If you’re a keto dieter and you enjoy drizzling olive oil onto your favorite roast vegetables or salad, you may be wondering if olive oil is keto-friendly and whether you can continue to use it in your cooking.
Olive oil has been beloved for thousands of years in parts of the world where olives naturally grow, but its popularity in the U.S. and other countries is more recent. Those who love olive oil think of it as liquid sunshine that adds a distinctly delicious flavor to meals. Thousands of chemical and phenolic compounds in olive oil contribute to this distinct flavor you know and love. [1] Let’s look at the nutritional profile of olive oil and find out whether it’s keto-approved.
Olive oil is a natural oil derived from olives—the small black or green fruits of the evergreen olive tree, which is cultivated in places like Turkey, Syria, and the Mediterranean region. Olives are stone fruits with an inner pit or stone surrounded by a fleshy outer covering. The outer flesh of the olive is made up of as much as 30% oil (the rest of the flesh is water and solids), which can be used for medicine, cooking, cosmetics, and more. [2]
To make olive oil, manufacturers clean the olives, grind them into a paste typically using mills, mix the paste, and separate the fruit from the oil using pressing or centrifugation. Some oils go through additional processing steps to further refine the oil.
Studies show a range of health benefits from consuming olive oil, which is high in anti-inflammatory antioxidants and monounsaturated fats. Olive oil mostly contains a monounsaturated fat called oleic acid, which makes up around 73% of the total oil. Most health experts agree this type of fat is advantageous and studies show oleic acid decreases inflammation and could even have positive effects on genes associated with cancer. [3] [4]
Along with vitamins E and K, olive oil is packed with potent and biologically active antioxidants that could reduce your risk of chronic diseases and lower inflammation. This rich-tasting oil could also help protect your blood cholesterol from oxidation, which may decrease your risk of heart disease. [5] [6]
Olive oil is a staple of the Mediterranean diet—a diet repeatedly proven in the literature to have favorable effects on wellness and body weight. Extra virgin olive oil is considered the healthiest form of olive oil because it undergoes less processing and retains some of the bioactive compounds and antioxidants from the fruit. Health experts and advocates advise looking for labels that mention terms like expeller-pressed, cold-pressed, and organic and, ideally, find a dark bottle, which helps prevent oxidation and deterioration from bright lights. Carefully check the label for a quality certification and to make sure you’re getting a good-quality extra virgin olive oil that isn’t mixed with other refined oils like canola.
You know that a ketogenic diet is high-fat and low-carb, and you probably also know that olive oil contains fats. So, is olive oil keto-friendly? The quick answer is yes! Olive oil contains virtually zero carbs and plenty of healthy fat, which meets the requirements of a ketogenic diet.
One tablespoon of olive oil (14 grams) has 0 grams of carbs, fiber, and sugar, and 14 grams of fat. It also has smaller amounts of vitamins E and K, magnesium, and calcium. [7]
The primary goal of keto is to keep your fat intake high and your carb intake low, so olive oil suits this diet well. Dietary fat also helps you stay feeling fuller for longer, so try drizzling olive oil onto your big keto salad or roasted veggies to add flavor and fat in order to aid ketosis and diminish carb cravings and snacking.
Some people take a spoonful of olive oil in the morning for the health benefits, but there are many fun and creative ways to add olive oil to your ketogenic diet, for example:
Check out these recipes starring olive oil from our recipe creators here at Ketogenic.com:
What’s your favorite way to include olive oil on keto? Do you drizzle it over a salad or coat your veggies? What’s your favorite salad dressing featuring olive oil? Share your thoughts with the keto community here at Ketogenic.com!
Kiritsakis, A. K. (1998). Flavor components of olive oil: A review. Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-998-0205-6
National Geographic. The Bitter Truth About Olives. The Bitter Truth About Olives (nationalgeographic.com)
Basu, A.l., Devaraj, S., & Jialal, I. (2006). Dietary factors that promote or retard inflammation. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol, DOI: 10.1161/01.ATV.0000214295.86079.d1
Yoneyama, S., Miura, K., Sasaki, S., Yoshita, K., Morikawa, Y., Ishizaki, M…Nakagawa, H. (2007). Dietary intake of fatty acids and serum C-reactive protein in Japanese. J Epidemiol, DOI: 10.2188/jea.17.86
Tripoli, E., Giammanco, M., Tabacchi, G., Majo, D. D., Giammanco, S., & La Guardia, M. (2005). The phenolic compounds of olive oil: Structure, biological activity, and beneficial effects on human health. Nutr Res Rev, DOI: 10.1079/NRR200495
Beauchamp, G. K., Keast, R. S. J., Morel, D., Lin, J., Pika, J., Han, Q…Breslin, P. A. S. (2005). Phytochemistry: Ibuprofen-like activity in extra-virgin olive oil. Nature, DOI: 10.1038/437045a
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Nutrition Database. Olive Oil, FoodData Central (usda.gov)