Let’s Talk about Polyphenols!

Polyphenols are micronutrients found in olives as well as berries, herbs, spices, nuts, cocoa powder, flax seeds and veggies! They improve heart health, lower risk of diabetes, reduce blood pressure, contain anticancer properties and boost immunity.

Increasing your daily intake of varied and colorful vegetables and taking a spoonful of extra virgin olive oil (more on that in posts to come!) is a delicious way to get your polyphenol fix! Unripe green olives which are used for early harvest first-press olive oil are loaded with Polyphenols.

Unfortunately early harvest, first-press olive oil is hard to find in Japan as it takes a while for them to come from the Mediterranean regions and by the time it arrives it’s a bit old! So if you’re ever planning a culinary adventure to Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and wherever else olive oil is produced, time your visit with the early harvest (I went in mid October)!

Want to try Japan-produced olive oil? The olive oil scene is starting to pick up here (slowed due to climate and the number of years it takes to start producing fruit-bearing trees), there are several olive oil producers you could check out. The subtropical Shodoshima Island is particularly famous for being one of the leading locations for olive oil production in Japan.

• Farm Village Shonan (Kanagawa)
• Universal Farm (Kanagawa)
• Inoue Seikouen Shodoshima (Kagawa)
• Tango no Olive (Kyoto)
• Shonan Olive no Furusato (Kanagawa) They are not olive oil producers, but they make olive leaf tea and other olive-based products, and hold olive education workshops.