Today the olive tree has
advanced beyond the Mediterranean area, and has spread to all
the continents, except the Antarctic. There are olive groves in
South Africa, in China and Viet Nam, in southern Oceania, in
North, Central and South America; and the total world olive oil
production has been constantly increasing since the beginning of the last century.
The ancients said: the Mediterranean begins and ends with the
olive tree. This shows the intimate link between the tree and the geographic area, which were regarded as a single organic unit, very different from the cold and humid northern provinces and from the desert and dry areas in the South and in the East.
At the end of the Middle Ages,
the countries facing the Mediterranean were covered with olive
groves once again, and the oil trade regained the importance it
had achieved in the past. Ships loaded with barrels of oil and
animal caravans carrying oil in leather sacks went from the oil
producing regions to Northern Europe. |
The names of the most famous oils and producers were known and sought throughout the continent.
This is the Golden Age of olive oil from the West Ligurian Riviera, which brought fame and prosperity to places like Oneglia and Porto Maurizio. Boat-shaped silver oil cruet - Paris 1819/1838
The photograph shows a boat-shaped silver oil cruet, stamped by Louis Paissant.
This cruet for oil and vinegar portrays the traditional style of French cruets.
Very early on, the oil trade started to involve the New World, where oil exports were followed by the arrival of techniques for olive cultivation and oil production, the same sequence that had fostered the spread of olive trees throughout the entire Mediterranean area.
Together with the olive tree, food civilization has spread throughout the world, fruit of the wisdom and experience of 6,000 years, rediscovered by present-day science and baptized the Mediterranean Diet.
Nowadays, medical research suggests, to avoid cardiovascular diseases, that in order to slow down the aging process and live a better and more wealthy life, we should eat vegetables, fruit and white meat, and above all, we should season our food with olive oil.
The Mediterranean Diet
"As I have already pointed out, olive oil is lacking in saturated fats. The essential point in my theory is that in our diet we must control the saturated fatty acids, because they, and more particularly palmitic acid, increase cholesterol in blood."
Ancel Keys: Coronary Heart Disease in Seven Countries
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