Hydroxytyrosol: The One With a Law Behind It

Most health claims on a food label are marketing dressed up as science. This one isn't. The EU says: if an oil delivers 5 milligrams of hydroxytyrosol and its close relatives per 20 grams, it may legally claim to protect blood lipids from oxidative stress.

Hydroxytyrosol is what's left after oleuropein breaks down: a smaller, gentler, and weight for weight one of the most potent antioxidants ever measured in food. It is an ortho diphenol and has unparalleled scavenging effect to disease causing free radicals. It doesn't ask you to believe it. It asked the EU to check the math first.

In lab measurement of antioxidant capacity, the assays chemists use to rank how effectively a compound neutralizes free radicals. It is uber antioxidant and readily pounces the oxygen free radicals.