma. Okay, so I need to smell
(15:56):
fresh and nature. Then when Itaste it, I need to find some
level of bitterness and somelevel of pungency. Bitterness
and pungency. Pungency is thispeppery sensation that we feel
here inthe upper far links, andquite often, most people call it
peppery or spicy. Okay, sobitternessand pungency are
(16:21):
there? Why? Because the fruititself, if you bite it from the
tree, it's super bitter,therefore the fruit juice will
have some bitterness. Also.Antioxidants and Polyphenols are
responsible for the bitternessand the pungency in our extra
virgin olive oil. So whenyoutaste an olive oil that is
(16:42):
more bland and there is noflavor, there is no aroma to it,
you should be suspicious,whereas when you smell an olive
oil that has a personality, hasno vibrance into it, oh, we have
something here. Yeah, at thispoint I'd like to add an answer.
Is that just like in wines, wehave different grapes that give
(17:03):
us different wine personalities.Same here we have different
olive varieties that give usdifferent olive oils. So you can
comeacross a delicate olive oil,extra virgin olive oil, a medium
extra virgin olive oil, or arobust extra virgin olive oil,
just because the variety is suchthat it gives you the respective
(17:27):
expression at that so at thatpoint, you need to consider, is
it quality? One, yes, no, andthendo I like it? So finding
your olive oil means that youneed to experiment. You need to
taste and you need to alsopractice at home by smelling
your fresh fruits andvegetables, scratch them in bed
(17:49):
and smell them before cookingthem.
David Sandstrom (17:51):
Yeah, yeah. What a great analogy there, for
sure. I mean, you can take anold vegetable and freeze it, and
when you unfreeze it, it's stillan old vegetable, right? It
doesn't get any better after itstarts to rot, right? So same is
true with olive oil. And I knowthat that maybe we could talk
about this in a minute, that youput you go to great lengths at
(18:15):
your, at your, your, your grove.We call it an olive oil an olive
tree grove. Is that what we callit? Yes, you go to great lengths
to protect the soil and dothings the way nature intended
to grow your trees in a naturalfashion, and I know that you
don't use chemical fertilizersand those kinds of things, but
let me put that on back burnerfor just a minute. I want to
(18:37):
stay here on the tasting.
And I know that you send yourproducts at random to a tasting
agency over in Spain. So canyou, can you talk to us a little
bit about that?
Marianna Devetzoglou (18:48):
Yes, it's not a tasting agency in Spain.
In Spain is where theheadquarters of the
International olive Council are.The headquarters the
international olive Council isthe grand regulator of all
things olive oil, and they haveestablished certified tasting
(19:08):
panels in many countries. Ofcourse, olive oil producing
countries and some What are morein the consuming side. And
legally, I'm obligated to sendsamples of my production for a
chemicalanalysis, because foodand life are also chemistry and
for a tasting evaluation, theterminology is sensory or
(19:33):
organoleptic evaluation. Soalthough, as a taster myself,
when I work in production, Itaste for my quality assurance,
I need to go through thiscertified panel, because one
person cannot issue such acertification and unbiased.
These panels consist of tastersthat receive samples and blindly
(19:56):
evaluate them and write back toyou extra. Virgin, virgin or
plain olive oil, depending onthe quality category that the
samples fallinto, only when Ihave a positive sensory
evaluation and a positivechemical evaluation. These two
(20:18):
together complement each other.Allow me to claim my title as
extra virgin olive oil. Sotasting is a crucial part, not
just for a fun experience, butalso to help guide the
consumers. It is an actual jobdone in tasting panels according
to very specific standards.
David Sandstrom (20:38):
Yeah, yeah. That's That's great. That is so
such a great quality controlstandard that you volunteer to
hold yourself to, I think thatreally separates you from many
of the olive oil producersaround the world. Really, go
ahead
Marianna Devetzoglou (20:54):
It's not exactly volunteering. It's
actually demanded by law. Oh,really, if I don't, ifI don't do
it and I get caught, I could bepenalized because I'm missing my
legal documentation. A smallartisan producer will do that,
not just to be safe on the legalside, but also when we get the
(21:19):
results back. Okay, and thetasters have described to us the
personality of the olive oil.This is something that we
communicate to our partners,because it helps them explain
and describe our olive oil totheir customer that has just
walked into the daily shop andis looking for an extra virgin
(21:39):
olive oil,
David Sandstrom (21:41):
Yeah. Okay. All right. Very good. So, so other
lesser quality companies will gothrough this same standard. But
it would it be, would it becorrect? Just to make sure I'm
understanding, you would becorrect to say that? Well, if I,
if I cut my extra virgincertified extra virgin olive oil
by 50% it's still okay for me toput extra virgin olive oil on
(22:02):
the label, but that's notnecessarily all that's in the
bottle. Is that correct kind ofyes, okay, fill in the gaps.
Marianna Devetzoglou (22:14):
You can, you can send a very good batch,
okay, for a tasting analysis,and then bottle all your tanks
are all your tank certified, notnecessarily. So basically,
that's why there are a lotnumbers for traceability and
things like that. Okay, if youget caught, you might be
penalized, so you risk that itdoesn't happen very often, or as
(22:40):
often as we would like, andconsumers usually don't know
that side they walk into thesupermarket, olive oils are
mostlyfor calorific value ratherthan for nutritional value.
David Sandstrom (22:52):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, one of the
points I wanted to make alongthose lines is that if you look
at the published medicalliterature, there's conflicting
information regardingthe healthbenefits to olive oil. There are
some studies that say, Wow, thisis like a miracle food. And then
others say, Well, no, hang on.Maybe not. Some not so much so.
(23:13):
And I, my theory, is that it'sbecause people are using
different grades of olive oil intheir studies. You know you can
have an ethical producer, suchas yourself, doing things right,
and we're going to see some goodresults in the study, or we can
have some low quality stuffthat's called extra virgin and
(23:33):
not produce the same results. Sowould you agree with that?
Marianna Devetzoglou (23:37):
Indeed, all the research has to be done
with extra virgin olive oils,not just any type of olive oil.
People, we all tend to call itjust olive oil, but legally,
okay. And technically, when werefer to plain olive oil, it is
actually a refined oil, meaningit has been treated to become
(24:00):
edible. And the first materialfor that is a non edible oil
that comes out for from pressingmaterials and pressing
facilities. Yes, okay, allow meto explain a bit the the levels
the pyramid. Okay, sure.Everything starts from the
growth, from a healthy growth, ahealthy grow with a healthy
(24:20):
cultivation where you collect,using best practices, and you go
on daily basis to a clean,quality, oriented meal the
pressing facility, okay? Theequivalent to your juicer to
juice your juice. Okay, we leadme to an extra virgin olive oil.
The same process, butwithout somany good practices. I harvest
(24:45):
for five, six days, and then Itake everything together at the
meal. I always have moredecomposing. Maybe the meal is
not so clean, so wellmaintained, I will have a virgin
olive oil. Virgin olive oilstarts having some minor
defects. Defects in olive oilare shortcomings in the nose and
(25:10):
in the mouth that we find thereas a result of bad practices. So
that means that quality isstarting to go down in some
cases where everything goeswrong. Sick fruits, horrible
milk conditions, piling olivesfor days and days on end, can
lead to the production oflampante oil, lump oil.
(25:34):
Basically, this is not edible.It's not fit for human
consumption, but it is refinedusing hexane, which is a
petroleum based agent in veryhigh temperatures, four to 600
Celsius. That is approximately800 Fahrenheit plus, to
deodorize, decolorize, make auniform blend, to make it
(25:58):
edible. So a bottle that writesolive oil is refined. I know
that the word refined in yourvocabulary usually is connected
to purification. You refine yourdiesel and all that. Though, I'm
not comfortable comparing dieselwith extra virgin olive oil for
obvious reasons.Okay, but refinealso means that it wasn't fine
(26:23):
and someone made it fine again.So it's not just olive oil, it's
food that was for throwing away,but we used it.
David Sandstrom (26:36):
Yeah, I want to point something out here. I was
an airline pilot 35 years so Ithink jet airlinersand those
kinds of things. A jet engineburns kerosene. And kerosene is
a very unrefined fuel,and itdoesn't burn very easily. If you
had some sitting in a bowl, forinstance, and threw a match on
it, it would not catch on fire.That doesn't catch on fire very
(26:56):
easily. So in order to get it toignite inside of a jet engine,
it has to go to extremely hightemperatures. And you know what
that temperature is? It's about600 degrees Celsius, and so, so
that's how you that's atemperature you need to burn
this low quality fuel. You'vegot a heat. It extreme.
Soextreme temperatures, eight,900 degrees Fahrenheit. That's a
(27:20):
really hot batch,and to thinkthat that oil is not going to be
damaged in that process iscrazy. I mean, it's just that's,
that's not like, as you said,not an edible fuel, is it not an
edible food? Yes, yeah, crazy.
Marianna Devetzoglou (27:36):
So plain olive oil has this problem.
Regular olive oil, that's whyextra virgin olive oil is
healthier than regular oliveoil, yes, okay, because of the
antioxidants, because of thevitamins in it, because of the
flavor that it brings to thefood, okay? And this is why we
encourage people to read yourlabels. Don't just see an olive
(27:59):
tree photo or an olive on abottle, and just grab it. Yes,
read the label,
David Sandstrom (28:04):
right? So let me clarify. If you're at the
grocery store and you see abottle of olive oil, and next to
it there's an extra virgin oliveoil, there is a big, big
difference.
Marianna Devetzoglou (28:16):
There is a big difference. However, in the
grocery shop, the labeled extravirgin olive oil could be virgin
olive oil, usually or olive oilare mixed. Okay. You can find
mislabeling in grocery shops,right? But for sure, you can
zoom in by rejecting plasticbottles or sign of low quality,
(28:38):
okay, rejecting bottles thatright, bottled in versus product
of that's a small differencethat many consumers don't pay
attention to product of meansproduced cultivated in that
country, bottled in. It's notillegal, but maybe it was
bottled in, I don't know,Greece, but the oils could be
(29:01):
from anywhere else you don'tknow that. Go for dark glass,
because olive oil isphotosensitive, like beer or
metal tin. Go for smallerpackaging, close to your monthly
bi monthly needs, rather than ahuge jug that you open up and it
takes you a year to finish, andas the level goes down, oxygen
(29:23):
is oxidizing and aging.Basically your olive oil,
because olive oil ages, yeah,and of course, the best way is
to look and find and supportsmaller producers. Buy directly
from them, if you can, and lookfor a harvest date. Harvest date
is the birthday of the product.So that means that you know when
(29:47):
it was made, and you know wherein its life cycle you are if you
don't find a harvest date, is ita fresh olive oil? Was it made
from three years ago? How old?Old, is it? There's a big cloud?
David Sandstrom (30:03):
Yeah, yeah. Those are all some really good
points go ahead.
Marianna Devetzoglou (30:07):
And also a very low prices are suspicious
also. And you don't have to pay$100 per per bottle. But the
truth is, always somewhere inthe middle, very low prices are
suspicious.
David Sandstrom (30:18):
Yeah, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna say this.
You know, our grocery storevariety olive oil goes for 12 to
$15 a bottle. Your olive oilsells for 40 Euro? Is that
right? something like that?
Marianna Devetzoglou (30:32):
this year and in the states, yes. Are we
talking about the same size, 500ml, which is, ,
David Sandstrom (30:37):
yeah I couldn't, I couldn't tell you
for sure, probably similar. Idon't, I don't know, similar,
yes, yeah. So there's, there's adifference.
Marianna Devetzoglou (30:47):
There is a difference. And usually with
your cooking and eating habits,you would need approximately,
let's assume that you need abottle per month, correct? Yeah,
your question when you'reswitching to a quality product,
be that olive oil or honey orsomething else, is is 30, 40x
(31:10):
amount of dollars to per monthtoo much on my family budget to
have access to a high quality,extra virgin olive oil, and
ideally that I know who makesit, and anytime I can call and
say, Hey, do you have more? Noamount of stock. The easiest
thing for a producer is to buysomebody else's olive oil, put
it in their bottles and sell it.But is that the transparency and
(31:35):
the ethos and the vision we wantfor our artisan production? Yes,
no, and they select accordingly,
David Sandstrom (31:43):
Right, yeah. Let's go back a little bit to
the to the quality control thatyou put into things. We start
with the trees and the farm,right? So can you, can, can you
talk to us about, you know, whatgoes into the growing process? I
know you're in Greece, andGreece is probably the ideal
location to grow olives, right?And so talk to us a little bit
about that end of
Marianna Devetzoglou (32:04):
it. It's one of the best places to grow
olives, along with otherneighboring Mediterranean
countries, the olive trees,relatively resilient tree so has
managed to grow over centuriesandcenturies in our areas, and
every variety has its ownpersonality, strength and
characteristics and has adjustedto the microclimates that it
(32:27):
has. I emphasize a growth,because a healthy growth with a
healthy soil, profit soil willgive you a healthy cultivation
inour business model and in ourcompany, and I say, mine our
family, we try to applyregenerative farming practices
so we don't want to spray withheavy chemicals. We want to use
(32:49):
minerals that are much morenatural. We want to use a local
ecosystem to enrich that soil,or even use manure from other
animals around us. Let's takeI'll take you to a journey
throughout the year. Okay?Because olive oil is seasonal.
It's made every harvest season,which for the northern
(33:13):
hemesphere is autumn. Okay, thecultivation goes on year round.
Let's start January, February,March. The trees lay dormant,
okay? They never shed theirleaves, but they don't have any
fruit on them. They rest down onthe ground, okay? It's like a
soccer field with beautifulgrass, okay. Around late March,
(33:36):
early April, spring is comingin, everything is starting to
wake up. So this means that onthe ground, the grass is giving
its place to flowers in ourarea, in our growth, what we
have are chamomile daisies, wildyellow flowers and some poppies,
(33:56):
they grow on their own. Sothat's a natural ecosystem. We
love it, we enjoy it, but it hasto go at some point, late April
to early May. I'm preparing formy blooming face every May, the
olive trees give birth so theyneed food. I can either give
(34:18):
them chemical food, or what Ican do is come in with a small
tractor, chop the flowers offand leave them on the soil to
decompose as they decompose.Obviously, the scenery is not as
romantic anymore, but theyreturn the natural nutrients
(34:40):
into the soil in time for myolive trees to absorb them and
be able to give birth to moreflowers. Why do I want to see a
lot of flowers? Because it'slike a funnel. I want to see
lots of them, because not all ofthem will manage to survive and
stay on the tree and. From theones that stay on the tree, not
(35:02):
olives will make it through theharsh, dry, hot summer to make
it to September, October and beharvested in June, July, August.
I think you visited in June.Yes, late June, if I remember
correctly, the crown is moredry, more miserable, compared to
(35:26):
spring and winter. Okay? So thisadds stress on the trees. Lack
of water is a stress for thetree, and our area is suffering
from water we don't irrigate,okay? So it's what they give us
by themselves. We want to havesome stress because look what
happens in nature. How, how,majestically, things work.
(35:50):
Stress in olive trees means thatthey will create antioxidants as
a self defense mechanism toshield themselves against the
hot, dry conditions that they'resuffering. Yeah, and we will
just enjoy these antioxidantswhen we get the olive and the
(36:12):
olive oil. Okay, so some stressis much appreciated. Obviously,
we don't want the trees to diewithin reason. And in September,
October, we're preparing for theharvest. The harvest season now
itself isquite big. LateSeptember, October, November,
December, every producer willstart harvesting when the time
(36:37):
is right for them, depending onthe type of olive oil they want
to make and the resources thatthey have. That's why you see so
many different olive oils, somany different price tags and so
many different options outthere. It's like with the wines.
There are wines and wines, thereare olive oils and olive oils,
David Sandstrom (36:56):
yeah. So there's a lot of similarities
between growing grapes andgrowing olives, right?
Marianna Devetzoglou (37:02):
They're pretty much, yeah, some Yeah,
okay. Grapes are more waterintensive and sensitive,okay,
whereas the olive tree will shedas many fruits as it deems
necessary, but it's not going todie as easily as a grape,
David Sandstrom (37:17):
okay? And you know, I love the concept, I love
the concept that you justtouched on, on the beneficial
stress. You know, our bodiesbenefit from stress. We call
that a hermetic stress. Exerciseis a beneficial stress. You
know, doing a cold plunge or asauna is a hermetic beneficial
stress, if done properly, andthe stress on the tree can
actually produce a higherquality fruit, which is amazing.
(37:40):
I remember, I grew up in SouthFlorida. In Central Florida,
they grow a lot of oranges,primarily for juice, and they
get about one or two freezes peryear, and they'll lose part of
their crop as a result. And Iremember one time this
newscaster was interviewing anorange farmer on an orange
grove, said, you know, what areyou know, what are you going to
(38:01):
do about this freeze? Well, youknow, we take precautions. We
have some fans and heaters, andwe will lose part of the crop
here. And the newscaster wantedto make a big story about how
the devastating loss this was,it was all bad. And the guy
said, you know, this is not allbad, because that freeze
actually makes the fruit thatsurvives better and it's sweeter
(38:22):
and it tastes better. So weactually welcome this as part of
the process and, and that'sexactly what you just said about
about the olive trees, you know,it makes the final product even
better, which I think is socool.
Marianna Devetzoglou (38:35):
True Nature has, I don't know, has
planned everything you have totune into her rhythms, respect
that and try to work with thatprofessional makes diamonds,
after all,
David Sandstrom (38:48):
without getting too, too into the into the
weeds, here, can you talk to usa little bit about thedifferent
ways that the olives can beprocessed at the mill, at the
mill, and you know what can gowrong there, and what you do to
make sure that that is doneproperly.
Marianna Devetzoglou (39:06):
Okay, I'll try not to get too technical on
that. Okay, because whenpressing olives to make extra
virgin olive oil, there are somany parameters. And Millers
that make exquisite olive oilare often called Master millers,
like a maestro. So the baselinefor everything is to have a
(39:27):
healthy fruit. A healthy fruitunder great conditions will give
you an amazing juice. Andunhealthy, bad fruit cannot be
revived to give you an amazingjuice. Okay, so the Miller
cannot do anything, yeah, whenwe get to the pressing facility,
I want you to think of thepressing facility as a line of
(39:48):
steps with only methodologicalequipment, okay, no thermal or
no chemical processes, like inthe refinement process. Yes,
okay. We take the olives, wewash them for two reasons. One
is to cool them down. Becausethey're out. It's hot in
(40:09):
October, maybe November, theywere in the sun. Okay, we want
to bring temperatures down. Thatis what you often read in
labels, cold pressed or coldextracted. That is the better
terminology, okay? And we alsowash them so any dust or soil,
you know, is cleaned off. Thenthe olives are put into the
(40:32):
crusher. The crusher is arotating machine with a hammer
blade, usually, okay, thatcrushes the olives and releases
the droplets of olive oil. Okay.Now my olives have become like a
smoothie. That smoothie behaveslike a dough. Sometimes we might
have to add water into it, andhere is where the tricky stuff
(40:55):
starts. If you add too muchwater, you are at risk of
passing humidity, you know, intoyour olive oil, which will lead
to defects, you need to add justthe right amount to make it
workable without risking it. Sothat's a mirrored experience
also, okay, okay. This is whysometimes we wait for one two
(41:17):
rains before harvesting, becausenature knows how much water she
wants into the fruits the mirrorgoes by experience, trial and
error, and quite often it'serror, because that's the way
you learn. Unfortunately, yeah,so that paste now I I transfer
it with tube to a horizontal,usually blade that does the
(41:41):
following job, helps aggregatethe small droplets of oil that I
released in the crusher intobigger and bigger, bigger drops,
making theolive oil. So theprinciple, in a very, very
simplistic way, is release thedroplets of oil and unite them
(42:03):
again. Now, all I need is to usea centrifuge with which is a
natural process, okay,toseparate that olive oil from
water and from the solids, thepieces of the fruit that were
crushed in the centrifuge. Youknow, materials of different
density upon rotation, theyseparate, and this is how we get
(42:26):
the olive oil out, so the watercan go wrong. The temperature we
want, low temperature, so thatwe can keep as many aromas as I
can and as many antioxidants andpolyphenols as I can Okay?
Otherwise, I'm going to losethem outand about in the making
(42:47):
process. Okay, the machinery hasto be clean so that they don't
contaminate the olive oilpassing through. It's also
important to know, is this amill where like minded producers
go because we go one producerafter the other, so usually like
(43:07):
minded producers tend to flocktowards the same olive mills,
okay? And that also plays arole, and it's up to the
artistry of the miller, okay, tonavigate the settings that we
use when making olive oil.That's why most preferable it is
(43:29):
to use small Mills rather thanhuge ones, because a small meal
can change the parametersdepending on the variety that
you're working a huge mill, likea big machinery has one setting
for everybody so you cannotadjust. Does this cover the
(43:51):
question?
David Sandstrom (43:52):
No, I think you answered it quite well. You
know, I just wanted to break itdown, yeah, no, I wanted to ask
you that question, just toillustrate how many things go
wrong with a low qualityproduction, and how many things
go into a high qualityproduction. And you are so
knowledgeable when it comes tothis process. I mean, you're
rare find. Most people can'ttalk about this process the way
(44:16):
you do. And I really love theway you explain you do things so
so clearly and so well, it'sjust, it's a pleasure speaking
with you.
Marianna Devetzoglou (44:24):
Thank you. It's a process that not many
people have seen or will eversee in their life, so it's
important to try and paralyze itsomehow to another process that
we go through on a daily basis.Think of making your orange
juice if your juicer is in badshape. If you're in a hurry, if
you never clean it, things likethat, your juice will be
(44:46):
contaminated. Same here, themilk is very important. If I get
too hot, lots of water, badmachinery, low maintenance, my
juice will come out wrongly,right? So to do all these
things, it means labor, workers,hands, okay, it inareas, back
(45:08):
and forth every day with halfempty truck, because how many
olives can you take within aday? Education, going to
workshops, maintenance, everyyear. These things cost, and
this is why it adds to the priceof the product at the end of the
day.
David Sandstrom (45:27):
Yeah, for sure. I just want to circle back on a
couple more questions or wrapthings up here. But you talked
about having a harvest date onthe bottle, which your bottles
do, right? Helpme out, Where's,where's the harvest state here?
Oh, there it is, right on theback. I'm gonna put that up to
the camera. So, so there it is,right there. There's a harvest
date. So full disclosure withyour products. I love it. So
(45:48):
how, how old can an olive oil beand still maintainits quality?
Marianna Devetzoglou (45:55):
Well, that's a tricky, tricky
question. Olive Oil in general,unlike wine, it doesn't get
better time? Okay, it doesn'texpire. And this is why it has a
best by date rather than anexpiry date. Are we familiar
with the difference betweenthese two?
David Sandstrom (46:12):
Yes, I think so. I mean, expire is throw it
out. best by is you may losesome quality, but it's not going
to be toxic,
Marianna Devetzoglou (46:21):
Exactly so with olive oil, because it is
also a natural preservative,okay? The legislation foresees
that you can give a best byshelf dates of 18 to 24 months
here where things are startingto be a bit some people
(46:41):
translate it Okay, from bottlingor from opening the bottle,
there is a cloud here. Yes, thetruth is, and not many people
realize this, that extra virginolive oil is born every year,
every year we sell, we give youare years olive oil. So time is
(47:05):
ticking from the moment ofbirth, and that's the harvest
date. So you know the birthday,because I can produce it in
October, November, keep it in mytongue for a year. Bottle it's
and give you another two years.So you get a three year old
olive oil. Again, it doesn'texpire, but it's starting to
lose its quality. Yes, thehigher the quality it is born,
(47:29):
the slower andmore graceful theaging, whereas the lower the
quantity its life is going to beshort and miserable. I dare say
yes. And why does it happen?Because antioxidants stabilize
extra virgin olive oil. We wantantioxidants because we were
we're going to live longer andbetter. Same for the olive oil,
(47:52):
it has antioxidants and it liveslonger and better. Okay, you can
consume it after the two yearspass, but you should keep in
mind that maybe the intensity ofaromas of bitterness or pungency
has gone down because it'saging. That's inevitable. So
this is another reason why youshouldn't save it for a special
(48:14):
occasion. Otherwise waste ofmoney and olive oil. Have to use
it on a daily basis. Yeah, verygood. Quantity is up to you.
David Sandstrom (48:24):
Yeah, okay. Now, as far as consuming it
goes, I know you talked abouthow the the food on your plate
is the protagonist, and theolive oil should be adding to
the flavor of the food, right?So would you recommend using
olive oil on top of food on yourplate. Do you cook with it? Or
how do you recommend consumingit?
Marianna Devetzoglou (48:47):
Well, in Greece and in most Mediterranean
countries, we use extra virginolive oil for everything, for
baking, for marinating, forcooking, for pan frying. I don't
even go into deep frying. That'sa bad habit, regardless of the
oil that you use, okay forsauteing as well. So
(49:10):
myrecommendation is that you canuse it everywhere. The
antioxidants would stabilize itand will help it be a stronger
oil, even against heat, you willlose some antioxidants in the
process, because whentemperatures rise, all oils
become sensitive to that, okay,but I wouldrather lose some
antioxidants and not gain asmany harmful compounds myself,
(49:34):
rather than protect my extravirgin olive oil forever and I'm
unshielded against the compoundsformed when frying. Okay, so the
the job of the of the product isto protect me, not the other way
around. So you can use it inyour salads and vinegarettes.
You can cook with it if youdon't want to cook, then you can
(49:57):
do your cooking in yourcasserole, turn the heat off.
Off and then pour extra virginolive oil mix and let it sit for
10 to 15, minutes. This issomething that we do sometimes
when we cook for babies, okay,so that they have olive oil for
the antioxidants and the flavor,but as close to his raw form,
which is always the best aspossible.
David Sandstrom (50:19):
I love it. That's that's really good.
Marianna Devetzoglou (50:21):
Yeah, on on top of pet of pasta. Okay,
you can use it in your what isit called for the oven, the pan
for the oven. Okay, I dosomething to caramelize my
onions, my peppers, mushrooms,things like that. I do make my
scrambled eggs, my omelet nowthat in a pan frying and, of
(50:43):
course, not really AtlanticOcean inside your frying pan,
just a little bit is enough.You're gonna have to already do
David Sandstrom (50:51):
I like it. So personally, I like to saute and
cook in saturated fat. So I willuse butter or tallow, beef
tallow or coconut oil, becausethe saturated fat is more
stable, less subject tooxidationduring the heating
process, and less subject todamage. So I don't cook with
olive oil. Personally, I love touse the saturated fats for that,
(51:12):
but I love putting it on food,and it's really great for that.
So that's personally, what I do.Let's see. One other thing I
wanted to ask you about was
it.
Marianna Devetzoglou (51:22):
one thing I would like to note for the
frying. I know a lot of peoplesay, Do not fry with extra
virgin olive oil. You're killingit antioxidants, or it's not
good for you. If it's a qualityextra virgin olive oil, it's one
of the best oils for frying. Thereason for that is that the
(51:42):
antioxidants provide thatstability and balance that we
want. So it's a healthy fat,okay, especially for pan frying,
deep frying, I would avoid it,yeah? Frying, you go to
McDonald's and you get and youget it. Okay, so if well
produced and quality oriented.It's one of the best oils that
(52:04):
you can use and buy, even tohigh temperatures, thanks to
your antioxidants. And I'm goingto get into lots of the
chemistry that happens inside ofit, because we're going to get
very technical, okay, but thekey is the antioxidants. Yeah,
olive oil, which is refined, hasno antioxidants, therefore, yes,
(52:25):
it's not a good option to use inhigh temperatures.
David Sandstrom (52:28):
Very good. Thank you for saying that, and
correct me if I'm wrong.Marianna, but it's the high
monounsaturated fat content. Theoleic acid in olive oil is what
protects the the oxidation iswhat shields the the oil from
damage. Is that correct?
Marianna Devetzoglou (52:47):
Well, it's a stable fat chain, but also
it's the antioxidants thatshield it, and they're working
as a sacrifice, sacrificingsoldiers against any compounds
that threaten the balance andthestability of that. That's why
they say that you're going tokill some of your antioxidants.
David Sandstrom (53:04):
Yeah. So all the more reason for pursuing
quality right from the rightfrom the farm or from the grove
into the bottle. So the way youwhere you grow the product, the
way you mill the product, whereyou produce it, where you the
bottle you put it in, how youstore it, and how you use it, it
all plays into maintaining thedelicate balance of those
antioxidants and the oils thatproduce preserve those health
(53:29):
benefits.
Marianna Devetzoglou (53:30):
Exactly. And when we get at the level of
the consumer, you also have totake care of your olive oil,
meaning that you can pay as muchmoney as you want to buy an
amazing extra virgin olive oil.Okay? If you keep it uncovered,
then you're exposed to oxygen.If you keep itnext to your stove
all the time, where it gets hotcontinuously, you accelerate its
(53:55):
aging. If you put it on yourwindows and every day the sun
says, Hello, there. It's nice,romantic, very good. But
accelerates. That's why storageis important. To avoid
rancidity, meaning aging. Keepit in a dark, cool place, like
your pantry, or if you have awine cellar at home, you can
keep it in your wine cellar.Take it out, use it, put it
(54:16):
back. Very good. Keep it closed.
David Sandstrom (54:19):
Very good. That's such good advice.
Marianna, you are such aboatload of wisdom. I just, I
just really, just really enjoythis, and
Marianna Devetzoglou (54:28):
I'm trying to study myself even, even more
okay, because knowledge is, youknow, never ending,
David Sandstrom (54:33):
yeah, yeah, lifelong learner, right? There's
always new things to learn. Sojust to wrap things up, what
would you consider to be themost important thing we talked
about? Or what would you like toleave the listeners with?
Marianna Devetzoglou (54:46):
Well, I think the most important thing
is that you can't really trustlots of labels and food,
especially in grocery shops, andit's very important to look
beyond that, learn about yourfood where it comes. Is from who
makes it? It's what you'reputting your body, and it's your
fuel. Some people say, Oh, mycar this and my car that they
(55:08):
would never put a low qualityfuel into their car, right? Why
would you put a low quality fuelinto your body? And you only
have one body for this lifetime,at least
David Sandstrom (55:18):
Amen sister,.
Marianna Devetzoglou (55:20):
Exactly. So try to look beyond that.
Learn who makes your food andsupporting small producers, not
just thought of all producers,small producers of food is
really critical for the wellbeing and our health. And after
all, our health is our wealth atthe end of the day. So it would
be an honor for our listeners toto hold on to that, look for
(55:46):
small productions and learnabout your food.
David Sandstrom (55:50):
Excellent. That's great advice. So if
someone is resonating with thismessage and they're like, I want
to get a hold of some of thisolive oil, how do they do that?
How do they get in touch withyou? How do they order your
products?
Marianna Devetzoglou (56:00):
Well, we're in the phase of building
our key shop, and they can findus on Olepsophia.com and in the
contact form, there's also mytelephone number. So people can
reach out on WhatsApp with me tospeak directly. They can ask me
any question. And I have toadmit that despite having the
time difference or having manymessages from different people,
(56:23):
I love the connection, becausethat way it shows that they are
interested and I understand whatthey are looking to understand
as well. So you can find us onOleosophia.com, on social media,
Facebook and Instagram@Oleosophia, even if you text
it's me behind the brand for asmall family, so it's either me
(56:44):
or George, basically. So youknow the who is who, and
gradually, are people that wantto stay connected and stay
informed. I have a contact formin the website where they can
subscribe, and we alwayscommunicate to our community
(57:04):
when the fresh olive oil is out,any updates, any news, any new
products or things that we do, Idon't spam because I'm for one
or two people, so we don't emailvery frequently. Don't be
scared. But this is our way ofcommunicating with our
Oleosophers, excellent.
David Sandstrom (57:22):
I encourage everybody to go to the website.
And I don't want to say this,most of my listeners are in the
United States. And what, what wedid was, when we came home after
we tasted your products, I waslike this, this is what I'm
going to be eating, sort of beproviding for my family and but
it is kind of difficult to ordera whole case, because you only
going to use, as you said, Maybea bottle a month. So I got a
(57:43):
couple of friends thatunderstood a little bit about
nutrition, because I've knownthem for a while, and they they
listen to me talk, and theyunderstand the value of getting
a quality olive oil. So we wentin two other families and us, we
bought a case, and you ship itto us. Came. It came really
fast,too. I was surprised. Amongfew days it arrived. So it's
pretty easy to do, folks, thisis not hard to get. And I, you
(58:04):
know, I'm not kidding. I waslooking for for many months, if
not years, for a quality sourceof olive oil. Couldn't find it
until we met Marianna. And this,this is, this is, you know, a
gold mine here. So I highlyencourage anybody listening to
pick up some products. Make ithappen. You won't be sorry.
Marianna Devetzoglou (58:21):
Thank you very much for that
recommendation. Indeed, theshipping is very quick. If I get
on the plane to bring it to youmyself, I don't think I can
arrive any quicker than that.And yes, I do encourage people
as well to merge orders if theyfeel that. You know, a whole
case is too much I do sometimescombos or fours or sixes or
(58:43):
twelves, depending onproduction. And one thing is
that if people reach out andsomething is out of stock
because it finished, I'm goingto tell them that it's out of
stock. Can you please wait untilI have the fresh one? This is
transparency and this is reallife, because nature doesn't
produce everything in abundance.Okay? So when we're close to the
(59:06):
end of season, right now, I'malmost out of stock, actually,
but in two months, we're goingto have the fresh olive oil
that's people register their preordering or what they would like
to have once it's out. So I knowit might sound a bit sad at the
moment. Oh, she doesn't haveolive oil right now, but it's
better for me to tell you thatthe fresh one is coming up,
(59:26):
rather than find somewhere oliveoil for you,
David Sandstrom (59:31):
exactly you could. You could find some low
quality olive oil, put it in aball and sell it. You know, when
you're out of stock, but you'renot going to compromise your
quality that way.
Marianna Devetzoglou (59:40):
No, that's not the vision that I have for I
left a very good job that Ipreviously had to do this. So I
want to stay true to to thatvision and step by step, for
getting this
David Sandstrom (59:52):
excellent I appreciate that. Marianna, thank
you so much for being on theshow today. Really, really
enjoyed this conversation,
Marianna Devetzoglou (59:59):
for hosting. Me. And for the lovely
questions, if anyone has any anyquestions and they send them
over to you, you can pass themto me, or now they know where to
find me. It will be an honor.Okay.
David Sandstrom (01:00:12):
Well, thanks again. God bless
Marianna Devetzoglou (01:00:14):
Thank you very much, David. Thank you
David Sandstrom (01:00:17):
for more. Go to the show notes page at
Christianhealthylifestyle.com/165there you can findan audio as
well as a video version of thepodcast. You can also leave me a
voicemail there and ask me aquestion, and I'll answer your
question on an upcoming episode.And if you're enjoying this
show, I encourage you to followthis show on Spotify. I think
(01:00:39):
Spotify is the best podcastlistening platform out there
right now. It supports audio andvideo as well as comments. You
can leave me a comment there,ask me a question there as well.
Now don't forget to stick aroundfor next week's episode, because
I'm going to be doing alifestyle audit with a listener
by the name of Missy, and we'retalking all things weight loss.
If you have weight loss on yourmind this time of year, you want
(01:01:00):
to tune into that episode. It'sgot to be really good. Don't
miss it. That's it for now.Thank you for listening. I
appreciate you. Go out there andlive abundantly. I'll talk with
you next time. Be blessed. You.
I think the most important thing is that
(00:02):
you can't really trust lots oflabels and food, especially in
grocery shops. And it's veryimportant to look beyond that,
learn about your food, where itcomes from, who makes it. It's
what you put in your body, andit's your fuel. Some people say,
Oh, my car, they said in my carthat they would never put a low
quality fuel into their car,right? Why would you put a low
(00:25):
quality fuel into your body, andyou only have one body for this
lifetime, at least
David Sandstrom (00:31):
Amen, sister,
Marianna Devetzoglou (00:33):
exactly. So try to look beyond that.
Learn who makes your food andsupporting small producers, not
just all involved producers,small producers of food is
really critical for the wellbeing and our health. And after
all, our health is our wealth atthe end of the day,
David Sandstrom (00:56):
Welcome to the Christian Healthy Lifestyle
podcast. If you're new to theshow, this is where I help
Christians over 40 maximizetheir health potential so they
can age gracefully and liveabundantly. I'm your host. David
Sandstrom, naturopathic doctorand biblical health coach, and
this is episode number 165 todaywe have in the show Mariana
Devetzoglou with a physicsbackground. Mariana created
(01:19):
Oleosophia, a company thatproduces award winning extra
virgin olive oil, a certifiedolive oil taster. She hosts
tastings, experiences andseminars. Her journey was
powered by a personal lovestory, and through Oleosophia,
she guides us into the amazingworld of olive oil. Marianna,
welcome to Christian healthylifestyle.
Marianna Devetzoglou (01:39):
Hello, David. Thank you very much for
inviting me, and it's so nice tobe here with you to discuss all
things olive oil.
David Sandstrom (01:46):
Absolutely it's a pleasure having you on. You
know, my wife and I were there acouple of months ago, and we did
a tour of your your olive oliveoil farm. And it was just
fantastic. And I learned somuch. And I said, Man, I've
would really love to have you onthe on the show, make an episode
out of it, because I learned somuch, and I'm sure the listeners
are going to learn a lot toofrom this conversation.
Marianna Devetzoglou (02:08):
Thank you. I hope so too. So
David Sandstrom (02:11):
tell us a little bit about your
background. You have a degree inphysics, right? Yes,
Marianna Devetzoglou (02:17):
I have an urban background, meaning I was
born and raised in Athens, sonothing to do with agriculture,
and I studied physics in Athensand London. I got involved into
the olive oil industry when Imet George. George, now he's my
husband, so I was a horribleolive oil consumer, and I
learned a lot of things whenmeeting George and his family.
(02:40):
Through meeting the family, Ilearned about the problems in
the olive oil industry, and thatintrigued me to learn more and
improve my lifestyle and myquality of food. So I decided to
pursue an olive oil education.So apart from being a physicist,
I'm also a certified olive oilsommeriaAnd taster, and last
(03:00):
year, I finished my master'sdegree with the Spanish School
of olive oil as well. So wefounded Oli Sophia. I'm the
founder, and it's a woman ledbusiness. And we take the
family's olive oil and wecommunicated directly to fine
food stores and deli shops, and,of course, directly to our
community of oleosophers. We dothis because the previous
(03:23):
business model for the family,George's family, Abby was to
sell bulk and traders, so allthe beautiful quality
characteristics were lost in thevast sea of olive oils. Yeah. We
started our journey in 2018 theyear that we got married, and we
continue with our journey.
David Sandstrom (03:44):
Excellent. Well, you know, a few episodes
ago, in episodes 141 and 142 Italked about saturated fat and
vegetable oils, or seed oils,and I was discouraging people
from consuming excessive amountsof polyunsaturated fatty acids.
But olive oil is different. Itis. It's not an animal based
product. It still is a plantbased product, but it's very low
(04:08):
in polyunsaturated fatty acidsand high in monounsaturated
fatty acids, which reallytransforms the properties of
that oil and it becomes a healthfood.
So can you talk to us a littlebit about the health benefits of
consuming quality extra virginolive oil?
Marianna Devetzoglou (04:24):
Yes, of course. First of all, I know
that there are lots ofinternational trains for fat
free diets and things like that,but we do need fat in our life,
just in moderation and the righttype of fat. So extra virgin
olive oil, which basically isthe natural fruit juice that
comes from the fruit of theolive tree. That is the olive
(04:47):
Okay, contains more healthy fat,unsaturated than unhealthy fat.
It is reaching high. It is richin antioxidants, as vitamin E,
vitamin A, polyphenols. That arevery good against inflammations,
so that helps protect our heartreduce inflammation within our
(05:08):
body. If Polyphenols are a typeof antioxidants, and also they
seem because there are ongoingresearch to help shield
ourselves and slow down thedevelopment of new
neurodegenerative diseases.That's Alzhiemers, Parkinson's
dementia, multiple sclerosis,things that we get because, you
(05:32):
know, we get older, and as weget older, of course, more
things are starting to work, notas good as they did before, and
that is inevitable. Yeah. So italso protects us against high
blood pressure. It helps us haveit more reduced, but pressure
(05:55):
and all that is that's somethingthat I emphasize always. It's if
we consume it on a daily basis,it's proactive. I'm building up
my shield. Rather than I gotsick, I'm gonna get some extra
virgin olive oil to get better.It's part of a holistically good
(06:17):
and well rounded and balanceddiet, a little bit of
everything, basically,
David Sandstrom (06:21):
yeah, yeah. I really like that approach. Now
this is Christian healthylifestyle, because our lifestyle
choices have a lot to do withhow we how well we age, and how
resilient our bodiesare topreventing things like cognitive
decline and wrinkled skin andyou know, all of those things,
any chronic degenerative diseasecan be addressed much more
(06:43):
effectively with lifestylechoices than they can with
drugs. So you know, I totallyagree with what you just said,
that olive oil is a part of ahealthy lifestyle, but we got to
make sure we're getting qualityolive oil and we're consuming it
in the right way.
So talk to us a little bitabout, if you would the
difference in, you know,everyday grocery store variety
(07:07):
olive oil and your extra virginolive oil. I mean, there's a lot
to talk about there, but goahead, you got the floor.
Marianna Devetzoglou (07:13):
Well, thank you. Well, the olive oil
industry is a huge industry andhas no borders, which means that
on a global level, there's lotsof money involved.
Unfortunately, olive oil is oneofthe most popular products for
mislabeling and adulteration andfraud. That being said, our
(07:35):
chances of finding authenticextra virgin olive oil at a
supermarket are quite slim,okay, everywhere, including
Greece, actually anotherproducing country.
David Sandstrom (07:47):
I thought that was just United States. Go over
there as well, huh?
Marianna Devetzoglou (07:52):
No, you're not alone in that. We'll keep
you company. Olive oil.Countries are not an exception
to that, unfortunately. So hereas well the olive oil education
needs to grow more and morecustomers have to get to know
more about what we actuallyconsume. Overall, olive oils
that end up in large groceryshops tend to be mislabeled or
(08:16):
old and adulterated mixed withother oils. This means that
sometimes we buy what is labeledas extra virgin olive oil,
thinking it is extra virginolive oil, and it ends up being
something completely different.Yeah. I do respect people that
want to purchase something else,but as long as you know it that
(08:38):
it is something else, yeah, sothe extra virgin olive oil that
we make as artists andproductions, because we work
with a small production that weonly sell to our philosophers
and do some select fine foodstores around the world, is
produced from healthy fruitsthat are harvested in the best
way and are pressed within 12 tomaximum 24 hours from
(09:03):
collection. This is so crucial,because the olive fruit,
unfortunately, once picked fromthe tree, it's dead, so it
starts decomposing, and unlikeOranges and Lemons, and
decomposes very quickly. So youcannot make a fresh fruit juice
with all the nutritional valuefrom a fruit that is decomposed.
(09:28):
And this is a main reason whyExtra Virgin Olive Oil of high
quality is not an abundantproduct and not a very cheap
product, because harvesting inthe morning and going to the
press at nights. Okay? Every daymeans more labor, more
itineraries. I'm losing moreolive oil every time I go
(09:49):
through the pressing facilityversus, let's say, a more mass
oriented production, I willcollect for several days, and at
the end of those days, I'mgonna. Patch everything up in my
truck and go once to the milk.So think of your olive oil like
your orange juice. You wantfresh oranges to make an amazing
(10:10):
orange juice. You want freshhealthy olives to make an
amazing extra virgin olive oil.Extra Virgin Olive Oil has a
beautiful chemical composition,amazing aromas that connect to
the variety of the olives thatdepressed and no defects. So
it's born in perfection.
David Sandstrom (10:33):
Yeah, that's great. That's a great summary,
you know. And I've known aboutthe the problem with olive oil,
ordinary, grocery store varietyolive oil being adulterated for
quite some time. Why do youthink that? Is that it's such a
common practice, it would seemthat there would be some type of
legislation that would preventthat. But if there is, they're
not effective. What are yourthoughts on that?
Marianna Devetzoglou (10:54):
Well, money is big, so big
corporations, they need to feedthe masses and have a lot of
food available. So you cannot gowith an artisan small
production. You have tocultivate more super
intensively. You have to mix,maybe olive oils from different
(11:14):
years and different places inorder to increase your
quantities and have them readilyavailable for the supermarket.
So this is a food crisisstarting from the grove and the
soil all the way to consumereducation and consumer behavior.
There are legislations in theStates and also in the in the
(11:37):
European Union. But that doesn'tmean that all companies abide to
these legislation. Controls arerandom, so if and when I get
caught, there might be a penaltyto pay, which is not so big
compared to the revenues.Therefore it's worth the risk.
That's the cost of doingbusiness sometimes, whereas a
(11:59):
smaller producer, not only isfinding it difficult to pay that
penalty, but also it's our nameout in the market. And sadly,
sometimes consumers mightbetrade or misguided, and you
walk into a shop and then thereis buy two, get free, and
(12:21):
everyone forgets everything,
David Sandstrom (12:23):
right? Yeah, well, you know, I like to think
of it this way, and that is,these people are trying to make
a living, right? They want tohave a company that's
profitable. Issue, becauseyou're not profitable, you're
not going to be around, right?And because they don't know an
awful lot about nutrition, theydon't see a problem with
adulterating the oil would, youknow, it's something like, I
don't know what they would putin there, but it's, I know it's
(12:44):
a seed oil. Canola oil is verypopular here in the States and
Canada. Soybean oil is anothervery, very popular large crop,
much less expensive here in theStates, because those crops and
corn oil as well, are heavilysubsidized by the federal
government, so they can get thatproduct really inexpensively.
(13:04):
And it's, as we talked about onyour tour, a highly processed
really, you could call it atoxic product, and they
adulterate their extra virginolive oil with it because it
dramatically reduces the cost,and because they don't know
enough about nutrition andanatomy and physiology, how that
those oils will react in ourbodies. They don't see any
(13:26):
ethical problem with it. Sotherefore, it is rampant in the
industry. And I really thoughtthat if I went to some of the
big health food store chainshere in the US, I was going to
be safe. I thought that for awhile, but after doing your
tour, and when you taught mywife and I How to taste real
olive oil, I tasted yourproduct. And by the way, I have
(13:47):
your product right here. This,this is, this is Oleoophia.
Olive oil came from Greece. Weordered by the case with some
friends that are like minded andunderstand the value in paying a
little bit more for quality.This is quality, folks. And I'm
telling you, if you taste thisoil, this olive oil alongside
your your high, you ah, quote,extra virgin olive oil from all
(14:09):
right, I'm just going to use thename Whole Foods or Trader Joe's
that are promoting themselvesas, you know, a health food
store, there's a big difference.You know, right away, all you
got to do isget that olive oilnear your nose and you can tell
that there's a difference, letalone tasting it. I mean, so
anyway, I want a little bit of arant or rant there.
But can you talk to us a littlebit about how you can
(14:35):
distinguish between low qualityand high quality? Extra virgin
olive oil.
Marianna Devetzoglou (14:42):
Of course, it takes some practice and some
education, but overall,consumers are used to low
quality olive oils, and theythink that this is what extra
virgin olive oil feels, tastesand smells like when we taste an
extra virgin olive oil, ah. Weshould keep in mind that it's a
fruit juice, therefore it has tosmell fruity. So fruitiness is
(15:07):
the first characteristic thatwe're lookingfor in an extra
virgin olive oil. Thisfruitiness can refer to all the
aromas that we can smell. Andthe aroma range is a huge has a
huge spectrum we're talkingabout fresh fruits, vegetables,
herbs, almonds, nuts. We havegreen aromas, meaning aromas
(15:30):
that reminds us of fruits andvegetables when they are unripe
and therefore usually green. Wehave sweet aromas, aromas that
remind us of fruits andvegetables when they're more
mature. Think ofthe tomatobasically, when it's green and
ripe. That's a green aroma. Whenit turns more mature, becomes
redder and softer. That's sweetaroma. Okay, so I need to smell
(15:56):
fresh and nature. Then when Itaste it, I need to find some
level of bitterness and somelevel of pungency. Bitterness
and pungency. Pungency is thispeppery sensation that we feel
here inthe upper far links, andquite often, most people call it
peppery or spicy. Okay, sobitternessand pungency are
(16:21):
there? Why? Because the fruititself, if you bite it from the
tree, it's super bitter,therefore the fruit juice will
have some bitterness. Also.Antioxidants and Polyphenols are
responsible for the bitternessand the pungency in our extra
virgin olive oil. So whenyoutaste an olive oil that is
(16:42):
more bland and there is noflavor, there is no aroma to it,
you should be suspicious,whereas when you smell an olive
oil that has a personality, hasno vibrance into it, oh, we have
something here. Yeah, at thispoint I'd like to add an answer.
Is that just like in wines, wehave different grapes that give
(17:03):
us different wine personalities.Same here we have different
olive varieties that give usdifferent olive oils. So you can
comeacross a delicate olive oil,extra virgin olive oil, a medium
extra virgin olive oil, or arobust extra virgin olive oil,
just because the variety is suchthat it gives you the respective
(17:27):
expression at that so at thatpoint, you need to consider, is
it quality? One, yes, no, andthendo I like it? So finding
your olive oil means that youneed to experiment. You need to
taste and you need to alsopractice at home by smelling
your fresh fruits andvegetables, scratch them in bed
(17:49):
and smell them before cookingthem.
David Sandstrom (17:51):
Yeah, yeah. What a great analogy there, for
sure. I mean, you can take anold vegetable and freeze it, and
when you unfreeze it, it's stillan old vegetable, right? It
doesn't get any better after itstarts to rot, right? So same is
true with olive oil. And I knowthat that maybe we could talk
about this in a minute, that youput you go to great lengths at
(18:15):
your, at your, your, your grove.We call it an olive oil an olive
tree grove. Is that what we callit? Yes, you go to great lengths
to protect the soil and dothings the way nature intended
to grow your trees in a naturalfashion, and I know that you
don't use chemical fertilizersand those kinds of things, but
let me put that on back burnerfor just a minute. I want to
(18:37):
stay here on the tasting.
And I know that you send yourproducts at random to a tasting
agency over in Spain. So canyou, can you talk to us a little
bit about that?
Marianna Devetzoglou (18:48):
Yes, it's not a tasting agency in Spain.
In Spain is where theheadquarters of the
International olive Council are.The headquarters the
international olive Council isthe grand regulator of all
things olive oil, and they haveestablished certified tasting
(19:08):
panels in many countries. Ofcourse, olive oil producing
countries and some What are morein the consuming side. And
legally, I'm obligated to sendsamples of my production for a
chemicalanalysis, because foodand life are also chemistry and
for a tasting evaluation, theterminology is sensory or
(19:33):
organoleptic evaluation. Soalthough, as a taster myself,
when I work in production, Itaste for my quality assurance,
I need to go through thiscertified panel, because one
person cannot issue such acertification and unbiased.
These panels consist of tastersthat receive samples and blindly
(19:56):
evaluate them and write back toyou extra. Virgin, virgin or
plain olive oil, depending onthe quality category that the
samples fallinto, only when Ihave a positive sensory
evaluation and a positivechemical evaluation. These two
(20:18):
together complement each other.Allow me to claim my title as
extra virgin olive oil. Sotasting is a crucial part, not
just for a fun experience, butalso to help guide the
consumers. It is an actual jobdone in tasting panels according
to very specific standards.
David Sandstrom (20:38):
Yeah, yeah. That's That's great. That is so
such a great quality controlstandard that you volunteer to
hold yourself to, I think thatreally separates you from many
of the olive oil producersaround the world. Really, go
ahead
Marianna Devetzoglou (20:54):
It's not exactly volunteering. It's
actually demanded by law. Oh,really, if I don't, ifI don't do
it and I get caught, I could bepenalized because I'm missing my
legal documentation. A smallartisan producer will do that,
not just to be safe on the legalside, but also when we get the
(21:19):
results back. Okay, and thetasters have described to us the
personality of the olive oil.This is something that we
communicate to our partners,because it helps them explain
and describe our olive oil totheir customer that has just
walked into the daily shop andis looking for an extra virgin
(21:39):
olive oil,
David Sandstrom (21:41):
Yeah. Okay. All right. Very good. So, so other
lesser quality companies will gothrough this same standard. But
it would it be, would it becorrect? Just to make sure I'm
understanding, you would becorrect to say that? Well, if I,
if I cut my extra virgincertified extra virgin olive oil
by 50% it's still okay for me toput extra virgin olive oil on
(22:02):
the label, but that's notnecessarily all that's in the
bottle. Is that correct kind ofyes, okay, fill in the gaps.
Marianna Devetzoglou (22:14):
You can, you can send a very good batch,
okay, for a tasting analysis,and then bottle all your tanks
are all your tank certified, notnecessarily. So basically,
that's why there are a lotnumbers for traceability and
things like that. Okay, if youget caught, you might be
penalized, so you risk that itdoesn't happen very often, or as
(22:40):
often as we would like, andconsumers usually don't know
that side they walk into thesupermarket, olive oils are
mostlyfor calorific value ratherthan for nutritional value.
David Sandstrom (22:52):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, one of the
points I wanted to make alongthose lines is that if you look
at the published medicalliterature, there's conflicting
information regardingthe healthbenefits to olive oil. There are
some studies that say, Wow, thisis like a miracle food. And then
others say, Well, no, hang on.Maybe not. Some not so much so.
(23:13):
And I, my theory, is that it'sbecause people are using
different grades of olive oil intheir studies. You know you can
have an ethical producer, suchas yourself, doing things right,
and we're going to see some goodresults in the study, or we can
have some low quality stuffthat's called extra virgin and
(23:33):
not produce the same results. Sowould you agree with that?
Marianna Devetzoglou (23:37):
Indeed, all the research has to be done
with extra virgin olive oils,not just any type of olive oil.
People, we all tend to call itjust olive oil, but legally,
okay. And technically, when werefer to plain olive oil, it is
actually a refined oil, meaningit has been treated to become
(24:00):
edible. And the first materialfor that is a non edible oil
that comes out for from pressingmaterials and pressing
facilities. Yes, okay, allow meto explain a bit the the levels
the pyramid. Okay, sure.Everything starts from the
growth, from a healthy growth, ahealthy grow with a healthy
(24:20):
cultivation where you collect,using best practices, and you go
on daily basis to a clean,quality, oriented meal the
pressing facility, okay? Theequivalent to your juicer to
juice your juice. Okay, we leadme to an extra virgin olive oil.
The same process, butwithout somany good practices. I harvest
(24:45):
for five, six days, and then Itake everything together at the
meal. I always have moredecomposing. Maybe the meal is
not so clean, so wellmaintained, I will have a virgin
olive oil. Virgin olive oilstarts having some minor
defects. Defects in olive oilare shortcomings in the nose and
(25:10):
in the mouth that we find thereas a result of bad practices. So
that means that quality isstarting to go down in some
cases where everything goeswrong. Sick fruits, horrible
milk conditions, piling olivesfor days and days on end, can
lead to the production oflampante oil, lump oil.
(25:34):
Basically, this is not edible.It's not fit for human
consumption, but it is refinedusing hexane, which is a
petroleum based agent in veryhigh temperatures, four to 600
Celsius. That is approximately800 Fahrenheit plus, to
deodorize, decolorize, make auniform blend, to make it
(25:58):
edible. So a bottle that writesolive oil is refined. I know
that the word refined in yourvocabulary usually is connected
to purification. You refine yourdiesel and all that. Though, I'm
not comfortable comparing dieselwith extra virgin olive oil for
obvious reasons.Okay, but refinealso means that it wasn't fine
(26:23):
and someone made it fine again.So it's not just olive oil, it's
food that was for throwing away,but we used it.
David Sandstrom (26:36):
Yeah, I want to point something out here. I was
an airline pilot 35 years so Ithink jet airlinersand those
kinds of things. A jet engineburns kerosene. And kerosene is
a very unrefined fuel,and itdoesn't burn very easily. If you
had some sitting in a bowl, forinstance, and threw a match on
it, it would not catch on fire.That doesn't catch on fire very
(26:56):
easily. So in order to get it toignite inside of a jet engine,
it has to go to extremely hightemperatures. And you know what
that temperature is? It's about600 degrees Celsius, and so, so
that's how you that's atemperature you need to burn
this low quality fuel. You'vegot a heat. It extreme.
Soextreme temperatures, eight,900 degrees Fahrenheit. That's a
(27:20):
really hot batch,and to thinkthat that oil is not going to be
damaged in that process iscrazy. I mean, it's just that's,
that's not like, as you said,not an edible fuel, is it not an
edible food? Yes, yeah, crazy.
Marianna Devetzoglou (27:36):
So plain olive oil has this problem.
Regular olive oil, that's whyextra virgin olive oil is
healthier than regular oliveoil, yes, okay, because of the
antioxidants, because of thevitamins in it, because of the
flavor that it brings to thefood, okay? And this is why we
encourage people to read yourlabels. Don't just see an olive
(27:59):
tree photo or an olive on abottle, and just grab it. Yes,
read the label,
David Sandstrom (28:04):
right? So let me clarify. If you're at the
grocery store and you see abottle of olive oil, and next to
it there's an extra virgin oliveoil, there is a big, big
difference.
Marianna Devetzoglou (28:16):
There is a big difference. However, in the
grocery shop, the labeled extravirgin olive oil could be virgin
olive oil, usually or olive oilare mixed. Okay. You can find
mislabeling in grocery shops,right? But for sure, you can
zoom in by rejecting plasticbottles or sign of low quality,
(28:38):
okay, rejecting bottles thatright, bottled in versus product
of that's a small differencethat many consumers don't pay
attention to product of meansproduced cultivated in that
country, bottled in. It's notillegal, but maybe it was
bottled in, I don't know,Greece, but the oils could be
(29:01):
from anywhere else you don'tknow that. Go for dark glass,
because olive oil isphotosensitive, like beer or
metal tin. Go for smallerpackaging, close to your monthly
bi monthly needs, rather than ahuge jug that you open up and it
takes you a year to finish, andas the level goes down, oxygen
(29:23):
is oxidizing and aging.Basically your olive oil,
because olive oil ages, yeah,and of course, the best way is
to look and find and supportsmaller producers. Buy directly
from them, if you can, and lookfor a harvest date. Harvest date
is the birthday of the product.So that means that you know when
(29:47):
it was made, and you know wherein its life cycle you are if you
don't find a harvest date, is ita fresh olive oil? Was it made
from three years ago? How old?Old, is it? There's a big cloud?
David Sandstrom (30:03):
Yeah, yeah. Those are all some really good
points go ahead.
Marianna Devetzoglou (30:07):
And also a very low prices are suspicious
also. And you don't have to pay$100 per per bottle. But the
truth is, always somewhere inthe middle, very low prices are
suspicious.
David Sandstrom (30:18):
Yeah, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna say this.
You know, our grocery storevariety olive oil goes for 12 to
$15 a bottle. Your olive oilsells for 40 Euro? Is that
right? something like that?
Marianna Devetzoglou (30:32):
this year and in the states, yes. Are we
talking about the same size, 500ml, which is, ,
David Sandstrom (30:37):
yeah I couldn't, I couldn't tell you
for sure, probably similar. Idon't, I don't know, similar,
yes, yeah. So there's, there's adifference.
Marianna Devetzoglou (30:47):
There is a difference. And usually with
your cooking and eating habits,you would need approximately,
let's assume that you need abottle per month, correct? Yeah,
your question when you'reswitching to a quality product,
be that olive oil or honey orsomething else, is is 30, 40x
(31:10):
amount of dollars to per monthtoo much on my family budget to
have access to a high quality,extra virgin olive oil, and
ideally that I know who makesit, and anytime I can call and
say, Hey, do you have more? Noamount of stock. The easiest
thing for a producer is to buysomebody else's olive oil, put
it in their bottles and sell it.But is that the transparency and
(31:35):
the ethos and the vision we wantfor our artisan production? Yes,
no, and they select accordingly,
David Sandstrom (31:43):
Right, yeah. Let's go back a little bit to
the to the quality control thatyou put into things. We start
with the trees and the farm,right? So can you, can, can you
talk to us about, you know, whatgoes into the growing process? I
know you're in Greece, andGreece is probably the ideal
location to grow olives, right?And so talk to us a little bit
about that end of
Marianna Devetzoglou (32:04):
it. It's one of the best places to grow
olives, along with otherneighboring Mediterranean
countries, the olive trees,relatively resilient tree so has
managed to grow over centuriesandcenturies in our areas, and
every variety has its ownpersonality, strength and
characteristics and has adjustedto the microclimates that it
(32:27):
has. I emphasize a growth,because a healthy growth with a
healthy soil, profit soil willgive you a healthy cultivation
inour business model and in ourcompany, and I say, mine our
family, we try to applyregenerative farming practices
so we don't want to spray withheavy chemicals. We want to use
(32:49):
minerals that are much morenatural. We want to use a local
ecosystem to enrich that soil,or even use manure from other
animals around us. Let's takeI'll take you to a journey
throughout the year. Okay?Because olive oil is seasonal.
It's made every harvest season,which for the northern
(33:13):
hemesphere is autumn. Okay, thecultivation goes on year round.
Let's start January, February,March. The trees lay dormant,
okay? They never shed theirleaves, but they don't have any
fruit on them. They rest down onthe ground, okay? It's like a
soccer field with beautifulgrass, okay. Around late March,
(33:36):
early April, spring is comingin, everything is starting to
wake up. So this means that onthe ground, the grass is giving
its place to flowers in ourarea, in our growth, what we
have are chamomile daisies, wildyellow flowers and some poppies,
(33:56):
they grow on their own. Sothat's a natural ecosystem. We
love it, we enjoy it, but it hasto go at some point, late April
to early May. I'm preparing formy blooming face every May, the
olive trees give birth so theyneed food. I can either give
(34:18):
them chemical food, or what Ican do is come in with a small
tractor, chop the flowers offand leave them on the soil to
decompose as they decompose.Obviously, the scenery is not as
romantic anymore, but theyreturn the natural nutrients
(34:40):
into the soil in time for myolive trees to absorb them and
be able to give birth to moreflowers. Why do I want to see a
lot of flowers? Because it'slike a funnel. I want to see
lots of them, because not all ofthem will manage to survive and
stay on the tree and. From theones that stay on the tree, not
(35:02):
olives will make it through theharsh, dry, hot summer to make
it to September, October and beharvested in June, July, August.
I think you visited in June.Yes, late June, if I remember
correctly, the crown is moredry, more miserable, compared to
(35:26):
spring and winter. Okay? So thisadds stress on the trees. Lack
of water is a stress for thetree, and our area is suffering
from water we don't irrigate,okay? So it's what they give us
by themselves. We want to havesome stress because look what
happens in nature. How, how,majestically, things work.
(35:50):
Stress in olive trees means thatthey will create antioxidants as
a self defense mechanism toshield themselves against the
hot, dry conditions that they'resuffering. Yeah, and we will
just enjoy these antioxidantswhen we get the olive and the
(36:12):
olive oil. Okay, so some stressis much appreciated. Obviously,
we don't want the trees to diewithin reason. And in September,
October, we're preparing for theharvest. The harvest season now
itself isquite big. LateSeptember, October, November,
December, every producer willstart harvesting when the time
(36:37):
is right for them, depending onthe type of olive oil they want
to make and the resources thatthey have. That's why you see so
many different olive oils, somany different price tags and so
many different options outthere. It's like with the wines.
There are wines and wines, thereare olive oils and olive oils,
David Sandstrom (36:56):
yeah. So there's a lot of similarities
between growing grapes andgrowing olives, right?
Marianna Devetzoglou (37:02):
They're pretty much, yeah, some Yeah,
okay. Grapes are more waterintensive and sensitive,okay,
whereas the olive tree will shedas many fruits as it deems
necessary, but it's not going todie as easily as a grape,
David Sandstrom (37:17):
okay? And you know, I love the concept, I love
the concept that you justtouched on, on the beneficial
stress. You know, our bodiesbenefit from stress. We call
that a hermetic stress. Exerciseis a beneficial stress. You
know, doing a cold plunge or asauna is a hermetic beneficial
stress, if done properly, andthe stress on the tree can
actually produce a higherquality fruit, which is amazing.
(37:40):
I remember, I grew up in SouthFlorida. In Central Florida,
they grow a lot of oranges,primarily for juice, and they
get about one or two freezes peryear, and they'll lose part of
their crop as a result. And Iremember one time this
newscaster was interviewing anorange farmer on an orange
grove, said, you know, what areyou know, what are you going to
(38:01):
do about this freeze? Well, youknow, we take precautions. We
have some fans and heaters, andwe will lose part of the crop
here. And the newscaster wantedto make a big story about how
the devastating loss this was,it was all bad. And the guy
said, you know, this is not allbad, because that freeze
actually makes the fruit thatsurvives better and it's sweeter
(38:22):
and it tastes better. So weactually welcome this as part of
the process and, and that'sexactly what you just said about
about the olive trees, you know,it makes the final product even
better, which I think is socool.
Marianna Devetzoglou (38:35):
True Nature has, I don't know, has
planned everything you have totune into her rhythms, respect
that and try to work with thatprofessional makes diamonds,
after all,
David Sandstrom (38:48):
without getting too, too into the into the
weeds, here, can you talk to usa little bit about thedifferent
ways that the olives can beprocessed at the mill, at the
mill, and you know what can gowrong there, and what you do to
make sure that that is doneproperly.
Marianna Devetzoglou (39:06):
Okay, I'll try not to get too technical on
that. Okay, because whenpressing olives to make extra
virgin olive oil, there are somany parameters. And Millers
that make exquisite olive oilare often called Master millers,
like a maestro. So the baselinefor everything is to have a
(39:27):
healthy fruit. A healthy fruitunder great conditions will give
you an amazing juice. Andunhealthy, bad fruit cannot be
revived to give you an amazingjuice. Okay, so the Miller
cannot do anything, yeah, whenwe get to the pressing facility,
I want you to think of thepressing facility as a line of
(39:48):
steps with only methodologicalequipment, okay, no thermal or
no chemical processes, like inthe refinement process. Yes,
okay. We take the olives, wewash them for two reasons. One
is to cool them down. Becausethey're out. It's hot in
(40:09):
October, maybe November, theywere in the sun. Okay, we want
to bring temperatures down. Thatis what you often read in
labels, cold pressed or coldextracted. That is the better
terminology, okay? And we alsowash them so any dust or soil,
you know, is cleaned off. Thenthe olives are put into the
(40:32):
crusher. The crusher is arotating machine with a hammer
blade, usually, okay, thatcrushes the olives and releases
the droplets of olive oil. Okay.Now my olives have become like a
smoothie. That smoothie behaveslike a dough. Sometimes we might
have to add water into it, andhere is where the tricky stuff
(40:55):
starts. If you add too muchwater, you are at risk of
passing humidity, you know, intoyour olive oil, which will lead
to defects, you need to add justthe right amount to make it
workable without risking it. Sothat's a mirrored experience
also, okay, okay. This is whysometimes we wait for one two
(41:17):
rains before harvesting, becausenature knows how much water she
wants into the fruits the mirrorgoes by experience, trial and
error, and quite often it'serror, because that's the way
you learn. Unfortunately, yeah,so that paste now I I transfer
it with tube to a horizontal,usually blade that does the
(41:41):
following job, helps aggregatethe small droplets of oil that I
released in the crusher intobigger and bigger, bigger drops,
making theolive oil. So theprinciple, in a very, very
simplistic way, is release thedroplets of oil and unite them
(42:03):
again. Now, all I need is to usea centrifuge with which is a
natural process, okay,toseparate that olive oil from
water and from the solids, thepieces of the fruit that were
crushed in the centrifuge. Youknow, materials of different
density upon rotation, theyseparate, and this is how we get
(42:26):
the olive oil out, so the watercan go wrong. The temperature we
want, low temperature, so thatwe can keep as many aromas as I
can and as many antioxidants andpolyphenols as I can Okay?
Otherwise, I'm going to losethem outand about in the making
(42:47):
process. Okay, the machinery hasto be clean so that they don't
contaminate the olive oilpassing through. It's also
important to know, is this amill where like minded producers
go because we go one producerafter the other, so usually like
(43:07):
minded producers tend to flocktowards the same olive mills,
okay? And that also plays arole, and it's up to the
artistry of the miller, okay, tonavigate the settings that we
use when making olive oil.That's why most preferable it is
(43:29):
to use small Mills rather thanhuge ones, because a small meal
can change the parametersdepending on the variety that
you're working a huge mill, likea big machinery has one setting
for everybody so you cannotadjust. Does this cover the
(43:51):
question?
David Sandstrom (43:52):
No, I think you answered it quite well. You
know, I just wanted to break itdown, yeah, no, I wanted to ask
you that question, just toillustrate how many things go
wrong with a low qualityproduction, and how many things
go into a high qualityproduction. And you are so
knowledgeable when it comes tothis process. I mean, you're
rare find. Most people can'ttalk about this process the way
(44:16):
you do. And I really love theway you explain you do things so
so clearly and so well, it'sjust, it's a pleasure speaking
with you.
Marianna Devetzoglou (44:24):
Thank you. It's a process that not many
people have seen or will eversee in their life, so it's
important to try and paralyze itsomehow to another process that
we go through on a daily basis.Think of making your orange
juice if your juicer is in badshape. If you're in a hurry, if
you never clean it, things likethat, your juice will be
(44:46):
contaminated. Same here, themilk is very important. If I get
too hot, lots of water, badmachinery, low maintenance, my
juice will come out wrongly,right? So to do all these
things, it means labor, workers,hands, okay, it inareas, back
(45:08):
and forth every day with halfempty truck, because how many
olives can you take within aday? Education, going to
workshops, maintenance, everyyear. These things cost, and
this is why it adds to the priceof the product at the end of the
day.
David Sandstrom (45:27):
Yeah, for sure. I just want to circle back on a
couple more questions or wrapthings up here. But you talked
about having a harvest date onthe bottle, which your bottles
do, right? Helpme out, Where's,where's the harvest state here?
Oh, there it is, right on theback. I'm gonna put that up to
the camera. So, so there it is,right there. There's a harvest
date. So full disclosure withyour products. I love it. So
(45:48):
how, how old can an olive oil beand still maintainits quality?
Marianna Devetzoglou (45:55):
Well, that's a tricky, tricky
question. Olive Oil in general,unlike wine, it doesn't get
better time? Okay, it doesn'texpire. And this is why it has a
best by date rather than anexpiry date. Are we familiar
with the difference betweenthese two?
David Sandstrom (46:12):
Yes, I think so. I mean, expire is throw it
out. best by is you may losesome quality, but it's not going
to be toxic,
Marianna Devetzoglou (46:21):
Exactly so with olive oil, because it is
also a natural preservative,okay? The legislation foresees
that you can give a best byshelf dates of 18 to 24 months
here where things are startingto be a bit some people
(46:41):
translate it Okay, from bottlingor from opening the bottle,
there is a cloud here. Yes, thetruth is, and not many people
realize this, that extra virginolive oil is born every year,
every year we sell, we give youare years olive oil. So time is
(47:05):
ticking from the moment ofbirth, and that's the harvest
date. So you know the birthday,because I can produce it in
October, November, keep it in mytongue for a year. Bottle it's
and give you another two years.So you get a three year old
olive oil. Again, it doesn'texpire, but it's starting to
lose its quality. Yes, thehigher the quality it is born,
(47:29):
the slower andmore graceful theaging, whereas the lower the
quantity its life is going to beshort and miserable. I dare say
yes. And why does it happen?Because antioxidants stabilize
extra virgin olive oil. We wantantioxidants because we were
we're going to live longer andbetter. Same for the olive oil,
(47:52):
it has antioxidants and it liveslonger and better. Okay, you can
consume it after the two yearspass, but you should keep in
mind that maybe the intensity ofaromas of bitterness or pungency
has gone down because it'saging. That's inevitable. So
this is another reason why youshouldn't save it for a special
(48:14):
occasion. Otherwise waste ofmoney and olive oil. Have to use
it on a daily basis. Yeah, verygood. Quantity is up to you.
David Sandstrom (48:24):
Yeah, okay. Now, as far as consuming it
goes, I know you talked abouthow the the food on your plate
is the protagonist, and theolive oil should be adding to
the flavor of the food, right?So would you recommend using
olive oil on top of food on yourplate. Do you cook with it? Or
how do you recommend consumingit?
Marianna Devetzoglou (48:47):
Well, in Greece and in most Mediterranean
countries, we use extra virginolive oil for everything, for
baking, for marinating, forcooking, for pan frying. I don't
even go into deep frying. That'sa bad habit, regardless of the
oil that you use, okay forsauteing as well. So
(49:10):
myrecommendation is that you canuse it everywhere. The
antioxidants would stabilize itand will help it be a stronger
oil, even against heat, you willlose some antioxidants in the
process, because whentemperatures rise, all oils
become sensitive to that, okay,but I wouldrather lose some
antioxidants and not gain asmany harmful compounds myself,
(49:34):
rather than protect my extravirgin olive oil forever and I'm
unshielded against the compoundsformed when frying. Okay, so the
the job of the of the product isto protect me, not the other way
around. So you can use it inyour salads and vinegarettes.
You can cook with it if youdon't want to cook, then you can
(49:57):
do your cooking in yourcasserole, turn the heat off.
Off and then pour extra virginolive oil mix and let it sit for
10 to 15, minutes. This issomething that we do sometimes
when we cook for babies, okay,so that they have olive oil for
the antioxidants and the flavor,but as close to his raw form,
which is always the best aspossible.
David Sandstrom (50:19):
I love it. That's that's really good.
Marianna Devetzoglou (50:21):
Yeah, on on top of pet of pasta. Okay,
you can use it in your what isit called for the oven, the pan
for the oven. Okay, I dosomething to caramelize my
onions, my peppers, mushrooms,things like that. I do make my
scrambled eggs, my omelet nowthat in a pan frying and, of
(50:43):
course, not really AtlanticOcean inside your frying pan,
just a little bit is enough.You're gonna have to already do
David Sandstrom (50:51):
I like it. So personally, I like to saute and
cook in saturated fat. So I willuse butter or tallow, beef
tallow or coconut oil, becausethe saturated fat is more
stable, less subject tooxidationduring the heating
process, and less subject todamage. So I don't cook with
olive oil. Personally, I love touse the saturated fats for that,
(51:12):
but I love putting it on food,and it's really great for that.
So that's personally, what I do.Let's see. One other thing I
wanted to ask you about was
it.
Marianna Devetzoglou (51:22):
one thing I would like to note for the
frying. I know a lot of peoplesay, Do not fry with extra
virgin olive oil. You're killingit antioxidants, or it's not
good for you. If it's a qualityextra virgin olive oil, it's one
of the best oils for frying. Thereason for that is that the
(51:42):
antioxidants provide thatstability and balance that we
want. So it's a healthy fat,okay, especially for pan frying,
deep frying, I would avoid it,yeah? Frying, you go to
McDonald's and you get and youget it. Okay, so if well
produced and quality oriented.It's one of the best oils that
(52:04):
you can use and buy, even tohigh temperatures, thanks to
your antioxidants. And I'm goingto get into lots of the
chemistry that happens inside ofit, because we're going to get
very technical, okay, but thekey is the antioxidants. Yeah,
olive oil, which is refined, hasno antioxidants, therefore, yes,
(52:25):
it's not a good option to use inhigh temperatures.
David Sandstrom (52:28):
Very good. Thank you for saying that, and
correct me if I'm wrong.Marianna, but it's the high
monounsaturated fat content. Theoleic acid in olive oil is what
protects the the oxidation iswhat shields the the oil from
damage. Is that correct?
Marianna Devetzoglou (52:47):
Well, it's a stable fat chain, but also
it's the antioxidants thatshield it, and they're working
as a sacrifice, sacrificingsoldiers against any compounds
that threaten the balance andthestability of that. That's why
they say that you're going tokill some of your antioxidants.
David Sandstrom (53:04):
Yeah. So all the more reason for pursuing
quality right from the rightfrom the farm or from the grove
into the bottle. So the way youwhere you grow the product, the
way you mill the product, whereyou produce it, where you the
bottle you put it in, how youstore it, and how you use it, it
all plays into maintaining thedelicate balance of those
antioxidants and the oils thatproduce preserve those health
(53:29):
benefits.
Marianna Devetzoglou (53:30):
Exactly. And when we get at the level of
the consumer, you also have totake care of your olive oil,
meaning that you can pay as muchmoney as you want to buy an
amazing extra virgin olive oil.Okay? If you keep it uncovered,
then you're exposed to oxygen.If you keep itnext to your stove
all the time, where it gets hotcontinuously, you accelerate its
(53:55):
aging. If you put it on yourwindows and every day the sun
says, Hello, there. It's nice,romantic, very good. But
accelerates. That's why storageis important. To avoid
rancidity, meaning aging. Keepit in a dark, cool place, like
your pantry, or if you have awine cellar at home, you can
keep it in your wine cellar.Take it out, use it, put it
(54:16):
back. Very good. Keep it closed.
David Sandstrom (54:19):
Very good. That's such good advice.
Marianna, you are such aboatload of wisdom. I just, I
just really, just really enjoythis, and
Marianna Devetzoglou (54:28):
I'm trying to study myself even, even more
okay, because knowledge is, youknow, never ending,
David Sandstrom (54:33):
yeah, yeah, lifelong learner, right? There's
always new things to learn. Sojust to wrap things up, what
would you consider to be themost important thing we talked
about? Or what would you like toleave the listeners with?
Marianna Devetzoglou (54:46):
Well, I think the most important thing
is that you can't really trustlots of labels and food,
especially in grocery shops, andit's very important to look
beyond that, learn about yourfood where it comes. Is from who
makes it? It's what you'reputting your body, and it's your
fuel. Some people say, Oh, mycar this and my car that they
(55:08):
would never put a low qualityfuel into their car, right? Why
would you put a low quality fuelinto your body? And you only
have one body for this lifetime,at least
David Sandstrom (55:18):
Amen sister,.
Marianna Devetzoglou (55:20):
Exactly. So try to look beyond that.
Learn who makes your food andsupporting small producers, not
just thought of all producers,small producers of food is
really critical for the wellbeing and our health. And after
all, our health is our wealth atthe end of the day. So it would
be an honor for our listeners toto hold on to that, look for
(55:46):
small productions and learnabout your food.
David Sandstrom (55:50):
Excellent. That's great advice. So if
someone is resonating with thismessage and they're like, I want
to get a hold of some of thisolive oil, how do they do that?
How do they get in touch withyou? How do they order your
products?
Marianna Devetzoglou (56:00):
Well, we're in the phase of building
our key shop, and they can findus on Olepsophia.com and in the
contact form, there's also mytelephone number. So people can
reach out on WhatsApp with me tospeak directly. They can ask me
any question. And I have toadmit that despite having the
time difference or having manymessages from different people,
(56:23):
I love the connection, becausethat way it shows that they are
interested and I understand whatthey are looking to understand
as well. So you can find us onOleosophia.com, on social media,
Facebook and Instagram@Oleosophia, even if you text
it's me behind the brand for asmall family, so it's either me
(56:44):
or George, basically. So youknow the who is who, and
gradually, are people that wantto stay connected and stay
informed. I have a contact formin the website where they can
subscribe, and we alwayscommunicate to our community
(57:04):
when the fresh olive oil is out,any updates, any news, any new
products or things that we do, Idon't spam because I'm for one
or two people, so we don't emailvery frequently. Don't be
scared. But this is our way ofcommunicating with our
Oleosophers, excellent.
David Sandstrom (57:22):
I encourage everybody to go to the website.
And I don't want to say this,most of my listeners are in the
United States. And what, what wedid was, when we came home after
we tasted your products, I waslike this, this is what I'm
going to be eating, sort of beproviding for my family and but
it is kind of difficult to ordera whole case, because you only
going to use, as you said, Maybea bottle a month. So I got a
(57:43):
couple of friends thatunderstood a little bit about
nutrition, because I've knownthem for a while, and they they
listen to me talk, and theyunderstand the value of getting
a quality olive oil. So we wentin two other families and us, we
bought a case, and you ship itto us. Came. It came really
fast,too. I was surprised. Amongfew days it arrived. So it's
pretty easy to do, folks, thisis not hard to get. And I, you
(58:04):
know, I'm not kidding. I waslooking for for many months, if
not years, for a quality sourceof olive oil. Couldn't find it
until we met Marianna. And this,this is, this is, you know, a
gold mine here. So I highlyencourage anybody listening to
pick up some products. Make ithappen. You won't be sorry.
Marianna Devetzoglou (58:21):
Thank you very much for that
recommendation. Indeed, theshipping is very quick. If I get
on the plane to bring it to youmyself, I don't think I can
arrive any quicker than that.And yes, I do encourage people
as well to merge orders if theyfeel that. You know, a whole
case is too much I do sometimescombos or fours or sixes or
(58:43):
twelves, depending onproduction. And one thing is
that if people reach out andsomething is out of stock
because it finished, I'm goingto tell them that it's out of
stock. Can you please wait untilI have the fresh one? This is
transparency and this is reallife, because nature doesn't
produce everything in abundance.Okay? So when we're close to the
(59:06):
end of season, right now, I'malmost out of stock, actually,
but in two months, we're goingto have the fresh olive oil
that's people register their preordering or what they would like
to have once it's out. So I knowit might sound a bit sad at the
moment. Oh, she doesn't haveolive oil right now, but it's
better for me to tell you thatthe fresh one is coming up,
(59:26):
rather than find somewhere oliveoil for you,
David Sandstrom (59:31):
exactly you could. You could find some low
quality olive oil, put it in aball and sell it. You know, when
you're out of stock, but you'renot going to compromise your
quality that way.
Marianna Devetzoglou (59:40):
No, that's not the vision that I have for I
left a very good job that Ipreviously had to do this. So I
want to stay true to to thatvision and step by step, for
getting this
David Sandstrom (59:52):
excellent I appreciate that. Marianna, thank
you so much for being on theshow today. Really, really
enjoyed this conversation,
Marianna Devetzoglou (59:59):
for hosting. Me. And for the lovely
questions, if anyone has any anyquestions and they send them
over to you, you can pass themto me, or now they know where to
find me. It will be an honor.Okay.
David Sandstrom (01:00:12):
Well, thanks again. God bless
Marianna Devetzoglou (01:00:14):
Thank you very much, David. Thank you
David Sandstrom (01:00:17):
for more. Go to the show notes page at
Christianhealthylifestyle.com/165there you can findan audio as
well as a video version of thepodcast. You can also leave me a
voicemail there and ask me aquestion, and I'll answer your
question on an upcoming episode.And if you're enjoying this
show, I encourage you to followthis show on Spotify. I think
(01:00:39):
Spotify is the best podcastlistening platform out there
right now. It supports audio andvideo as well as comments. You
can leave me a comment there,ask me a question there as well.
Now don't forget to stick aroundfor next week's episode, because
I'm going to be doing alifestyle audit with a listener
by the name of Missy, and we'retalking all things weight loss.
If you have weight loss on yourmind this time of year, you want
(01:01:00):
to tune into that episode. It'sgot to be really good. Don't
miss it. That's it for now.Thank you for listening. I
appreciate you. Go out there andlive abundantly. I'll talk with
you next time. Be blessed. You.
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