Olives are not only very tasty, but also healthy. We explain why you should eat more of it and what you need to consider when buying.

If you are a lover of Mediterranean food, then the olive should not be missing from the dining table. The fleshy stone fruit of the olive tree with the intense flavor is usually eaten pickled with Italian, Spanish and Arabic dishes, served as tapas or sprinkled on pizza. For the most part (90 percent), however, olives are processed into olive oil.

You can buy both black and green olives. Black olives have a more intense and aromatic flavor than green ones, since they are ripe and green are unripe. Both varieties contain important vitamins and minerals. Since fresh olives are very bitter, they are usually preserved in oil or brine, which flushes out the bitter substances and makes the olives edible.

The olive tree (Latin: Olea europaea) is an evergreen tree and belongs to the olive tree family. In Europe alone there are more than a thousand different species of olive tree. An olive tree takes up to seven years to bear fruit. Only after 20 years does an olive tree become really productive. A single tree can live for several hundred years.

The ingredients of healthy olives

In addition to many minerals and trace elements, olives contain between 15 and 45 percent fat. Black olives have a higher percentage of fat than green ones. The fat is mostly oleic acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid. This is said to have some health benefits:
Reduced levels of inflammation in the body
reduced risk of heart disease.
Prevention and control of cancer
Olives are also good for friends of the low-carb diet: They only have four to six percent carbohydrates. This is mostly dietary fiber.

Since the green olives are the unripe fruits, the black olives contain more of the healthy ingredients. So if you like to eat olives, at least try to reach for the darker fruits from time to time.

You will find the following minerals and vitamins in the healthy olives:
sodium
calcium
phosphorus
iron
Vitamin A
vitamin E
folic acid
In addition to the minerals, there are also secondary plant substances in the healthy fruits.

Fermented olives are also said to have a potential probiotic effect, meaning they help keep the digestive tract healthy.

In addition, olives increase the levels of the valuable antioxidant glutathione in the body. This is a very powerful antioxidant that studies have shown may help or prevent diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cystic fibrosis, liver disease, HIV and diabetes.

Topic sustainability: What you should consider when buying healthy olives

If you would like to buy high-quality healthy olives, it is best to make sure that they are organic olives. When buying black olives, there is also one thing to be careful about: Make sure they are not blackened green olives.

Because the ripening process takes a long time, the unripe green olives are often sold colored to keep costs down. “Colorings” or additives such as E 579 (iron gluconate) and E 585 (iron lactate) are used for this. Although these are harmless, it is still a case of deceiving consumers. So always make sure that the packaging or the jar on the back just says “black olives” and not “blackened”. If you want to be on the safe side, look at the additives.

Olive trees grow best in Mediterranean climates and can withstand a lot of heat. The majority of olives – and olive oil – are grown and produced in Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy. Their share of the world market is 80 percent. Although olives are planted all over the world, in Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt or Morocco, in South Africa, South America, California, Australia and Japan, European farmers still dominate. If possible, buy olives that you know come from Europe.

In northern Europe, too, the cultivation was tried again and again on a large scale, but failed. Because although it is now warmer here too, olive trees only barely survive frost. The northernmost cultivation is now in Cologne, but the cultivation is not as productive as in southern countries.