It’s traditional. It’s been used for food and anointing as long as we’ve had civilization (at least 8000 years). The Romans famously plastered themselves with it daily. Greek peasants swig it today with lunch. It’s the world’s biggest seller in home-produced oils.

Have you guessed? It’s Olive Oil. The stuff that’s so fundamental that the very name oil (oleo) comes from ‘olive’.

With such a long history and an impressive health record, you’d think that all you have to do is go to the nearest supermarket, buy a bottle and glug down plenty every day. Then you’d be assured of long life. Yes? Nah! You’re too smart to fall for that stuff, aren’t you?

But you ought to know that this is exactly what a lot of food experts recommend. With provisos…

Use Olive Oil Wisely

First, it has to be part of a calorie-controlled diet. If you don’t live in the UK, that phrase won’t hit you so hard. It’s the disclaimer on every pack of quack slimming food for sale here! It’s a fair comment, though. If you add olive oil to a bad diet of fat/sugar/meat/salt junk, it’ll make things worse. 

In the Mediterranean, people who drizzle olive oil on their food eat fresh bread, rice and pasta with a whole lot of vegetables and not a lot of meat. And they aren’t well up in eating sugar (except the fat ones!)  You do the same, and your health will improve. Replace other fats with your olive oil. Don’t add it to them.

Second, it has to be the right olive oil. All through the ages, healthy, fresh olives have been pressed by hand and the oil that dribbles out collected and bottled as it is. That’s the stuff you need. It’s called Extra Virgin Olive Oil and by EU protection law, the name is reserved for just that cold-pressed, raw oil. No processing.  Most of it comes from Greece, Italy and Spain and those countries are generally the reliable sources, whatever the price.

In North America, if the Extra Virgin oil you find isn’t European, check very carefully that the label means what it says — US laws aren’t so tough on this one and there are some blending get-rounds. 

And The Junk?

So, what happens to the other millions of tons of olives that aren’t good enough for the certificated stuff?

Guess!

Pressure-cook it to a mush (with the spent mash from virgin oil). Press it in high power, hot-action screw presses to squeeze out the last drop. Refine it to get rid of the stuff that will make it go bad in careless storage (the minerals, vitamins, esters, sterols and other minor ingredients that you need for health). Bleach and chemically deodorize it, because by now it’ll be a strange colour, and smell and taste bad. Then bottle it and sell it as olive oil. Which it is, technically. Dead olive oil.

You get the point. Because of its traditional reputation, olive oil is a premium product, at a premium price.But in fact, the refined stuff is no better than other oils. It’s similar in composition to refined rape (canola) oil — the cheapest of them all. And refined sunflower and corn oils have a lot more polyunsaturates, so they’re probably healthier for you unless you eat too much Omega-6 already. A lot of people do.

So How Do I Use Olive Oil?

My advice? Do use olive oil. It’s good for you if you replace most other fats with it. But ONLY get the extra-virgin kind.  If you don’t go for expensive brands that look like classy white wine in the bottle, it only costs about a third more than the refined stuff, and it’ll do you good. And remember that you’ll still need both Omega-3 and -6 oils for your nutrition — you’ll get sick without eating them, and in proper proportion to each other.

Use it in salads and cooked foods.  Drizzle it on your bread instead of butter or margarine: it’s a lot healthier. 

It’s great –unless you can find cold-pressed, virgin rapeseed oil!  A lot of supermarkets sell this these days at a similar price to virgin olive oil. In the US and Canada, look for cold-pressed Canola oil, a variant of the rapeseed oil the rest of the world uses. That’s even better because it has some of the vital Omega 3 fatty acid ALA. And it’s tastier, in my opinion.

Good health!

So today was the day where I almost stopped going to my favorite supermarket here in Milwaukee. If you’re in Milwaukee, you know the one I’m talking about: the cool one downtown that has 1000 different types of produce, and a whole aisle dedicated to gourmet coffee and teas. The one with the free samples, the wine tasting and cooking courses. Yeah, that one.

Anyway, today I went to the market to buy a few things for dinner. I knew it was going to go wrong because my usual entrance to the parking lot was gated off by shopping carts lying on the ground to block my path. OK, I’m flexible, I’ll drive around.

The second thing was when they were out of my favorite glass bottles of skim milk. It’s the best way to drink milk, in my humble opinion. They had every flavor except for mine.

Next, I tried to check out by “paying by touch.” Let me tell you, this can be the best system in the world, you just sign up with your driver’s license number, your credit card number, your preferred customer number, and your phone number, and away you go. Notice I said CAN be the best. Many times, my preferred card number doesn’t work in the system, and it doesn’t take the savings off of the bill, and tonight was one of those nights.

Now this would have been okay, had the checker just used the house card and given me the lower price so my debit card would be billed the correct amount, however she did not know how to do this. Instead, she said to go over to the service counter and someone over there would help me out.

Skeptical, I walked over to the service desk to see 3 clerks talking to each other and cutting out something that was much more urgent than me and the 4 other people in line. For some reason, after a few minutes, one girl asked to help me. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I told her my dilemma, and she proceeded to go through my bags, re-scanning things and writing down what she thought was the correct cents off. I’m no cheapskate, but five dollars is 2 gallons of gas! Of course, she was doing all of this in her head, and didn’t let me see the slip, and of course didn’t do it correct, ripping me off to the tune of about 20 cents, plus I had to re-pack my own groceries.

To add insult to injury, there was no ramp open to go down to the parking structure I was forced to use, so I had to grab my bags and carry them, with my wife, down 3 flights of 10 stairs.

This is maddening to me! It’s so easy to do things right. Here’s how I would provide customer service.

Plainly mark the entrances that are closed, and advertise it on your stores website, thus alleviating some of your customers’ frustrations, and provide the alternative entrances.

If you’re out of something, put a sign up that lets me know when it’s going to be back so I can return and buy it then, and apologize that you’re out. A little sign is all I ask, not a big production.

Make the error in favor of your customers, and scan the house savings card whenever in doubt. And give your checkers the ability to fix this, instead of sending us over to the service desk.

Offer something extra to customers when your computer systems don’t work as planned. It doesn’t have to be a lot, but give me a coupon for a free loaf of bread, a free deli sandwich, or something nice. It’s not my fault your preferred system doesn’t work.

Use loyalty cards for EXTRA things, not to get the every day lowest price. Why am I going to scan my preferred customer card if I know I don’t have anything that’s on sale? I’m not, that’s why.

That’s all I’ve got. See, it wasn’t so hard, was it? Making customer service great is a lot easier than you though. And oh yeah, you won’t lose me as a customer if you at least try. Thanks!