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Always cured: raw olives are inedible.
Green and black are one fruit at two stages.
Mostly healthy fat; watch the salt.
No olive is edible off the tree. Weeks in brine or salt wash the bitterness out.
Known to botanists as Olea europaea.
Olives deliver the same fat family as olive oil, but with fibre and in a portion your hand can measure. The trade is salt — which is why a small dish, not a large bowl, is the right serving.
Olives bring the Mediterranean fat pattern in a form that's easy to enjoy daily. For older adults the salt matters more than the fat: five or six good olives, rinsed, is the right habit.
It was used: rich in monounsaturated fat, the Mediterranean-diet fat family. Hydroxytyrosol and oleuropein, well-studied olive polyphenols (protective plant compounds).
An olive is a small stone fruit with one hard pit. It grows green and turns purple then black as it ripens. Straight from the tree it's painfully bitter. Every olive you have eaten was cured first.
Family: Oleaceae (olive family).
Persian temperament: Warm & Dry (1st degree). Cured olives were read as warming and drying, and the oil as gently warming and moistening — which is why the oil, not the fruit, went on the skin.
Persian medicine reads the olive as warm and dry, and treats it as a strengthening food — good for a weak appetite and, applied as oil, for dry skin and joints. Bitter unripe olives were considered more drying than ripe black ones.
Olive oil rubbed on dry skin and stiff joints — the oil.
Rudbar and Roudbar-e Gilan in northern Iran are olive country, and zeytoon parvardeh from Gilan — olives crushed with walnut, pomegranate paste and mint — is one of the great Persian side dishes. The olive branch has meant peace since antiquity.
Primary compounds
Oleic acid; vitamin E.
Other notable constituents
Minerals: Sodium (high, from curing), Iron, Copper, Calcium · Fiber: ~1 g per 10 olives
What studies in people show
A Mediterranean diet with extra-virgin olive oil reduced major heart and blood vessel events in a large randomised trial.Strong evidence
Olive polyphenols (protective plant compounds) including hydroxytyrosol protect LDL (the harmful type of cholesterol) particles from oxidation in human feeding studies.Moderate evidence
Home curing: slit each olive, soak in daily-changed water for a week or more, then keep in salt brine.
Rinse shop olives before serving to cut the salt.
In the kitchen: dress with walnut, pomegranate paste, mint and garlic for the Gilani style. Cured olives, whole, as part of a meze table. Rinsed and chopped into rice, salad or bread dough. A small dish of olives with bread and cheese. Chopped through a salad instead of adding extra salt.
Pomegranate
Pomegranate molasses turns cured olives from salty to sweet, sour and dark all at once.
Feta
Salt on salt should not work, but with bread and herbs it's the standard Persian breakfast plate.
Garlic
One crushed clove in the marinade changes the whole jar by the second day.
Cured olives are salty. With high blood pressure, heart failure or kidney disease, keep servings small and rinse them.
Unpitted olives can crack a tooth — warn guests.
Jet-black soft olives are usually green olives darkened with ferrous gluconate.
Blood pressure medicine — The problem is salt, not the fruit. Cured olives are very salty and a daily bowl can undo what the tablet is doing. (moderate concern)
Blood thinners — Olive oil in food amounts isn't a concern. High-dose olive leaf supplements are unstudied here and are best avoided. (low concern)
Diabetes medicine — Olive leaf extract may lower blood sugar. The fruit and oil don't, but the supplement is a different product. (low concern)
Pregnancy and breastfeeding
Olives and olive oil are ordinary foods in pregnancy and the oil is a good fat to cook with. Watch the salt if you're swelling, and skip olive leaf supplements.
Children
Most children spit the first olive out and eat the tenth. Whole olives with stones are a choking risk under four, so pit and chop them.
Older adults
Olive oil is the single easiest change in an older kitchen: it replaces harder fats, helps food go down, and has the best evidence behind it of any cooking oil. The cured fruit is the salty part to keep an eye on.
Spring
The trees flower. Nothing to pick, and last year's cured jars are what the kitchen is living on.
Summer
Green fruit is forming and hard. Some households pick early for green table olives.
Autumn
Harvest. Northern Iran cures its olives now and the first pressing of oil is made.
Winter
The best month for fresh oil, which still tastes peppery. Cured olives are on every table.
Why can't I eat one off the tree?
Oleuropein makes it bitter enough to be inedible. Curing washes it out.
How many is a normal serving?
About five or six olives. Rinse them first if you're watching salt.
End of the Olive (Fruit) guide