Four Teaspoons Of Olive Oil A Day Can Benefit Heart Health

Recent Science Shows Benefits of Daily Shot Of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

^{Updated 22nd January 2025}

New Report Shows Link Between Daily Consumption of Olive Oil And Heart Health

A recent report has brought exciting news for anyone mindful of their heart health. According to research, consuming just four teaspoons of olive oil daily may provide significant benefits for cardiovascular health. Olive oil, specifically extra virgin olive oil, is already celebrated as a staple of the Mediterranean diet, often praised as one of the healthiest in the world. This new revelation only solidifies its role in promoting a healthier heart.

The report connects olive oil’s benefits to its unique composition. Packed with antioxidants, healthy fats, and a rich concentration of polyphenols, extra virgin olive oil can help reduce inflammation and improve overall heart function. But how does it deliver these benefits? It comes down to several biological mechanisms that olive oil helps regulate.

Consuming four teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil a day could have a significant improvement on your heart health, according to a new study.

The report, which adds to previous findings from Dr Bill Mullen, a senior research fellow of cardiovascular and metabolic health at the University of Glasgow, finds olive oil to be the only common cooking oil with a positive impact on heart health.

Researchers at the Glasgow based study found that just six weeks of consuming 20 mls of olive oil a day made a noticeable difference to heart health. In comparison, consuming similar quantities of rapeseed and sunflower oil had no impact whatsoever.

Dr Mullen told Huffpost:

[The olive oil] results were like hitting the jackpot as far as I was concerned. Although I knew the science, it is extremely rare in nutritional research to see such strikingly positive results.

Both extra virgin olive oil and olive oil produced significant changes after only six weeks, a change of 0.3 in the coronary artery disease biomarker score. 

Dr Bill Mullen

Previous Findings Show Effect Of Olive Oil On Heart-Health-Related Biomarkers In Urine. 

Past studies have also demonstrated extra virgin olive oil’s positive impact on biomarkers linked to heart health. For instance, researchers have identified changes in biomarkers found in urine—such as indicators of oxidative stress and inflammation—among participants who include extra virgin olive oil in their diets. Polyphenol-rich olive oil, in particular, has been shown to significantly lower these markers, making it an important addition to any heart-conscious lifestyle. These biomarkers are essential to understanding why olive oil is so effective. They indicate the body’s oxidative damage, which, if unaddressed, can lead to heart-related diseases like atherosclerosis or hypertension. By reducing oxidative stress, the polyphenols in olive oil actively preserve your cardiovascular system.

According to a report in Sytlist.co.uk, Dr Mullen and his team had previously shown that  olive oil can have a tangible impact on the presence of heart-health-related ‘biomarkers’ in urine. These biomarkers are protein fragments which can indicate the development of coronary artery disease (CAD) before symptoms have even started. 

Researchers for this 2014 study recruited 69 healthy volunteers who were split into two groups and asked to consume 20ml of olive oil either low or high in phenolics every day over a six-week period. A particular feature of the study was the target group studied: healthy individuals who did not regularly consume olive oil.

The results showed that both groups saw a big improvement in scores for CAD – the most common form of heart disease. The proteomic biomarkers developed for clinical diagnosis by private firm Mosaiques Diagnostics produces a CAD scoring system from 1: the ultimate case of CAD to -1: the ultimate healthy artery.

The group taking the low phenol olive oil saw a drop in CAD score from -0.5 to -0.8 while the high phenol group saw a reduction from -0.6 to -0.8.

Of these results, Dr Bill Mullen said: “If we are able to identify the early signatures of diseases before they have had a chance to take hold we can start to treat them before they become a problem requiring costly medical intervention.

However, the team had not applied this measurement technique to other cooking oils – and that’s what the new study set out to do. 

Benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil Daily

Adding four teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil to your daily routine can improve your heart health in numerous ways:

• Rich in monounsaturated fats: Extra virgin olive oil is a primary source of healthy fats, which have been proven to lower LDL (bad cholesterol) levels while maintaining or even raising HDL (good cholesterol) levels.
• Abundance of polyphenols: These powerful antioxidants combat free radicals, decrease inflammation, and improve arterial function, all of which reduce the risk of heart disease.
• Lower blood pressure: Regular consumption of olive oil has been linked to reductions in blood pressure, a leading element of cardiovascular risk.
• Enhanced anti-inflammatory properties: Chronic inflammation is a key contributor to heart disease. The antioxidants in olive oil work to counteract inflammation, supporting healthier heart function.
• Improved endothelial function: Olive oil helps maintain the inner lining of blood vessels, ensuring fluids flow as they should and reducing the risk of clots or blockages.

These benefits make extra virgin olive oil an essential addition to any heart-friendly diet.

Extra virgin olive oil is a healthy fat that has numerous health benefits. It’s important to consume extra virgin olive oil every day, and the recommended amount is one shot (tablespoon), which equals approximately 23 grams. extra virgin olive oil can be used in cooking, as a dressing for salads, or simply taken alone as a shot. Extra virgin olive oil is also a good source of antioxidants. So make sure to include extra virgin olive oil in your diet every day (ideally four teaspoons of olive oil)!

If you want to get the health benefits of olive oil such as reduced risk of heart disease, lower ldl cholesterol and others, you can include extra virgin olive oil as part of a healthy diet, like the Mediterranean Diet or increasingly popular Keto Diet. You can also have ‘a shot’ first thing in the morning.

What Makes Morocco Gold Extra Virgin Olive Oil So Special?

The high polyphenol content of Morocco Gold extra virgin olive oil is dependent on three factors. First is the variety of the olive, secondly the climate and terroire of the growing region and thirdly the actual time in the growing season that the crop is harvested.

Morocco Gold is pressed from the Picholine Marocaine, the only type of olive to go into Morocco Gold. Oil from this variety is renowned for it’s high polyphenol count, oxidative stability and longevity.

• Polyphenol-rich and cold-pressed: Morocco Gold is packed with polyphenols—ensuring you receive the antioxidant power essential for heart health. Additionally, our olives are cold-pressed to maintain their nutrient content.
• Unparalleled quality and taste: Made with the finest Moroccan Picholine olives, this extra virgin olive oil delivers smooth, fresh, and fruity flavors that elevate every dish.
• Free from additives: Morocco Gold features no artificial ingredients, guaranteeing a pure and natural product filled with health benefits.
• Commitment to sustainability: Sourced responsibly, our production process ensures minimal impact on the environment while delivering the highest-quality product to your home.

Whether you drizzle it over salads, use it in cooking, or add it as a finishing touch to your favorite dishes, Morocco Gold Extra Virgin Olive Oil makes supporting your heart health both simple and delicious.

Our olives are grown in a valley that is about 2,000 feet above sea level. This helps to create the additional climatic challenges that encourage polyphenol uptake within the olive tree. It is also an area with naturally occurring high phenols in the soil itself.

In soils, phenols are released over extended period of time from decomposing plant materials. This causes complex organic compounds to be slowly oxidized or to break down into simpler forms of sugars, amino sugars, aliphatic and phenolic organic acids. These are further transformed into microbial biomass or are reorganized, and further oxidized, into humic assemblages (fulvic and humic acids), which bind to clay minerals.

There has been a long debate about the ability of plants to uptake humic substances through their root systems and to metabolize them. There is now a consensus about how humus plays a hormonal role rather than simply a nutritional role in plant physiology. Olive trees grown in ‘challenging’ conditions encourage the uptake of naturally occurring phenols in the soil. This in turn aids the circulatory system within the olive tree, with the phenols eventually finding their way to the olive fruit itself.

Thirdly, our olives are picked when the fruit is young and green. As the olives age on the tree, the colour of the olive changes to red and then black, the size of the olive increases thus producing more oil, but the polyphenol level decreases. There is a great deal of expertise within the farming community where we source our oil to ensure that the harvest is collected at the optimum time to maximise the polyphenol level.

Extra Virgin olive oil is the go-to cooking oil for health-conscious food lovers and those wanting to cook healthily and lose weight. Mostly everyone who has ever read about a diet or has looked up for healthy food recipes is familiar with olive oil and its heart-healthy properties.