44: The TRUTH And LIES About Olive Oil

What Is This Episode About…

Olive oil is an excellent source of fat. But is your olive oil really olive oil? TJ Robinson, the owner of Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil, tells us how to find out, in this episode…

As TJ says, many don’t know what fresh olive oil tastes like. Most olive oil in the US is sub-par.

He works with boutique family producers all around the world at the peak of freshness and harvest time because that’s different in the northern and southern hemispheres.

He works with those families to curate a trio of fresh oils every quarter. In fact, he has a club called the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club.

In this episode, he talks about how to taste your olive oil at home to say whether it’s real olive oil or not, to help educate your palette and give some shopping tips.

He also debunks the myth that you can’t use olive oil for cooking.

Olives are fruit and you have to think of fresh olive oil as fresh fruit juice. Olives, when picked, are very temperamental. So that’s a race from the moment you pluck an olive from the tree to its being pressed into oil. During that process, lots of things can deteriorate it or make the oil defective or sub-par.

Stay tuned to know more.

Key Points of Discussion

“My goal is to change your life with one taste.” (5:03)
Back when TJ started the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club in 2004… (8:47)
Americans have been buying for lots of decades olive oil that’s misrepresented (9:52)
If you’re buying a single estate oil, you know that’s a family’s pride and joy (10:17)
A lot of the oil at big-box stores is maybe diluted with high inflammatory oil (10:47)
It’s best to consume independently certified extra-virgin olive oil when it’s fresh (12:09)
TJ says they sell high-polyphenol olive oil that’s very fresh (13:18)
An aha moment in about 2004 when TJ was invited to an olive oil harvest party (15:01)
Olives are fruit and you have to think of fresh olive oil as fresh fruit juice (16:26)
TJ looks for small family farmers, people who have a lot of care and love (17:06)
A lot of Code Red rebels are using olive oil as the backbone of their healthy cooking (21:01)
Olive oil keeps you feeling full and healthy longer (31:02)
Benefits of good quality olive oil (31:54)
How to taste the olive oil you have at home so you can assess it (32:25)
Educate your palette. Look for harvest dates, dark glass, a high-turnover place (44:59)

Learn More About The Content Discussed…

Get the Code Red On-The-Go Guide here.

Join the next 10-Pound Takedown Challenge here.

When Was It Released…

This episode was released January 21, 2020

Episode Transcript…

The Transcript Is Auto-Generated And May Contain Spelling And Grammar Errors

TJ: 00:00 So UC Davis at the Olives Center there, did a study, a research study where they took a lot of olive oil, like 30 different oils, and sent them to an independent third party lab in Australia, somewhere Californian oil. Some were imported, most were imported. They sent them to a lab in Australia and the results came back that essentially 70% of the oils that were tested back then were not extra-virgin at all.

Cristy: 00:33 I’m Cristy Code Red and you’re listening to Rebel Weight Loss and Lifestyle, where we believe food holds the power to heal or poison and we believe our society has been misled regarding proper nutrition and weight loss. You’re in the right place if you’re looking for some straight-up truth because I’m here to shed light on the lies and brainwashing that has taken place over the past five decades. Thanks so much for listening.

Cristy: 00:59 Welcome. Welcome to have Rebel Weight Loss and Lifestyle. I’m Cristy Code Red. Thank you for being here. I’m thinking about you. How are you doing? Birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, vacations – Are you getting through all of it unscathed? Because it’s my job as your coach to make sure that you learn how to navigate the food celebrations of life without gaining your weight back. And yes, it can be done. It is not prison. It is absolutely very, very doable to live the Code Red lifestyle. We don’t use food as a punishment. We don’t use food as a reward. So many things in our society are centered around food. And that is not even a problem. The problem is that we just consume copious amounts of sugar and way, way, way too much-processed chemical crap and our bodies can’t handle it. So what does it do? It bio-accumulates body fat and we get really sick and fat and it’s terrible.

Cristy: 01:54 But I’m thinking about you guys all the time, all the time, just wondering how you’re doing and what I can do to help you. So today’s interview, I think you’re really going to love. I know, I love talking to this guy and this is the owner of Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil, TJ and it’s really very, very interesting when you hear the truth and lies about olive oil, things that none of us even I didn’t even know. And once you know you can’t unknow and it was just a really super, super interesting interview that I know you’re going to love. TJ is very so genuine, so nice and very easy to understand, especially someone who is so knowledgeable in this area, but yet he dumbs it down for me anyway, he dumbed it down for me a little bit so I can understand what he’s talking about and I think that you’re going to love us because this is such a huge.

Cristy: 02:43 Code Red lifestyle is a high-fat lifestyle, high fat, low carb lifestyle and we want to get good quality fat and we want to get it from olive oil, but there are certain olive oils. Ah, I’m not going to say anything. I’ll let you listen to the interview. It’s really awesome. Thank you for being here. Have a good one and thank you for listening. Welcome, welcome. Welcome, everybody. Cristy Code Red here, author, entrepreneur, retired professional boxer. How’s everybody doing today? Good. Listen guys, I have got a guest on with me right now that I think you’re going to find to be unusual. Not because it’s the guest, but because of what he does. Because none of us think about this certain subject that we’re going to talk about. But once you know, you cannot unknow guys seriously. So I think it’s really important that we educate our rebels and people that are watching and listening right now that you understand like, Whoa, cause I’m telling you, when I heard this for the first time, I was completely shocked. I had no idea that this was taking place and that this was kind of the, and you’ll understand what I’m talking about, but let me introduce TJ. TJ, thank you so much for coming on here and talking to all of us right now.

TJ: 04:00 Hey, it is such a pleasure. I am really just honored and blessed. It feels just so blessed to be here. I’m such a huge fan. I’ve, I’ve gone through the Code Red challenge myself with my wife and I am just like super proud and excited to be here. I’m such a big fan of what you and your sister and your company stand for and your principles and super excited to have an opportunity to talk with you all.

Cristy: 04:25 Thank you so much. Well guys, I’m going to let TJ introduce himself because I will screw it up. And purposely before we started talking, I did not talk to TJ. I don’t like talking to guests ahead of time because I want it to be real and authentic. Look, there’s a reason why we are ranked so high. If you’re listening to this on the podcast or Facebook or whatever’s going on. There’s a reason is because of the authenticity of me and Cari and the people that we have. And I, I want you to just be in on this as conversational. So TJ, please introduce yourself to the listeners and the viewers so that we know what you do and why you’re even on this podcast.

TJ: 05:03 Well, why I’m on the podcast. We could start back a little bit. Last year I saw you and Nashville on the ClickFunnels stage and I was so impressed by your story and the lives that Code Red is changing. I was just so impressed. I’m like, this lady is on fire and I love everything to see stands for the real food, the sleep. I was like this lady, like I just love her. And fast forward about six months later and I walked up to you at an event and we were in Austin, I think at paleo FX or KIDO con, one or the other. And I walked up to you carrying a bottle of olive oil and you’re like, who is this guy who’s like schlepping a bottle of olive oil? But my goal is to change your life with one taste. And so I walked up to you and Cari kind of sheepishly along with my wife Megan, who is my biggest ambassador and shared with you a simple taste of fresh olive oil.

TJ: 06:05 And you, I believe, had never tasted fresh olive oil before. Like most Americans, we don’t know what fresh olive oil tastes like. We’re very familiar with great apples and great oranges and how to select the best and which one’s are the best and the sweetest, but the most olive oil in the US, it’s subpar. So anyway, I walked up, I said, hi, my name is TJ Robinson. I’m The Olive Oil Hunter. You’re like, ah, what the olive oil Hunter? Yeah. I’m like, I’m the olive oil onto your like, what is that? I’m like, well I’m this guy who travels around the globe. I’m part olive oil Selma. Yay. I’m part olive oil concierge and what I do, I work with boutique family producers all around the world at the peak of freshness and harvest time because that’s different in the Northern hemisphere and Southern. And I work with those families to curate a trio of fresh oils every quarter. So I have a club called the fresh-pressed olive oil club. Quite a few rebels are members. Very blessed and happy to have them. But I’m basically, I take out all the middlemen in the middle and consumers and get basically direct from the farmer direct to the club member. So anyway, I’m TJ Robinson. The Olive Oil Hunter.

Cristy: 07:23 Well this is just wonderful now rebels. Listen, you might be watching and listening and you’re like, why on earth would we be talking about this? Because things are not like you think they are in fact the olive oil that you get in traditional supermarkets and places. It isn’t what it seems. And when I heard this from TJ and Megan, I just about fell over TJ, tell us what is the deal with the olive oil that you can get it at Costco and Walmart and target off the stores of most off the shelves in most stores versus what you bring us?

TJ: 07:57 Oh that’s such a great question because there’s a lot of layers to it, but essentially there is olive oil that’s produced as a bulk commodity product that I sold at a very low price point and then there’s Artist old boutique olive oil that’s from a single estate. So there’s a big level of control that happens and we can go into that later. And how to taste your olive oil at home to say whether it’s real olive oil or not to help educate your palette and give some shopping tips and all that sort of thing. So definitely, you know, we’ll go into that later in the, in the interview. But essentially what’s happened in the US as I explained, I didn’t really know and most people don’t know. I’m a Southern boy from Asheville, North Carolina. I didn’t have an olive tree in my yard growing up. I had no idea what a grid fresh olive oil tastes like.

TJ: 08:47 Back in, I’d say about 2004, when I started the club, we were growing about 3% of our olives in US of our consumption. So 97% was being imported. And along with that there was a lot of fraud. There was a lot of mislabeling in olive oil. So UC Davis at the center of the olive there did a study, a research study where they took a lot of olive oil, like 30 different oils, and sent them to an independent third party lab in Australia somewhere. California oil. Some were imported, most were imported. They sent them to a lab in Australia and the results came back that essentially 70% of the oils that were tested back then were not extra-virgin at all. So they failed two particular tests when I, olive oil is being assessed by professional tasters. They look for two things. One, they look for the organic elliptic which is the taste profile and we can talk about that again later.

TJ: 09:52 And two, they look at the chemistry. So essentially Americans had been buying and have been buying for a lot of decades. Olive oil that’s misrepresented. So it’s low quality with lower health-promoting benefits. So we can go on and on about that. But essentially you’re, you’re buying a bulk commodity product versus on Artez no product with a lot of love. I mean you’ve probably bought olive oil in a clear bottle and it was disguised like a look like Italian had the Italian flag on it maybe. But when you look at the back it says it’s from eight different countries of origin. When you re actually read the label and there’s not enough care and love that goes into that product where if you’re buying a single estate oil, you know the family that produced it, you know that that’s their pride and joy and that’s what they share with for example, the club members. So anyway, I hope, I hope I didn’t.

Cristy: 10:47 Yeah, that was fantastic. Yeah. On the Code Red lifestyle, we keep things simple but we do eliminate the foods and products that cause inflammation. So correct me if I’m wrong, but are you saying this, a lot of the oil that we get in the United States from the big box stores, they are maybe cut or are diluted down with maybe a high inflammatory oil like safflower oil or canola oil or soybean oil.

TJ: 11:14 Yes. You know, sadly that’s happened. America has gotten better. We were officially the like the dumping ground for really bad oil because most consumers in the US had no idea what really great olive oil tasted like authentic olive oil tasted like. So we were, you know, part of the scheme and olive oil, this whole like expos a on olive oil started with an article in the New York times, sorry, the new Yorker that was like the slippery business of olive oil. And evidently Tom Mueller who went on to write a great book called extra virginity, which is this a great expo an on the fraud in olive oil. It really dates back to the time of Roman. So like they were, you know, this has been something that’s been going on for a long time now. The American bulk bottlers are trying to do a better job. I’ve noticed there’s switching more to dark glass, which helps protect the oil.

TJ: 12:09 The quality of the oil itself is getting a little higher. So I think things are changing and evolving, but it’s best to have independently certified third party certified as extra Virgin olive oil and consuming it when it’s fresh. So can I talk a just a second about inflammation? Cause I know that’s a very big, very big deal for you guys. So one of the very special things with fresh olive oil are this very powerful antioxidant. So antioxidants, very important one or one of them are these polyphenols. They’re referred to this, this collection of polyphenols. And these polyphenols are very, hi anti-inflammatory properties, have very high anti-inflammatory properties. So there was this guy this research scientist who is actually studying ibuprofen. He’s a scientist who works in that field in the lab and was visiting Sicily and he tasted fresh olive oil and it gave him the sensation in the mouth and in the throat of ibuprofen when he tasted it in the lab.

TJ: 13:18 So he had this kind of aha moment where he took this fresh oil back to the US on the airplane with him and he decided to see if there was a compound in fresh olive oil that was akin to ibuprofen. Smart guy. There was in fact, so people with arthritis, I mean, I know you’ve been beaten up, you know, arthritis, you cools, arthritis, gut inflammation, brain health. I mean you can go on and on about joints and all that sort of stuff. But these compounds, these special polyphenols, they dissipate in the first six months after pressing by 50% most Americans had never ever heard of high polyphenol olive oil, which is what we sell is fairly high in polyphenols. And two, it’s very fresh. They, because these polyphenols are so special and they’re in like, you know, God’s delivery system will say, because it’s perfectly wrapped in rope with the fat, these inflammation fighters, these polyphenols are just amazing for your health. So there’s a lot of discoveries going on related to that, which is super cool.

Cristy: 14:30 You know, I’ve been to Europe nine times and several times to Italy, but people think that Italy, I have visited all kinds of countries in Europe that have all of making equipment and it is very, very, very difficult. Now some people have modernized, even in Europe, some of those have modernized the mechanism, the way that they make, you know, it’s extremely difficult to make olive oil. Now you’re saying that you actually go to those family farms. I mean, you’re going, you’re going right to the source of the farmer. You’re going right to the farmer.

TJ: 15:01 That’s right. That’s right. So essentially I had my first aha moment in Sicily in about 2004 I was working as a food journalist and was invited to a harvest party, an olive oil harvest party. I’m like, sign me up. I don’t know what that is, but sign me up. So anyway, I, I go and I’m hanging out with Mateo and his family and this, you know, beautiful, you know, a spot overlooking the sea and the family. We collected the alos all day and we went to the mill in the afternoon and I tasted fresh oil and my life totally changed. Like that just did it for me. I was like, this is my passion. There’s something so special about this product. And so I brought it back to my friends and family and they were all in chef friends. My background is a professional chef. So that’s kinda how I got my start in food as, as a professional chef and wine taster and food writer and wine writer. So I have this innate love for connecting with people in these cultures and, and trying to understand, you know, this important role of olive oil in there, in their culture and in their family history. And while they’re so protective of it. But yeah. So when I tasted the fresh oil, I, I knew it was game over.

Cristy: 16:13 That’s just incredible. So talk to us about the freshness is something I learned from you was actually olive oil does not get better and like wine wines like, Oh, it gets better with time. That is not true with olive oil.

TJ: 16:26 Yes. We know people I think to lump them together because they’re typically grown in the same areas for whatever reason. And so olives are fruit and fresh fruit juice is you have to think of fresh olive oil as a fresh fruit juice. So it for olives and just speaking about control and those sorts of things. So olives, when they’re picked, they’re very temperamental. So that’s a race from the moment you pluck it from the tree to it’s pressed into oil. So a lot of things can happen during that process, that deteriorate. And make the oil defective or Subpart. So essentially what I look for are small family farmers, people who have a lot of care and a lot of love. There’s actually a guide in Italy, it’s an Italian guide called flow Solei and they rank the top 400 producers in the world each year.

TJ: 17:23 And this guide, they have this coveted group of the flow. So lay top 20, these are the top 20 scorings on the hundred point scale, the top 20 scoring farms of the year, and they go to Rome. It’s kind of like winning the Oscars of the olive oil world because these people are super serious about what they do. They go and they win these awards this flow. So like the top 20, they select the best of the year and they go to Rome. And when their award in, when I was at, I think it was paleo FX or keto con, I was sampling my two most recent trios. And actually out of the six oils that were on the table, five of those farms were in the flow Solei top 20 winners. So these are really, you know, just the most passionate people when it comes to olive oil, they have the big tear for the trees properly.

TJ: 18:14 They harvest them beautifully, they rushed them to the mill, they have superior machinery that keeps the oxidation from happening when they’re being pressed because that keeps these bright flavors. I know you’ve tasted the oil, so you know like it’s green and vibrant. So yeah, that’s the people I seek out. And I do that four times a year. So I do two trips to the Mediterranean each year I do an a, an Italian and Greek harvest. And then a few months later I worked the Spanish and Portuguese harvest and then I use the opposite hemispheres, like go to the Southern hemisphere in the height of their growing season because all lives are harvested once a year. And again, they’re beautiful fruit. But those trips take me to Chile and Argentina. And then after that I go on to Australia and New Zealand.

Cristy: 19:05 Oh, it’s just incredible. You really, it’s amazing to me how you really go to these places yourself and you look at it yourself. That is and you might be wondering, you know, why is Code Red? What the heck do we have to do with this? We are so happy that we teamed up with TJ and Megan and fresh-pressed olive oil to bring you CodeRedOliveOil.com. If you get your olive oil through CodeRedOliveOil.com, not only does a portion of that sale go back to Code Red and I’m always transparent and honest with you guys, you guys getting a membership actually helps Code Red stay in business. It helps us to develop new products that help keep the doors open and pay the bills. But you also get Megan and TJ and I don’t know which one of you and maybe both of you, I don’t know what you guys provide our rebels with recipes on with a PDF of recipes. That’s incredible. I think one of you guys said one time to Cari you said, I don’t know, maybe it was Megan. I don’t know why you are, people are still buying their salad dressings in the store.

TJ: 20:08 Yes, yes. I mean most so you know, BA basically, and you’re, you’re so good with fats. Cristy, you could talk about the health side of fats and why you gravitate more toward wonderful healthful fats like that have health-promoting properties. So, you know, if you want to expand on why you love to recommend olive oil in general, I’d love to hear that too.

Cristy: 20:32 Well, I’ve done another podcast, whole of the podcast on the benefits of fat. You guys, I believe that is the number two podcast. The second biggest lie in weight loss is the benefits of fat. Or the biggest lie would be that you have to eat low fat. Well, we absolutely do not believe in that. So if you do go through CodeRedOliveOil.com, you are going to get a bonus. Now when you tell us a little bit about the membership, I’m telling you, it’s an exciting day around our house when our box shows up from you guys.

TJ: 21:01 Oh, that’s a, that’s so cool. So yes you know, really what and, and Megan, my wife is on the Code Red boards. As I mentioned, we’ve done the challenges. So we see people’s comments, which is just very enlightening to see that because I think what a lot of rebels are doing, they’re using the olive oil as kind of the backbone of their healthy cooking. So they are using the oil kind of how I train people to use my style of oil as a flavor enhancer. So I like to think of like standard bulk oil made from really ripe olives with a very high yield of oil, which has low flavor qualities. I like to think of those as dried herbs and that’s what most people are used to. And tasting olive oil. Think of like standard bulk olive oils. I dried herbs, well, fresh-pressed olive oil, on the other hand, is more like fresh herbs.

TJ: 21:57 So people are topping their food with it to help their macros. People are making salad dressings. You’re the first person we’ve ever done a special PDF recipe for. I think after Megan going through the challenge, he’s like, these are some recipes where people commonly consume really crappy oils that are horrible for your body that are GMO and that have inflammatory properties. And she’s like, you know, Cristy and Cari and their mission is so important and I really think this will help the rebels start to use the product too and understand where they can. So we did a marinade in the PDF that’s kind of an all-purpose marinade. I believe we did a pesto, which was great over like zucchini noodles or even, you know, roasted vegetables. We did Megan’s charred broccoli recipe, which is just, there’s like a simple and a complex version because I know you guys like to eat very simply and whole food and we’re right with you there.

TJ: 22:56 In addition, there’s a dressing guide, so making your own vinaigrettes, getting away from the bottle vinaigrettes which have like well-added sugar and all these binders. And there’s something so simple about just putting the ratio of a third vinegar, two-thirds olive oil, placing it in a small bottle with a little herbs, a little mustard, little garlic, whatever you’re in the mood for, shake it up and that just freshness. It actually helps your body absorb more of the nutrients. And you know, and you’ve probably, I’m probably preaching to the wrong crowd here as these guys already know that, but, but essentially you get more vitamins. The fat profile in olive oil, really great olive oil is very much akin to human breast milk. So our bodies are meant to receive this very special ratio of fat in a very unique way. And people don’t really discuss that a whole lot. But you know, as more and more research comes out on olive oil and polyphenols and all those health-promoting qualities, you know, there’s just more and greater data. So we’re super happy with that.

Cristy: 24:10 Well, I think it’s interesting that you said that about the quality of your olive oil because when I use a low-grade olive oil from a box store or something of the S that hasn’t been handled with so much love and the quality of fresh press, I have to add things. I put it on. But I have to add salt and herbs and spices. But when I use one of yours when I use, I don’t, the flavor is incredible. So that doesn’t surprise you. Now it makes sense. I never heard anybody explain it to me. I just thought, Oh, it’s just better. But that makes a lot more sense.

TJ: 24:42 Yeah. You know when you’re cooking you can use the olive oil. So there’s a few myths around olive oil. One is you can’t cook with it. That is completely false. Now I will preface that by saying the higher the level of the polyphenols in the oil, those are anti-oxidants. Those polyphenols actually protect the oil when it’s being heated. So I have a couple of research studies I can send to you based on the stability of olive oil, when cooking with it and how it performs over time. And it actually won out against most, well most oils out there. So I’ll send that to you. I know you’d love to read all about, you know, how stable it is to actually cook with it. And you know, from traveling in these countries, you see these women and men that are in their nineties and they’re in the Mediterranean, they’ve only been cooking with olive oil forever. So yes, you can cook with it. Yes, you can use it as a sauce, you know, so it’s very versatile in the kitchen and everybody will kind of find their own favorite ways. Like, I have someone who canceled recently who said, we just don’t eat enough bread to go through your bottle of olive oil. I’m like, I’m like, give me her number. I had to call her like, I don’t even eat bread. Like, you know, and I go through a bottle in no time because it’s, you know, just sets a flavor and answer.

Cristy: 26:05 Oh goodness gracious. Look, I may look, come on. You know, I know we go through definitely we go through ours, our bottles. It’s like I said, it’s a happy day when we get our order and if you go through CodeRedOliveOil.com to get TJ and Megan’s hand-selected olive oil, you are gonna get every quarter is everybody know what a quarter is? That’s every three months is a quarter. Every three months you’re going to get three bottles of olive oil and they’re always different. That’s what makes it so exciting. And I don’t want to call it the newsletter. What’s that thing that you

TJ: 26:39 Yeah, I call it the pressing report. So I’ll just pull it up you guys. So when I travel, I land and I taste about a hundred oils. When I get to a country right at the moment. And so in Italy alone there are 550 olive varieties in Italy alone. Some of them for table fruit such as cure dollars. Some of them are for making oil. Some of them can be used for both. Well, so my challenge is finding the places, the microclimates that have very special fruit that year because you from the best, most beautiful fruit, you can make the best oil if you have the right Miller and the right equipment. So I land, I taste about a hundred oils. I say this farm’s got potential that farm’s got potential. Okay, let’s go, let’s visit them. So there’s always a mild, a medium and a bold.

TJ: 27:28 In every trio there are two sizes to the club. There’s a 250 mL. And if you’re well if you’re a Code Red, you probably should go for the large bottle because you know you can add a lot of good healthy fats. But this size, you get three bottles from three different producers is 99 a quarter for the trio and it comes with the pressing report. I can show you more of that. And then there’s this size, which is 500 mL and this is one 39 a quarter. Now, what are you paying for it? Like that’s a lot compared to store-bought olive oil. So you’re paying for me to go there. You’re paying for really green fruit. So when you harvest olives that are super green, they have about 10% yield, but they’re very high in polyphenols, antioxidants, and flavor. So if you were to take the same olive and let it hang on the tree for an extra month or so, it’ll go completely black and you could potentially get up to 30% oil out of that fruit, which you then can sell in bulk to a mass producer.

TJ: 28:31 But there are, these farmers were crazy people like me come along and say, Hey, I’ll pay you top dollar. I want you to, I want you to get that fruit off the tree when it’s as third one third, as valuable as it would be if you were to leave it hanging there. But you know, there are so many people reveling against, you know, the big system of olive oil that they want to do something special with their trees. They don’t want to sell to the co-ops anymore. So what they do. Yeah, they produce single estate, olive oil. So I taste, I evaluate, I make blends to make that mild, medium and bold. So those olive varieties we talked about earlier, some of them will be single variety. So olive oils like this one, so only one variety in that one. Olive variety. And there’ll be others that are actually a blend of olives because I use my background as a chef and as a professional taster to create a blend and harmony in the olive oil.

TJ: 29:24 So there’s always a, like I said, a mile medium in bold and I rushed them to the airport and I placed him on a jet and I fly them directly back to the US so I work with an amazing air cargo company that helps me move all my oils rapidly from country of origin, from the Grove direct to the U S I get through customs, I get through FDA, I get it immediately to my club member. So it’s, there’s no middleman between, you know, me at the farm supervising every little step, low yield fruit. Every bottle has a harvest date on it. And we could, if you want to go through some shopping tips, I’d be happy to give you a few for people who, you know, can’t, it’s not accessible, the club for them or that sort of thing. I’d be happy to go through some shopping tips if you like.

Cristy: 30:13 Yeah, I think it’s really important that we really make a note here of the time is of the essence you guys. Time is of the essence and TJ puts so much effort into getting this olive oil directly to back to the people as quickly as possible. It’s not good for it to sit around. And another thing I wanted to bring up was, you know, it’s Code Red rebels. We eat two meals a day, we don’t snack all day long. We eat two high-fat meals a day and if you’re going to eat only two meals a day and you’re not going to snack all day long, you’re not going to do the typical American three meals and two snacks that have contributed to why we’re so sick and fat. If you’re going to do it the Code Red way, you really want to make sure that your stuff is good quality, that everything counts. My word, why wouldn’t you want to put the good stuff in your body? But I would love to hear some shopping tips from you TJ. Totally.

TJ: 31:02 Absolutely. Yeah. Just to add what you were saying there, speaking of studies and there’s so much being devoted to olive oil and the health benefits, but one of the important things that are being discovered is the very high level of satiety of olive oil, specifically high polyphenol, fresh olive oil as a very, very high level of satiety. So that means it’s deeply satisfying to the core. It keeps you, you filling full and healthy longer. So I don’t know if you’ve tested that at all or when you’re doing like a fast trying just to drink a little olive oil to let, how you like help you extend your fast or anything like that. But for in your experience, have you, have you found when you add more olive oil to your food, it keeps you feeling fuller longer?

Cristy: 31:54 Well for Code Red, we don’t touch too much on fasting. Although I’m, I do that in my maintenance group, but for it absolutely does. When not only does it massively enhance the flavor, but absolutely it keeps you longer. That’s one of the major benefits of fat, of good quality fat, in general, is that it keeps you fuller for longer. It helps your hair and nails grow. It helps balance hormones. It helps you sleep, gives you energy. So many benefits, but getting a good quality, not the crap from a big box store is key and it’s going to even enhance that even further.

TJ: 32:25 Yeah, so shopping tips. First thing I do, I have like three minutes to go through how to taste your olive oil? I, you know, I don’t want to, I don’t know exactly how much time we have, but I’d love to talk to you, your folks about how to taste the olive oil they have at home so they can assess it. And this is what I invite people to do when they join the club. I have a very special offer for Code Red that your Code Red rebels can join the club for a dollar. When they join the club for a dollar, they get a full-size sample bottle that’s this size or this size for a buck. The bottle is complimentary on me. It’s a $1 shipping charge that you guys help offset and you’ll get your PDF with your recipes in it so you get that to keep.

TJ: 33:08 So ideally you pull the olive oil out of your pantry and taste it next to your sample. So I use, you can use an, I’m holding this up for the camera. For people that are listening, it’s a little harder, but it’s a three-ounce white solo cup and I have about a tablespoon of olive oil in the bottom. It’s like this beautiful green color of olive oil. And you could use an espresso cup and you could use, yeah, small wineglass could work a shot glass. But essentially you put about a tablespoon. So I want your oil from your pantry and I want the fresh-pressed olive oil in two cups. You’ve got two cups. So when you actually the first step of olive oil. So I’ll teach you from the professional taster’s standpoint, how do we assess olive oil? So first we in the cup, we place the cup in the palm of our hand and we do that because it warms the oil.

TJ: 34:00 So we swirl the oil around and before we ever taste the oil, step one is to smell the oil because when we smell the oil, mm, this smells like I’ve been in a garden that smells like I’m out at all of grow. This makes me so happy. But essentially I’m, step one is looking for defects. So the fruit sitting in the sun, was it too long or was it damaged between the field and where they pressed it too? Most of the farms I work with, they have their mill on their own farm. So they have complete control. They don’t have to leave it, you know, to the next day, depress is literally hours by the time it’s from the tree to transformed into olive oil. So I’m looking for defects. My nose is professionally trained to look for if the tanks were dirty, if the machinery wasn’t clean if the temperature was too high.

TJ: 34:52 Because if you heat the olives, when you’re making the olive oil, you get more oil to sell, but the oil quality gets lower. So there’s a lot of defects you can find in the oil. Now, this oil is independently certified. It’s a club selection. It’s the third party certified to be 100% extra-virgin. They it sent through the tasting panel at the lab and also the chemistry panel to have that. So all of our oils come with that certification. But so we, we smell it. We make sure it’s great. We look for fruitiness and when I say fruitiness I think of things like green banana, fresh-cut grass, a rugala. I think of very green associations. I want it to smell fresh, like fresher versus a dry dirt. I want to smell like I’m in a, in a garden essentially. So that’s what the fresh-pressed olive oil smells like.

TJ: 35:45 So that’s step one. Smell. I love it. That’s interesting. Step two, we’re going to, I actually take it small taste and I’m looking for two things. When I taste the olive oil, I’m looking for bitterness. Why bitterness? And that’s such a foreign, you know, tastes for us. You know we like bitter coffee, we like bitter chocolate-like, but bitter olive oil. We’re not really accustomed to that. But what that tells you is the green. It’s from a very green, green fruit. So when it’s from the green fruit, higher levels of antioxidants, polyphenols and health-promoting qualities. But that bitterness of the green fruit you’ll actually taste. So you want your olive oil to be bitter. And when I say bitter, I think of like over-brewed green tea or Walnut skin or just things that are bitter. Arugula for example. And then the third thing I’m looking for is spiciness.

TJ: 36:39 Now why spiciness? Most people have never tasted spicy, fresh olive oil. Well again, it’s a polyphenols. And when you taste that, it’ll sometimes tickle your throat a little bit. And some Tuscans will say, cause they like early harvest oils and Tuscany as well, they’ll say, is that a one cough oil? A two cough oil or three cough oil. So hit you, your olive oil should actually make you cough. Not really, but giving you like a real team going throughout. And if it’s hyper fresh, you may cough a little bit. So step one, smell step two. I take maybe a, if I put a tablespoon in my cup, I probably have a teaspoon in my mouth right now. There’s kind of chewing it a little bit. It’s quite bitter but in a beautiful way. It’s very green. It’s got like a rugala and water crest and green banana there.

TJ: 37:33 I swallowed it. There’s a pepper Eunice hitting me. It’s like a tingle, it’s like a tingle in the back of your throat. And a lot of this dissipates when it’s on food. So if you don’t like a spicy and bitter parrot with arugula or use it in a vinegarette or when your roast vegetables come out of the oven, your Brussels sprouts or your broccoli dress it, you know, dress it, kind of toss it with that fresh oil and let that be the flavor component. Because I know like I’m again a big fan. I have your cookbook right here, but you love simple cooking like I, and I think that’s what is so important in your, your protocol and your mission is that simple cooking. You have to focus on ingredients, right? So you buy less ingredients, you don’t buy 25 ingredients, you buy five stellar ingredients. So that’s the key. And that’s what you talk about. I mean, and so I’m all about it. And really the olive oil itself, it really can be an important flavor component in most things, whether it’s drizzled over a soup or whether it’s, you know all that sort of stuff. But anyway, I got carried away.

Cristy: 38:44 Well, I know that, I know that. I love it. I could listen to you all day long. I know that I’ve learned to put olive oil on everything and I’ve just learned and that’s how we get, just go through. But if you are truly utilizing the recipes that come with your CodeRedOliveOil.com if you go through us and you’re truly guys, you’re going to go through your own oils and it works out every time for miles. And I, we just finish up our last bottle when our new shipment comes in and I had something else I wanted to, I thought it was interesting because as I’m talking to you and I don’t want to go into the details of this, I just kind of find it. I’m kind of going in my mind, adding up the costs to you and Megan to do what you do and this shipping alone is a major cost for Code Red. Shipping has gotten absolutely out of this world and we, I know Code Red spends anywhere from seven to $10,000 a week on shipping costs and I know that it’s in the way that you have the olive oil packaged up. It is not cheap to ship and it’s not cheap to travel is not cheap to get. Uber is not cheap to transfer. It’s not cheap for jets to fly your, all that stuff adds up and the price it, I mean I’m adding it up in my head and I’m like going, boy, this is truly a labor of love you guys. I’m sure that the lights are, you know, the light bills getting paid in your house. However, ain’t nobody probably getting rich. It’s really just, it’s in the labor of love, what you’re doing for all of us.

TJ: 40:05 It is, it’s a, it’s very much a passion. You know, I met these small family farmers and I really, they don’t have much access to the American market and, but they have this beautiful product that’s typically only shared locally. Like so what most producers will do, they’ll produce us a very small batch of high-quality stuff that they enter in olive oil competitions and then they wait a few weeks, three, four weeks or longer and then produce in bulk cause they’ve got buyers for that. Right? So, but there are the certain farmers, those mentioned inflows, so life for example, that really have a lot of passion and care and that really want to get the word, get this message out to the world. Like these are families and you’ve been in Spain, so I know Cristy, you’ve in the South of Spain, you’ve seen the massive Hills.

TJ: 40:52 Just fill this far. As you can see with olive trees, it’s insane how many olive trees are in the South of Spain. [inaudible] They produce the vast majority of like, I think one-third of the oil production is just like in that one region. But anyway, a lot of the families are getting away from selling their fruit at a very low quality where they just let the fruit hang on the tree till it’s completely ripe. They let the fruit fall to the ground, they come and vacuum it up there, no harvest costs a third three times as much oil and then they send it to a mill. They may or may not refine it. They do different things to make it past a certain test and then they bottle it and tell it in bulk. They blend it with other countries. But there are certain families that have said, we don’t want to have any part of that anymore.

TJ: 41:43 We have, you know, a hundred acres. We want to take our land, our great-grandfather’s trees, and we want to make something really special because there’s so much information coming out about how special fresh olive oil is and high-quality olive oil that they want to, there’s a market now, right? There’s a small market of passionate people. So part of the club’s mission is to educate palette. So that’s what we do. We send out about $4,001 bottles every quarter and we do that. Yeah, it’s a lot. Talking about shipping, it’s expensive, but you know, so yeah, people talk about the cost sometimes, and I think about a bottle of wine, right? I go to a restaurant, if I’m in a nice restaurant with Megan, I may spend like 30 40 bucks on a bottle of wine. I mean, it’s a restaurant right there. Pray. Well, I’ll finish that in one meal and it’ll be over.

TJ: 42:35 It’d be game over, right? I’ve not wasted, but the money’s essentially gone. I’ve spent that in an hour or two hours. Well, with a bottle of olive oil, if you use a tablespoon a meal, this literally will last you a month. Like each one will last you a month. And that’s how you know, really it’s about a buck a day for olive oil and really it’ll change your cooking and you’ll have to buy less ingredients and less bottled stuff that’s been, you know tampered with and, and everything else like it. It’s just a, a way to streamline what you’re doing.

Cristy: 43:10 That is so interesting. And I know that I liked the certain farmers out there. The ones that you work with do not want to take the easy way out. And I know that our rebels, we don’t take the easy way out. We do the right thing for our health and for our bodies. Just like those small family farmers say, Hey, you know what? We’re going to honor our product. We’re going to honor our ancestry, we’re going to honor our land. We’re going to honor the pro by enough to do the right thing and to harvest it where it said it’s peakiness not where it’s going to get the most bang for the buck. And that is remarkable. That fully lines up with what we believe. And TJ, thank you so much, guys. You can get, and I’m going to put them in the show notes here, but you can get, you can go to CodeRedOliveOil.com and if you get it through us and sign up with TJ and Megan through us, this money is going to go back into Code Red to help further develop the programs. It’s going to help the TJ and Megan’s family. It’s going to and it’s going to provide a really great product for you guys. And TJ, any closing words for our listeners?

TJ: 44:07 Yeah, absolutely. So a quick shopping tips. One looks for the harvest date on the oil. Most will just have a best before or used by date. They try to hide the harvest date cause they don’t want you to know how old it is. So always look for a harvest day on the back of your bottle. Always buy in a dark-colored glass if possible or a dark-colored vehicle cause the light time and temperature kill olive oil. So dark glass, look for harvest date, educate your palette, look for and go to a place that has a high turnover of their oil. Go to a place where you can actually taste the oil prior to buying it because, you want to look for bitterness too. You want to look for spiciness and three, you want it to be fresh and harmonic and really flavorful. So educate your palette.

TJ: 44:59 Step one and step two, be a good consumer. Look for harvest dates, dark glass, a high turnover tastes first. Like those are like some real key takeaways if you’re going to be out there in the murky world of olive oil, there were actually there, the New York times just said, the world of olive oil is murky. Here’s help for the home cook. Don’t try to parse every word on the label. The keys to good flavor are seeking out the freshest oil and using it generously. Olive oil should be poured lavishly and used up quickly. Experts say freshness more than color, more than price, more than the place of origin determines its quality. That was the headline from The New York Times uh just like two months ago. And it like, it made my heart seem like my mission’s working. It’s working with people like you, Cristy, are helping us get the word out and it’s, you know, and The Wall Street Journal back on November 28th said don’t sleep on this game-changing ingredient when it comes to olive oil. The younger, the better vibrant, flavorful Oleo Nuovo which is what this is, it’s fresh new oil is a pantry pick-me-up that you should purchase pronto. And that was Wall Street Journal. So just a couple of weeks ago. So it’s working like what we’re doing is really helping the farmers, it’s really helping us get the health benefits we’re looking for. So anyway, just a lot of gratitude and appreciation if there’s,

Cristy: 46:36 This is a synergistic relationship, TJ. We are so happy. Code Red does not partner with very many companies at all. Maybe three. And we’re really thankful for this family-owned company from our family-owned company to yours and rebels. Now you know, you can’t unknow, so CodeRedOliveOil.com. I’ll put the link in here, you guys. Thank you so much, TJ. I’m almost like TK. I started mixed. I mixed TJ and have a good day. Thank you TJ, and we’ll talk to you guys soon. Thank you guys.

TJ: 47:06 Take care. Ciao.

Cristy: 47:09 Thanks so much for listening to Rebel Weight Loss and Lifestyle. If you’re a Code Red rebel and you haven’t already downloaded your free Code Red Lifestyle on-the-go guide, then now is your time to get a copy. This guide will teach you how to stay Code Red-approved even with your crazy life schedule. To get a copy right now, all you need to do is open your podcast app, go to this episode, show notes, and click the link to get your Code Red-approved on-the-go guide. So I will see you in the next episode of Rebel Weight Loss and Lifestyle.