The health benefits of olive oil

One holds onto far more of the compounds responsible for its health benefits, and that gap matters more than most people realise.

When people talk about the health benefits of olive oil, it’s extra virgin olive oil doing most of the heavy lifting. Choosing the right type, and using it the right way, makes a real difference to what your body actually gets out of it.

Olive oil has earned its place in kitchens for thousands of years, but it’s only in recent decades that nutrition science has caught up with what cooks have long known instinctively: this isn’t just a cooking fat, it’s one of the most well-studied components of a healthy diet.

As a cornerstone of the Mediterranean diet, olive oil has been linked to better heart health and lower rates of chronic disease over the long term. But what is it about olive oil that makes it so beneficial, and how do you actually get the most out of it?

What’s actually in olive oil

Olive oil, particularly extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), owes its health properties to a few key compounds:

• Monounsaturated fats, which support healthy cholesterol levels rather than working against them
• Polyphenols and antioxidants, plant compounds that help protect cells from damage and reduce inflammation in the body

The “extra virgin” label matters here. Because EVOO is the least processed form of olive oil, it retains far more of these beneficial compounds than refined varieties. If you’re choosing olive oil for its health properties, extra virgin is the one to reach for.

A diet, not a single ingredient

Much of the evidence behind olive oil's health benefits doesn't come from looking at olive oil on its own. It comes from studying it as part of a broader dietary pattern, where it's used regularly in meals alongside vegetables, legumes, wholegrains and fish.

This distinction matters. The body absorbs nutrients more effectively when they're eaten together, rather than in isolation. Olive oil helps the body absorb fat-soluble vitamins and antioxidants from the food it's paired with. Cooking vegetables like broccoli in olive oil, for example, actually enhances some of their beneficial properties in a way that wouldn't happen if you ate the oil on its own.

This is part of why nutrition experts tend to be cautious about trends that isolate a single ingredient and treat it as a cure-all. The benefit usually lies in how something fits into the overall pattern of eating, not in any one ritual.

Where to use it

Adding more olive oil to your diet doesn’t require any special technique. A few simple ways to bring it into everyday meals:

• Drizzled over salads and dressings
• Used as a base for marinades
• Used to roast vegetables
• Added as a finishing oil over a cooked dish
• Used in place of butter for baking

Worth keeping in mind

Olive oil is still energy-dense, so more isn’t automatically better. Like most things in nutrition, it works best as part of a balanced diet rather than added on top of one. The goal isn’t to chase the highest possible intake. It’s to use it consistently, in the way it’s traditionally been used, as a staple ingredient rather than a quick fix.

The research keeps growing

Olive oil isn’t the only part of the olive tree attracting scientific interest. Ian Breakspear, Senior Lecturer in Herbal and Naturopathic Medicine at Torrens University, has spent years researching the chemistry of olive leaf extract and its potential role in conditions like cardiovascular disease. His most recent work, a randomised controlled trial published in 2025, looked at whether olive leaf extract could help support blood glucose control in adults with type 2 diabetes. The results were inconclusive, but it’s a reminder that there’s still more to learn about how different parts of the olive plant interact with the body, separate from how we use the oil itself in cooking.

For anyone interested in the science behind everyday food choices, our Nutrition programs explore exactly this kind of evidence-based approach to diet and wellbeing.