The Meme King of Longevity Now Wants to Sell You Olive Oil(nytimes.com)
nytimes.com
The Meme King of Longevity Now Wants to Sell You Olive Oil
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/12/business/bryan-johnson-longevity-blueprint.html
4 comments
Olive oil consumption is beneficial to human health...
"A 2014 meta-analysis concluded that an elevated consumption of olive oil is associated with reduced risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular events and stroke," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_diet
Whereas... "Theresa Cowan, 36, said she wanted to eat natural food like Mr. Johnson’s," "This month, more products, including powdered vegetables and pill supplements, became available on his website."
Whereas... "Theresa Cowan, 36, said she wanted to eat natural food like Mr. Johnson’s," "This month, more products, including powdered vegetables and pill supplements, became available on his website."
This feels like catnip for techies who are afraid of turning 35.
His product specifically? Let's look at the details: - "May 2023 harvest date" - Not bad! Most olive oils in your grocery store were harvested 2-3 years ago. This is not the most recent harvest (Oct-Dec 2023) though but you will still get incredibly fresh and healthy oils going back 1-1.5 years from the day you buy. Anything older has significantly lost health benefits.
- EVOO = Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The extra virgin label is an indicator of the highest quality i.e. no chemical/heat used, just olive fruit crushed into juice (oil). Many factors are at play here, like time of harvest, delay b/w harvesting and crushing. This is not a regulated label in the US so only chemical and more importantly sensory analysis can guarantee the EVOO designation.
- Which leads to "3rd party lab verified": show us the results Bryan! I am a panelist at one of these labs and would love to read the results :) But from my experience in the industry, the mention of this probably points to him actually having done testing and having received the label.
- UV resistant: Excellent. Exposure to light and heat severely degrades the taste and health qualities of oil. - Single source: Usually an indicator of quality since the miller and bottler are one and the same, so lesser chances of contaminants/quality failures.
- "Taste is peppery and smooth": Peppery is an indicator of quality - the peperry sensation is known as pungency, which along with fruitiness and bitterness is 1 of 3 indicators of EVOO. But smooth is not! I would argue that smooth indicates a mediocre oil. But sensory characteristics are arbitrary so we don't really know for sure what he means.
- Price point: Slightly above average for high quality EVOO. This price point usually indicates some commitment to quality - making high quality EVOO at a cheaper price point is not really possible, especially given the droughts in olive growing regions this past year.
Sources: I'm an olive oil somm, panelist on a California sensory analysis panel that tastes and grades olive oils.