A COLOUR scheme showing how nutritious or otherwise groceries on sale in Spanish supermarkets are will not be used for olive oil, since the algorithms used show it to be far less healthy than Coca-Cola Zero, and the same as tomato ketchup.
Whilst exceptionally high in fat, most of these are unsaturated and olive oil consumed in moderation helps lower 'bad' cholesterol and speed up the metabolism, meaning its calorie content is not the end of the story.
Eaten sparingly, olive oil is good for the heart, joints and circulation and is recommended as part of a healthy, Mediterranean-style diet.
But using the State health authority's soon-to-be-introduced 'Nutri-Score' system, which codes food and drink from A to E and a sliding colour scale from dark green to red – A and dark green being the healthiest and E and red being the least-nutritious – means sugar-free soft drinks come out as a B, or light green, whilst olive oil rates the same as tomato ketchup, as a D, or orange.
This was flagged up by the website sinazucar.org ('sugar-free'), with warnings that the olive oil industry could suffer as a result and consumers may erroneously believe they should avoid it at all costs.
Also, even though no-sugar fizzy drinks have practically no calories, they are not considered 'healthy', since excessive consumption has been linked to bone-density problems, and consuming products with saccharine has the same effect on the brain as sugar.
Saccharine tells the brain it is eating sugar, and if consumed regularly, a drop in either will then cause a craving, since the nervous system thinks something is 'lacking' and creates a response which triggers a desire for more.
But the effects on the body of saccharine are not the same as sugar, meaning the physical craving is not satisfied until the person consumes the 'real thing'.
For this reason, people who suffer 'sugar lows' and begin to tremble or feel faint will experience the same response with artificial sweeteners.
Also, although tomato ketchup is made with high quantities of real tomatoes, its sugar levels mean it is not as healthy as olive oil.
To counter these inevitable conflicts, the health products and nutrition agency AECOSAN – part of the ministry of health – has decided the Nutri-Score system need not be applied to products containing one single ingredient.
The scheme is expected to be rolled out over the course of 2019, although some supermarkets – one of which is the hypermarket chain Eroski – have decided to apply it to all their products before the end of this year.
