In my opinion, it erodes the credibility of this article when it rings of a hit piece. I watched one video by Dr. Gundry. I think he's interesting and entertaining, but it did sound a bit like an infomercial.
I am convinced that extra virgin olive oil is very healthy, so I hope I don't purchase fake ones. It's getting so hard to tell the difference.
I am not a fan of the taste of this olive oil at all! It tastes like burnt cod liver oil to me! I’m taking about a teaspoon a day because I paid for it and I want to see if it does something for my health! I probably won’t re-order it unless it works miracles! I’m pretty new to the plant paradox diet but so far so good! I hope it will give me good results, and I don’t need this olive oil to achieve them! Dr. Gundry actually gives you quite a number of oil choices! I did order some other products of his that I have not gotten yet!
As promised I came back to say the olive oil is disgusting. I agree with Dr. G’s education on inflammatory foods and diet info. He’s not the only doctor saying this but hood olives oil is overpriced and taste terrible
So I bought this oil. It was delivered today. I’m at work and haven’t tried it. Dr. Gundry is a Ivy League cardiac surgeon with several patents on medical devices. I work with the doctor who created the Window in the c-section drape. These are very smart doctors and also doctors who have opinions. Medical professionals have opinions. We see a lot. When doctors go against the grain they get push back by their peers. Doesn’t mean he’s wrong or that many of us don’t agree with many things he says. We understand that traditional medicine still has a ton of flaws. Especially when it comes to nutritional education and counseling. We still don’t differentiate good fat from bad fat (god fats like avocado olive oil etc). The author of this article is the founder and editor of olive oil times and surely has vested interests and the opinions in this article are clearly biased. I’ll update if the oil is gross but so far although I don’t agree with everything gundry says many nurses, techs, therapists and other healthcare professionals follow him. His education and accomplishments are public knowledge so why would he scam people with olive oil, diet advice and supplements when he was already a successful and famous surgeon? 🤦♀️
When I witnessed Gundry holding up a lab beaker containing some red liquid the whole deceptive/acted aspect of the pitch for his olive oil came crashing into my mind so abruptly I actually burst out laughing. After reading Curtis Cord's evaluation of this I got a few more laughs to boot. I am just glad we live close to a company that has its own olive groves and only sells oil harvested upon their land. I think I will stick with them.
I quickly looked on the internet and didn't see immediate negative articles on the oil and so I decided to try it. With the first time purchase discount it was a better price. It does have on the bottle and box it is cold pressed extra virgin organic olive oil and it has a green leaf and USDA Organic symbol on it. But I recently received it and started googling what does rancid olive oil smell and taste like. Before ordering I also tasted a common name brand one I had in the house. It didn't have much flavor nor much of a peppery burn. While waiting I decided to buy Costco's organic EVOO and it did have a green taste and peppery burn. I then received my Gundry order and blech! It smells and tastes maybe like a strong barn or hay taste and flavor. It does have the burn but it is not green tasting at all. It would destroy the flavor of anything you put it on. I have to force myself to drink it thinking it is medicinal but decided to poke around some on the internet. Is this what it should taste like? I think not. I will be returning my order for their declared money back guarantee. The bottle has a production date of May 2021 and expiration date of May 2023. It was ordered August 2022. The wineries in Italy all pretty much also make olive oil. None of the oil when I visited there tasted nasty like the Gundry one I just received. Just gross.
I bought his olive oil, it is the worst tasting oil I've ever tasted. It ruins the taste of whatever I use it for. At first I attributed it to the premise it is supposed to taste different but now I do suspect it's just rancid and I'm out $42.00. Awful tasting stuff.
All I know is my own medical history. The only dietary change I made was adding 2-3 tablespoons throughout the day 4 months ago. I’m still overweight and have not done anything else to improve my health, including leading a sedentary lifestyle at 68 (female). My total cholesterol has dropped from 208 to 187, my triglycerides have gone from 180 to 70, my non HDL has gone from 180 to 133, and my LDL from 122 to 117. Not perfect but fasting labs don’t lie and neither do I.
I am a normal customer that naively bought Gundry’s olive oil off of Amazon.
It arrived very rancid. I took it to my local Olive Oil Sommelier and she confirmed that it is indeed rancid and she has had numerous customers that have had the same problem.
When I tried to return it, Gundry MD on Amazon will not allow me to return it, or refund any money. I contacted Gundry’s organization directly and they refuse to stand behind it. I have wasted considerable time on this to no avail. So, not only do I have a very expensive product I cannot use, it is appearing that he is running a scam (in addition to everything in this article).
It's funny how no one actually checks the study that Dr. Gundry actually references. I looked it up and nothing is even mentioned about extra virgin oils. Reading it, the study discusses virgin olive oils and the "reliability" of lab analysis techniques to determine their polyphenol content. It's just convenient marketing to quote some old study from 2004, unrelated, to give more credibility to one's product. And a deceiving one for sure,
"Comparability and reliability of different techniques for the determination of phenolic compounds in virgin olive oil" by Karel Hrncirik Sonja Fritsche
In it, only 24 samples of virgin olive oil are used from different regions (and no Moroccan olives) It's actually available for free here:
So the claim 30 times is essentially bogus. And this is referring only to hydroxytyrosol, as advertised on the bottle, only one of the many polyphenols naturally present. Sure, Gundry's olive oil may have more polyphenols than refined olives oil, but that's like saying that whole wheat bread has more fibre than "regular" bread, regular being white bread. The refining process will remove the fibre.
There has never been a lab quality certificate as to its composition, it is just a claim. Meanwhile, there are actually some producers that have run a lab analysis and list the amount of polyphenols. I would probably go with those for quality assurance.
I bought the 3 bottle special, and opened one bottle, and used it 3 times. It smelled very bad, and taste very bad. The bottle date looked tampered with like it was rubbed off and another date was stamped on. Because of the rotten smell, and taste I don't trust this olive oil, and will try to get a refund.
The first time I heard Gundry speak I knew he was a fraud. I have degrees in Phys Ed and Biology and have a book published on natural healing. Gundry mentions in one of his earlier ads that he was seventy pounds overweight and couldn't shake it, even with being a strict vegetarian. working out at the gym and running five miles a day. Regardless of whatever else one's body is doing to process fats at a less than optimum level, that's completely impossible. I immediately knew that he was a liar. Be careful - Gundry's oil likely comes from snakes rather than olives.
Gundry is a quack when nutriional theories are involved. No hard scientific evidence around the lectin theory. In addition his super polyphenol oil and its cost is ridiculous. Look at the theories of T. Colin Cambell amd Esselstyn and Gundry carries no weight in the nutrional arena.
Hi, I buy olive oil since more than 20 years. I love Gundry MD olive oil, it tastes great to me, I put it on my salad, pasta, and I sometimes drink it like Dr Gundry suggests. What the below comments I read do not say is that this Gundry MD olive oil is SUPER RICH in polyphenols and especially hydroxytyrosol, the most potent of all the olive oil polyphenols and antioxidants. You can google “hydroxytyrosol”, you will find a lot of scientific studies on the health benefits of this polyphenol. So it is good for my health, good for my body!
Personally, I don’t care if this olive oil is theoretically rancid, it is not to me, I love the smell of honey on it.
Since I started taking this Gundry MD olive oil, my bad cholesterol rare dropped a lot and my sugar rate finally stabilized! Never got that with the others extra virgin olive oils I used to buy in the past.
The hydroxytyrosol content of Gundry MD olive oil is VERY HIGH. Good for my body, good for my health! I am Italian and I used to buy Italian, Spanish, Greek olive oil in the past, and they never got such a high richness in hydroxytyrosol!
Your article only mentions total polyphenols. How about hydroxytyrosol ?
This olive oil has got an extraordinary richness in hydroxytyrosol, which is the most powerful among all polyphenols, just google about it and you will read all the science associated to it! Gundry olive oil has more than 200 mg/Kg of total hydroxytyrosol.
Just for your information, an "regular" extra virgin olive oil that we found on supermarket shelves and coming from Spain, Italy or Greece has an average of 3 to 5 mg / Kg of hydroxytyrosol content.
Thus, the levels found in Gundry MD olive oil are by far the highest that we can find in the market. Gundry MD olive oil is even higher than 30 times richer in polyphenols hydroxytyrosol!
I also like the fact this olive oil is made in the desert of Morocco, thus it is free from pesticides residues, and free from heavy metals. In Europe, we find many olive groves nearby polluting industrial zones.
Would you still have the same POV if you learned the hydroxytyrosol found in Dr Gundry's oil was an additive? Google "Novel Food" hydroxytyrosol. I honestly have no information that this is the case, but it is worth pondering, considering the adulteration of Olive Oils proven to have taken place in bottles labeled "pure Extra Virgin Olive Oil from [Mediterranean Country]". I read a scholarly article (but plain language understandable by most laymen), which determined NF hydroxytyrosol was safe to add to foods (not just Olive Oil). The main problem i would have with the practice would be NOT DISCLOSING IT. (Again, no accusations here. Just can't understand why it would not be mentioned or be withheld.)
The comment you replied to is obviously a Gundry associate.
The problem with just coming out and saying it's enriched with an additive is that it's being pitched as a high-quality olive oil -- not motor oil with an additive, which is what the cited expert said it tastes like.
Instead of paying this lying witch doctor $200, you can support 4 families by paying the very fair price of $40 for excellent high quality and true EVOO. Buy from small, honest farms.
My mother bought this ****, it tastes rotten. Regardless of taste and obvious pseudoscience, anyone who spends $200 on some hotel bar sized olive oil should drink a liter of this mud. I would say she was scammed, but the scam was too obvious to feel like any trickery was involved. She scammed herself. Dr. Gundry is the Devil, but my mother is the Devil's spawn. 3/10
You were very lucky, but why all the returns? I bought a product which created a bad reaction and they were not interested in refunding me. After many conversations and piece-meal repayments after mailing back the medicine at my expense I was finally fully refunded. This is NOT a company I would ever recommend.
Your comments were the most helpful. All this speculation and finger pointing are just people's opinions. Someone who has actually used the product and has a real scenario to share is worth more than all the opinions put together. I found the article to be very good and useful information, being that they backed up their words with research and studies of their own. My husband has taught me to be skeptical of pretty much everything, but especially people who offer products at high prices that can cure a number of human ailments. Better to question than to blindly believe as there are so many charletans. Thanks for your sharing of real life experiences.
With all I have learned about the corruption in the Olive oil (it is not oil, it is the juice of the Olive fruit) industry, any alert to mis-conceptions or fraud are helpful. Truth in labeling is vital. Olive oil "police" are needed everywhere. I support the truth in labeling and strive for quality of California Olive oil via the California Olive Oil Council and the Olive center at U.C. Davis. There are many honest Olive oil producers throughout the Olive world. Take the time to research what you consume, it is worth the effort. Thank you Olive Oil Times for the information, as always, very helpful.
But you understand that this is not olive oil. It’s not oil kade from the fruit (the olive), the leaves and the branches. It’s a health supplement not a gourmet olive oil for tossing on your salad. On the other hand I see some Eurocentric tendencies having issues with an olive oil from Africa striving considering the amount of articles... Sure this doctor knows nothing about olive oil. But the point is that this is a nutritional supplement from olive oil. Can your article explain that?
The Olive Oil Times is to be congratulated for this well researched article and for "calling out" any MD, in unequivocal terms, who might bring the medical profession into disrepute. Clearly, it is the duty of a doctor to communicate lifestyle advice to support patients because it has such a profound effect, and as long as he or she can substantiate what they are advocating by citing robust evidence, this is to be encouraged. Indeed, responsibility for communicating dietary advice should have equal importance to recommending a particular medication or therapy.
A number of us have spent many years pressing for more formal nutritional training of Medics. One of the challenges however is that formal, mainstream education in nutrition has been "behind the curve" of evidence, just as public health messages have promulgated low fat or reductionist science such as those used in food labelling systems. That said, there are examples of MDs who work hard to ensure their patients can benefit from straightforward and sound dietary advice.
The subject of polyphenols is fascinating, not least because of remaining uncertainties about their mode of bioactivity in the context of antioxidant claims and the marketing of polyphenols as supplements or oils as medicines.
However, meanwhile, moral and regulatory expectations for doctors are clear;
A doctor has a responsibility to practice within his or her competence and defer to specialist advice when appropriate. In the UK a doctor is not allowed to directly promote a particular product with a commercial affiliation, though they are allowed to be quoted on matters of generality. Any conflict of interest must be declared. A physician must at all times act with honesty and integrity.
In the UK a doctor could otherwise be expected to be referred to the professional regulatory body, and if found wanting, would have restrictions placed upon, or even removal of, his or her licence to practice.
For those of us committed to making high quality advice available to our patients and the public, which includes the beneifts of extra virgin olive oil as part of the Mediterranean Diet, the exposure of poor quality, conflicted and potentially misleading behaviour is extraordinarily important.
Your sense of entitlement is suffocating. You habit of using the UK as a model of anything is unsubstantiated. You can only stand in YOU as a reference, yet you do anything but. You throw in supposed practices and standards, irrelevant in reference to the subject, as means to discredit. There is no honesty or integrity in that. Take your own advice and defer to Dr. Gundry.
I think this hit piece says more about this author than Dr. Gundry who has saved countless lives. There’s no arguing that there’s been some major problems with the contents and labeling of mainstream olive oil producers. Thank goodness he brings it to the public’s attention.
People like this Gundry are why we who make very good evoo like my family can't make enough to live with. He wants people to think every olive oil except his is garbage...and it turns out his oil is the one that is garbage. We do not need to pay €200 for good quality evoo. One needs only to learn a little about it and taste for herself.
This shrill reeks of jealousy. If anything you should be in celebration that this guy is putting Olive Oil on the map. It means more money for the growers of olives. Instead you come off as bitter and envious. Just as he has no hard evidence that it works, you have nothing to prove it doesn't. So why all the noise in denouncing him? Hmmm?
Studies have shown that high temperature reduces olive oil yeild and quality. Olive oil cultivated/harvested in moderate temperature has about 3x more polyphenols than ones cultivated/harvested in high temperature environment. And the Dr. Gundry is claiming the opposite.
Oh, so we should allow any pseudo-doctor say whatever they want so they can sell products if it can’t be proven that it doesn’t work? That’s madness. What can be proved as the author states is that the information in the ad is false + misleading. His customers are being duped to pay more for something than they need to by believing statements that are utterly wrong. I suspect you are either an associate or a customer who might now feel a bit short-changed.
I am convinced that extra virgin olive oil is very healthy, so I hope I don't purchase fake ones. It's getting so hard to tell the difference.
I’m pretty new to the plant paradox diet but so far so good! I hope it will give me good results, and I don’t need this olive oil to achieve them! Dr. Gundry actually gives you quite a number of oil choices! I did order some other products of his that I have not gotten yet!
Dr. Gundry is a Ivy League cardiac surgeon with several patents on medical devices. I work with the doctor who created the Window in the c-section drape. These are very smart doctors and also doctors who have opinions. Medical professionals have opinions. We see a lot. When doctors go against the grain they get push back by their peers. Doesn’t mean he’s wrong or that many of us don’t agree with many things he says. We understand that traditional medicine still has a ton of flaws. Especially when it comes to nutritional education and counseling. We still don’t differentiate good fat from bad fat (god fats like avocado olive oil etc).
The author of this article is the founder and editor of olive oil times and surely has vested interests and the opinions in this article are clearly biased.
I’ll update if the oil is gross but so far although I don’t agree with everything gundry says many nurses, techs, therapists and other healthcare professionals follow him. His education and accomplishments are public knowledge so why would he scam people with olive oil, diet advice and supplements when he was already a successful and famous surgeon? 🤦♀️
It arrived very rancid. I took it to my local Olive Oil Sommelier and she confirmed that it is indeed rancid and she has had numerous customers that have had the same problem.
When I tried to return it, Gundry MD on Amazon will not allow me to return it, or refund any money. I contacted Gundry’s organization directly and they refuse to stand behind it. I have wasted considerable time on this to no avail. So, not only do I have a very expensive product I cannot use, it is appearing that he is running a scam (in addition to everything in this article).
"Comparability and reliability of different techniques for the determination of phenolic compounds in virgin olive oil" by Karel Hrncirik Sonja Fritsche
In it, only 24 samples of virgin olive oil are used from different regions (and no Moroccan olives)
It's actually available for free here:
https://zh.booksc.eu/book/1292780/209a2a
So the claim 30 times is essentially bogus. And this is referring only to hydroxytyrosol, as advertised on the bottle, only one of the many polyphenols naturally present. Sure, Gundry's olive oil may have more polyphenols than refined olives oil, but that's like saying that whole wheat bread has more fibre than "regular" bread, regular being white bread. The refining process will remove the fibre.
There has never been a lab quality certificate as to its composition, it is just a claim. Meanwhile, there are actually some producers that have run a lab analysis and list the amount of polyphenols. I would probably go with those for quality assurance.
Because of the rotten smell, and taste I don't trust this olive oil, and will try to get a refund.
Personally, I don’t care if this olive oil is theoretically rancid, it is not to me, I love the smell of honey on it.
Since I started taking this Gundry MD olive oil, my bad cholesterol rare dropped a lot and my sugar rate finally stabilized! Never got that with the others extra virgin olive oils I used to buy in the past.
The hydroxytyrosol content of Gundry MD olive oil is VERY HIGH. Good for my body, good for my health! I am Italian and I used to buy Italian, Spanish, Greek olive oil in the past, and they never got such a high richness in hydroxytyrosol!
Your article only mentions total polyphenols. How about hydroxytyrosol ?
This olive oil has got an extraordinary richness in hydroxytyrosol, which is the most powerful among all polyphenols, just google about it and you will read all the science associated to it! Gundry olive oil has more than 200 mg/Kg of total hydroxytyrosol.
Just for your information, an "regular" extra virgin olive oil that we found on supermarket shelves and coming from Spain, Italy or Greece has an average of 3 to 5 mg / Kg of hydroxytyrosol content.
Thus, the levels found in Gundry MD olive oil are by far the highest that we can find in the market. Gundry MD olive oil is even higher than 30 times richer in polyphenols hydroxytyrosol!
I also like the fact this olive oil is made in the desert of Morocco, thus it is free from pesticides residues, and free from heavy metals. In Europe, we find many olive groves nearby polluting industrial zones.
Thank you for your attention.
I read a scholarly article (but plain language understandable by most laymen), which determined NF hydroxytyrosol was safe to add to foods (not just Olive Oil). The main problem i would have with the practice would be NOT DISCLOSING IT.
(Again, no accusations here. Just can't understand why it would not be mentioned or be withheld.)
The problem with just coming out and saying it's enriched with an additive is that it's being pitched as a high-quality olive oil -- not motor oil with an additive, which is what the cited expert said it tastes like.
I tried it years ago and it really tastes horrid, but if you're curious you can find it on Amazon at a fraction of what he's selling his BS brand for.
NOT a company I would ever recommend.
On the other hand I see some Eurocentric tendencies having issues with an olive oil from Africa striving considering the amount of articles...
Sure this doctor knows nothing about olive oil. But the point is that this is a nutritional supplement from olive oil. Can your article explain that?
A number of us have spent many years pressing for more formal nutritional training of Medics. One of the challenges however is that formal, mainstream education in nutrition has been "behind the curve" of evidence, just as public health messages have promulgated low fat or reductionist science such as those used in food labelling systems. That said, there are examples of MDs who work hard to ensure their patients can benefit from straightforward and sound dietary advice.
The subject of polyphenols is fascinating, not least because of remaining uncertainties about their mode of bioactivity in the context of antioxidant claims and the marketing of polyphenols as supplements or oils as medicines.
However, meanwhile, moral and regulatory expectations for doctors are clear;
A doctor has a responsibility to practice within his or her competence and defer to specialist advice when appropriate. In the UK a doctor is not allowed to directly promote a particular product with a commercial affiliation, though they are allowed to be quoted on matters of generality. Any conflict of interest must be declared. A physician must at all times act with honesty and integrity.
In the UK a doctor could otherwise be expected to be referred to the professional regulatory body, and if found wanting, would have restrictions placed upon, or even removal of, his or her licence to practice.
For those of us committed to making high quality advice available to our patients and the public, which includes the beneifts of extra virgin olive oil as part of the Mediterranean Diet, the exposure of poor quality, conflicted and potentially misleading behaviour is extraordinarily important.