Villa Magra is an intense fruity extra virgin olive oil, with fresh herbaceous scents and definite bitter and spicy notes. But did you know that such a well-structured olive oil is not only a delight for taste, but also a true gift for health?
Let’s find out why.
“IF YOUR OLIVE OIL IS BITTER, THANK THE PERSON WHO GAVE IT TO YOU” – Dr. Gino Celletti
As a matter of fact, bitter taste is still widely considered a defect in olive oil.
Unfortunately, for the so-called “common taste”, many tend to prefer tasteless, unscented products, considering them “better quality”.
Unfortunately, they don’t know that this is a seriously widespread misconception.
Pure and simple: bitterness is a positive attribute in olive oil.
But first – why is olive oil bitter?
This characteristic is given by an element called oleuropein, present in olive trees (especially in their fruits and leaves).
Pick off an olive from the tree and bite it – it tastes terribly bitter, right? Well, you wouldn’t even try that… however, just know that thanks to bitter oleuropein molecules olive trees can live up to thousands of years!
This is because oleuropein is a phenolic compound, that is a powerfully antioxidant natural substance.
Villa Magra olive oil is obtained from beautiful olive varieties Frantoio, Moraiolo and Leccino, hand-picked when still green or turning slightly blackish and pressed immediately afterwards using the innovative production line at Frantoio Franci; in this way, olive oil does not lose the original good polyphenols, but it keeps them at high levels, with an elegant, tasty and healthy balance. Therefore, Villa Magra enjoyable bitter taste reveals its super-concentration of polyphenols.
This makes Villa Magra a product of Superior Quality, resistant to oxidation (ageing), therefore (chemically) stable and “young”. And it keeps You young (and happy).
GOOD TO KNOW: oleuropein is considered a “nutraceutical” as it is a nutritional element with proven healing properties (“pharmaceutical”), e.g. preventing the formation of malignant tumors.
“‘GOOD’ OLIVE OIL MUST BE SPICY, THE MORE, THE BETTER” – Dr. Gino Celletti
Another positive attribute of Frantoio Franci “Villa Magra” is its bold, spicy, persistent pungency.
This pleasant peppery sensation, detected in the throat, is, together with bitterness, another litmus test to reveal a very high concentration of polyphenols.
Easy formula: more antioxidants = more bitterness and pungency = higher Quality of the oil (both taste- and healthwise).
On the other hand, going for tasteless, odourless products means choosing bad quality olive oils – obtained from faulty raw material full of stinking molecules (s. over-ripe, fermented olives) and the the trick: bad smell is washed away and the oily part is put back.
Be careful, because in this cases intense green colour in olive oil can be deceptive! Colour indicates nothing about the quality of the product – and (hear ye) can be easily reproduced by just adding green pigments, like clorophile.
Think about orange juice: in front of you, two glassfuls of inviting bright orange drink, looking just alike. You are about to take one of them, by chance… when someone tells you that one comes from beautiful, sweet, juicy, fresh-squeezed oranges, while the other is obtained from rotten, mouldy, nasty fruits, then “fixed” to look like the good one.
“But they were identical…” – well, now that you know, which one would you drink or offer to your loved ones?
This is just the same with olive oil: you can simulate the aspect of good orange juice as well as of olive oil, not the quality.
Quality meaning the aroma, the complex, herbaceous, fresh taste of Villa Magra – obtained from excellent selected olives and produced with great expertise, care, experience, passion. And also meaning its bold bitter and pungent notes – it’s all goodness for health!
Once in your life, don’t trust all your senses. Close your eyes, then smell, taste and choose. Well, with Villa Magra you made the perfect choice.
OUR GOOD (HARDLY KNOWN) FRIENDS POLYPHENOLS
We already mentioned that the high concentration on polyphenols in Villa Magra is highly beneficial for health – let’s better see how.
Oil polyphenols are generally known for their exceptional antioxidant properties. In other words, they slow the rate of cellular aging (protection of cells from oxidative stress) and effectively scavenge free radicals – why looking for these results in expensive beauty treatments when Villa Magra does the job for free?
And there are also many others beneficial effects, more and more investigated by official medicine, like the anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.
For example, oleochantal, a natural phenolic compound isolated in olive oil, has been particularly studied for performing anti-inflammatory action very similar to the drug ibuprofen. And oleochantal is the very element that elicits pungency in olive oil – now it all fits: more pungency, more health!
There’s even more to know: among others, polyphenols help decreasing the level of LDL-cholesterol (the “bad” one) and blood pressure (BP), thus resulting very good for high-blood pressure sufferers plus they have have shown beneficial potential on adiposity and obesity.
So, there’s nothing better than have plenty of our good friends polyphenols by well and naturally eating – all thanks to Villa Magra, green elixir of long and happy life.
GOOD TO KNOW: in order to obtain all this positive effects on health, you have to check one particular value in olive oil, that is the concentration of hydroxityrosol, known for being one of the most powerful natural antioxidants.
As also established by European Commission in 2012 after EFSA (European Food Safety Authority, Commission Regulation EU N. 432/2012) giving green light to this claim, bottles of extra virgin olive oil can say on label that their content is good to health, provided that it “contains at least 5 mg of hydroxytyrosol per 20 g of olive oil (recommended daily serving, i.e. 2-3 tablespoons)”. And since Villa Magra has far more than this concentration of hydroxytyrosol, all the healing effects are guaranteed. That’s not bad, is it?