Olive Oil: Healthy or Harmful?

I stopped eating “free oils” such as olive oil in 2017 as part of a whole food plant-based diet (WFPB).  If you'd like to understand why I eat this way, you can find out here. This means that I avoid pouring oil onto salad or into the fry pan, and I significantly reduce adding oil to baked goods. When I order food at a restaurant or take-out, I ask for sauces and dressings on the side where possible. I am not kidding myself, I know restaurants are heavy handed with oil, sugar and salt. That’s when I consume more of them, and I can live with that trade-off for convenience. Nobody’s perfect, right? Since I mostly eat at home, much of my diet avoids excessive oils.

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New Study

A compelling new study has given me even more reason to avoid oil, and specifically olive oil. While olive oil is often touted as a healthier alternative to animal fats, it turns out that avoiding all oils might be better for heart health. This revelation comes from a study published last week in the Journal of the American Heart Association, which compared a WFPB diet with olive oil to one with minimal to no oil.

Historical Evidence

I was influenced by various WFPB doctors, but I modified my oil consumption after reading Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s book "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease". Dr. Esselstyn advises his patients to avoid all oils because they are highly processed and stripped of essential nutrients and fiber, leaving behind pure fat that can contribute to arterial damage. His research shows that even small amounts of added oil can negatively impact cardiovascular health by increasing cholesterol levels and promoting inflammation. He believes it is crucial to avoid added oils and focus on consuming whole, unprocessed plant foods, which are rich in nutrients and fiber that support our cardiovascular system.

Evidence showing we can actually reverse heart disease!

Dr. Esselstyn has been advocating for the avoidance of added oils as part of a plant-based diet for several decades. His dietary recommendations have been central to his work since the early 1990s. He gained prominence for his research and advocacy through his groundbreaking scientific studies and clinical trials where he was able to reverse patient’s heart disease, the ones where standard medicine had given up and could do no more for them.

People always think I’m a little nutty and give me a weird look when I say I avoid oil. The way I explain it is this: Just like table sugar isn’t a health food, why would oil be? We’ve processed and extracted one component from a whole food. Did you know it takes about 45 olives to make 1 Tbs of olive oil? Could you sit and eat 45 olives at one sitting? That’s why I stick to the olives and skip the olive oil. 

If you want to learn more about why Dr. Esselstyn recommends this dietary approach, try giving his “No Oil!” talk on YouTube a try, it’s under 5 minutes.

Mediterranean Diet

Olive oil gained its "health halo" in the 1990s with the rise of the Mediterranean diet. This diet, which emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and uses olive oil as its primary fat source, is linked to lower rates of heart disease and other chronic conditions. However, competing studies have questioned whether the benefits of olive oil are due to its own properties or simply a reflection of the diet’s overall healthy patterns.

By EAT, DRINK, AND BE HEALTHY by Walter C. Willett, M.D. - Harvard's food pyramid 

Is Olive Oil Really a Health Food?

In this most recent study, researchers from the University of Florida and the National Institutes of Health set out to explore whether a WFPB diet without olive oil might offer even greater heart health benefits. They called it the "Recipe for Heart Health Trial", involving 40 adults at risk for cardiovascular disease. These participants, who were all omnivores before the study, were divided into two groups: one followed a WFPB diet with 4 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil daily, while the other group had a WFPB diet with virtually no oil, limited to just 1 teaspoon daily. After four weeks, they swapped diets.

The results are eye-opening. Both diets improved cholesterol and other heart health markers, but the low-oil diet showed significantly greater improvements. When participants switched to the higher-oil diet, their cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, and inflammation markers worsened.

This study, along with others, challenges the idea that olive oil is a health food. While it’s better than animal fats, it’s still pure fat, lacking the nutrients and fiber found in whole plant foods. The best choice is to avoid all fats where possible because each gram of fat, regardless of its source, adds calories and can impact health negatively.

Avoiding Olive Oil

From my perspective, this new research validates my decision to avoid olive oil. Although it's a better option than animal fats, eliminating oil altogether provides the best heart health benefits. If you’re not ready to cut out oil completely, the recommendation is to minimize it as much as possible and explore whole plant food sources of healthy fats, like avocados, nuts, seeds, and olives, all of which come with additional nutrients and fiber. 

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How to Cook without Oil

I think there are three main areas where we use oil when preparing food: salad dressing, frying foods, and baking. To make a “no oil” salad dressing, I remove the oil from recipes and add something else that can help thicken it like tahini (ground sesame seeds), mustard, or maple syrup. Or keep it simple --- some of the best salads just have a squeeze of lemon on them.  When frying up foods in a pan, you can cook with water, so the food doesn’t stick – or use wine, balsamic vinegar, or vegetable stock.  Baking is a bit trickier because oil helps to make cakes and cookies less dense and tough.  I still use some oil, but reduce it significantly and substitute mashed banana, grated zucchini or canned pumpkin to keep baked goods moist. If you are looking for a cookbook to help you on your journey to no oil WFPB, you can try this one endorsed by Dr. Esselstyn. 

Final Thoughts

Avoiding oils is difficult because recipes and restaurants use them in everything.  We’ve been trained to believe that olive oil is a health food, and it’s easy to ignore the scientific evidence because it’s not convenient to change how we prepare food.  I think a WFPB diet is the best way to prevent chronic illnesses so any movement towards this style of eating will be better for your health. I’ll leave you with an amazing Dr. Esselstyn quote that you can contemplate: “Genetics loads the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger”. 

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