Real olive oil and fake olive

[clanless]

I had bad experiences with olive oil in the past. Tasted nasty to me, always had a nasty stomache after consuming it, and eventually stopped.
I heard that most olive oils are fake, so I researched a bit to find a legit olive oil and today, finally brought home Trader Joe's California Estate. It was nothing like the olive oil I know. It had a grassy odor and had a peppery taste.

What is your experience with olive oil, and do you know if it was the real kind, or the fake kind which is diluted with vegetable oil?
If you had a bad experience with a fake olive oil you bought, whether it be due to break outs, greasy hair, or another reason, would you give the "real" olive oil a try?

[biogirl87]

Clanless, I've never had a real bad experience with olive oil, but then again I've never tried putting it on my hair. When I go to buy olive oil (I buy it at the regular drugstores/grocery stores, not health food stores or specialty stores) I look for extra virgin first cold-pressed/oil that was pressed from olives before being exported. As long as it's extra virgin first cold-pressed olive oil, it doesn't really matter what brand you get or which stores you get it from nor do I think that some olive oils are "real" and some are "fake"-I think that's just more of marketing ploy to get you to buy it from more expensive stores.

[Luminaria]

I'm not great at tasting the differences between real and fake olive oils, but I buy olive oils that are extra virgin and preferably cold-pressed. I've read that locally produced oils tend to be genuine and not cut with other oils. If you'd like to know more about the purity of olive oils, check out this book: http://books.google.com/books?id=H3_...+Mueller&hl=en
I've read a little of it, but I found it interesting.

[clanless]

Legitimacy of olive oil has always been a problem because there's such high demand for it. It's the same today. Legitimacy has less to do with brand or store, and more to do with the origin and whether the oil has the basic 'olive oil' characteristics.

And the olive oils I've tried in the past and did not like? Yeah they were all extra virgin cold pressed too.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

We always buy local NZ grown olive oil after there was a tv documentary revealing that the major olive oil growing countries often use inferior or adulterated oils and brand them as top quality. The NZ oil we buy is around $22 a litre, roughly twice the price of the "common " brands, but the difference in taste and quality makes it worth it. Mind you, I don't use it on my hair, just for eating - it's so yummy!

[Natalia]

Im spoiled i live in california and have large olive growing regions on two sides of me i can drice two hours and get it straight from the plant if i wanted. I cant recall having a bad experiacne with olive oil but to be fair till i started cooking my family mostly used canola. With any oil storage is key buy in dark bottles nothing to big and keep it in a cool dark place with the lid tightly secured.

[Hairizona]

Gee, I read years ago that the real olive oil was that which is cloudy and when you shake the bottle you can see bits floating around in it, and also that this tends to be the cheapest olive oil on the market, not the most or more expensive.

[Sillage]

I don't use olive oil because it breaks me out

[cmg]

I don't use olive oil because it breaks me out

Oh, this never happened to me. I get this from various oils, fex coconut oil, but not olive oil. Does this happen on your scalp as well or just on other skin or face?

Many years ago I heard something in a TV-documentary about olive oil being mislabeled and containing something else. This is nothing I worry about though. I think the oil in our stores here is genuine. I'm hoping any way It does smell and taste a bit like olives. I use only very little oil in my hosehould for cooking, sometimes olive oil, sometimes thistle (safflor?) and sometimes sesame- or walnut oil. And almost exclusively in cold dishes.

/ CMG

[thirstylocks]

My dads family produces olive oil in Greece. We have a few barrels from them here which we use/gift to our family friends. I think Greek olive oil is generally good quality... Our oil (we don't sell it, we just make enough for our family) is completely natural and pure, and it is super dark Green in color if that helps you at all!