Are all olive oils equally healthy for you? A look at the research. (2024)

Research links olive oil to lowered blood pressure, LDL cholesterol — which is considered the “bad” version — and inflammation; and increased HDL cholesterol — considered the “good” type; and a reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes and cognitive decline.

You don’t need to consume a lot. A 2022 study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology involving about 92,000 people found that consuming more than 1½ teaspoons of olive oil daily reduced the risk of dying early from any cause by 19 percent compared with consuming less.

In the United States, you’ll see olive oil bottles labeled “extra virgin” and just plain “olive oil.” Both are high in monounsaturated fatty acids, which have been linked to a lower risk of heart disease. But extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) has extra health advantages.

It contains more than 200 antioxidant plant compounds, including polyphenols, which research suggests are responsible for much of the oil’s positive effects (as well as its signature flavor). Polyphenols may help tamp down inflammation in the body, which is thought to contribute to a number of chronic conditions from heart disease to Type 2 diabetes to Alzheimer’s disease. (See the results of CR’s tests of the best EVOOs.)

Regular olive oil has almost none of these compounds and doesn’t boost health in the same way as EVOO, says Mary M. Flynn, an associate professor of medicine at the Miriam Hospital and Brown University in Providence, R.I., who has studied olive oil from a health perspective for more than 25 years.

A review article conducted by Flynn and her colleagues published in the journal Nutrients in 2023 concluded that consuming two tablespoons of EVOO a day can produce improvements in blood pressure and HDL and LDL cholesterol levels within as little as three weeks.

And a 2023 study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people who consumed 1½ tablespoons of EVOO per day were 57 percent less likely to die of cardiovascular disease compared with those who ate none. Consuming the same amount of regular olive oil didn’t have this benefit.

The differences are due to the way the oils are produced. EVOO is unrefined. It’s made through an all-mechanical process that’s “not that different from squeezing oranges to make orange juice,” says chemist Selina Wang, an associate professor of cooperative extension in the department of food science and technology at the University of California at Davis, and an expert trained in olive oil analysis. This preserves the antioxidants. Regular olive oil by contrast, is further processed in a way that reduces its antioxidant content.

So does all this make EVOO a better choice than other oils you might use for cooking, baking and eating — like canola, safflower, soy, corn, sunflower, peanut or simply “vegetable” oil?

There’s a consensus among experts that EVOO is one of the healthiest oils you can pick, and some studies have suggested it has an edge over other oils. For example, researchers found that in Greek men and women over age 70, the exclusive use of olive oil in food prep and cooking was linked to higher scores on a scale of successful aging attributes (such as a good body mass index and participation in social activities), compared with those who used no olive oil and those who used olive oil and other fats. The study, which was published in 2019 in the journal Foods, analyzed diet data from more than 3,300 people.

Still, it’s not definitive that olive oil is the best.

“I’m not aware of any strong data to indicate that olive oil is any better than other mostly unsaturated oils,” said Alice Lichtenstein, senior scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. A lot of the research on olive oil has been in studies that examined the diets of large groups of people and tracked health outcomes over time. But, Lichtenstein says, while such observational studies are important, they can show only associations, not cause and effect.

“Other parts of the Mediterranean diet likely also contribute to the health benefits ascribed specifically to olive oil,” Lichtenstein says. And other plant oils can also be healthful. Soybean and canola oils, for example, are good sources of alpha-linolenic acid, the plant form of omega-3s, which may protect against heart disease; olive oil has almost none.

What has been established: Replacing saturated fats, like butter or coconut oil, with unsaturated fats in our diets is healthier. A 2017 American Heart Association Presidential Advisory published in Circulation concluded that using either polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats instead of saturated fat would help to reduce heart disease. So, Lichtenstein says, olive oil is a good choice, but you can use whatever plant oil you like.

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