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In Albania, olive oil is called “ilac”, medicine. It’s included as a daily ritual for generations–a source of nourishment, healing, and tradition. For many of us, in other regions of the world, we have less familiarity with olive oil.
And then we see labels on olive oil bottles that say “cold-pressed”, “extra virgin”, and “organic”. What do these terms mean? And how can we find the best quality olive oil wherever we are? Bianti Danaj, an Albanian-American entrepreneur and founder of Donika Olive Oil, today brings clarity amidst the confusion.
He goes over the meaning of the wording on labels. He describes the nuances that affect the quality of olive oil, including its exposure to heat, light and oxygen. He also goes over what the polyphenols in olive oil do for our explaining brain and gut health, our overall wellbeing and longevity. In sum, he makes a strong case for including olive oil as a part of our health journey, wherever in the world we may live.
Visit Bianti’s website: donikaoliveoil.com
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Episode Transcript
Within the below transcript the bolded text is Hilda.
Cold pressed, extra virgin, and organic, what do these terms mean when it comes to olive oil? Am I the only one that finds it confusing shopping for it? What are the benefits that olive oil brings to our health? This is episode 525 and our guest is Bianti Danaj. Bianti is an Albanian-American entrepreneur who is the founder of Donika Olive Oil. Donika Olive Oil is the first certified medicinal olive oil brand in Albania. In this episode, Bianti helps us understand all the terms I just mentioned along with the important health benefits of olive oil and how you can find the best olive oil wherever you live.
He describes the nuances that helped create a quality olive oil, including how much it’s been exposed to heat, light, and oxygen. He also goes over white in Albania olive oil is considered medicine. He explains its important polyphenol properties that help lower the inflammation response in the body and improve gut health and longevity. Before we get into the conversation, I want to invite you to follow the show on the platform of your choice. This way, you don’t miss a thing or better yet, you can download our Wise Traditions app on IOS and Android devices so you can read without missing a beat.
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Welcome to the show, Bianti.
Thank you, Hilda, for having me. In front of us, there’s a lot of traditional food, but the first thing we do with our guest is a cheers with our traditional drink. Cheers, Hilda.
Thank you. What is this made of? it’s a light yogurt you said. What else?
It’s a homemade yogurt mixed with water to make it a little thinner and with a little bit of salt. It’s just a thin yogurt and a little bit saltier.
Identifying Fake Olive Oils
I can’t believe, Bianti, that I’m here in beautiful Albania enjoying this food but you know I came to learn more about olive oil because olive oil does not have a good reputation in the United States because they’ve adulterated it. We’ve been told that what we see on the shelves isn’t what it seems. Tell me what are they doing to olive oil to change what it is?
That is correct, Hilda. Olive oil is being adulterated in most of the countries. Not just in the United States because the production of olive oil in the world is much larger than there are trees that can produce it. Only this statistic, you can understand that there is being some manipulation to this product. Now, there is studies showing that in the United States, about 80% of the extra virgin olive oil is either fake or cut with other seed oils.
That’s so high.
Different studies say 60% to 80%.
Still. They don’t have to put on the label that it has other oils by law.
They don’t do it. I don’t know if the law says that you can but I’m assuming that the law says you have to put all the ingredients of the product.
It’s the same with honey. They can say it’s honey even if they cut it with high fructose corn syrup. They can still label it honey, so maybe it’s the same with olive oil. If a certain percentage is olive oil, they can just go ahead and mix it up.
I’m assuming it’s something similar to that. How they mix it with other seed oils is how they can achieve the volume that is demanded by all the people in the world. Another thing is they use synthetic chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the green pigment that leaves have. What they do is they get a seed oil. For example, canola oil.
They mix it with this green chlorophyll and put some other substances to make the taste similar to the olive oil and they give the color from chlorophyll and can produce unlimited amounts because it’s very cheap to do it this way. Usually, the companies that do this are large companies that sell at lower prices. The customer is not paying attention to what they’re getting. They’re just reading the olive oil in there or extra virgin olive oil and their purchasing it. It’s unfortunate but this is the reality.
Understanding Different Oil Labels
We understand it in the US and around the world that if you get something cheap, chances are it’s not going to be high quality. It seems like also customers are being duped because it’s not on the label. Now, the next thing I want to ask you about is speaking of the label. There are so many different words on there like extra virgin, cold pressed, and organic. I want you to help us understand what these terms even mean. Let’s start with extra virgin olive oil. What does that mean?
Extra virgin olive oil means how fresh the olive oil is. What does that mean? That means that when there is testing down to the olive oil, it has this acidity. The acidity needs to be below 0.8. When the acidity is below 0.8 to 0.2 or even lower than that. That’s called extra virgin olive oil. How do you make olive oil to have this low of acidity is by following the timely manners and the right process to do it that way. It’s very difficult that 100% of the olive oil labeled extra virgin olive oil is extroversion. That’s where those statistics of 80% it’s fake. It’s because it’s very difficult to produce a real extra virgin olive oil.
What makes it so difficult?
It’s the time that it gets to the factory and the way it’s harvested, the majority of people. They do it this way, but they use machinery. When they do use machinery, all the olives are falling in the ground and they’re getting a little bit bruised. When they get bruised, they get oxidized. Therefore, their acidity increases. The time it takes to go to the factory usually is very long. They harvest for days and then they process. On that time that the olives were harvested and just were sitting there, they oxidize, so their acidity increases. The faster and the more timely manner process you can do, the lower the acidity is going to be.
Very interesting. You’ve helped me understand extra virgin. It has to do with how fresh, young, and how quickly they move from harvest to the production phase. Help me understand about cold pressed. What does that mean?
I’m going to add a little bit to the extra virgin olive oil because it’s also the time that you harvest. Usually, to have a real extra virgin olive oil, you need to do an early harvest. What early harvest means is you use the first month and up to the second month of production. They would be usually end of September and early October all the way to mid-November. In this period of time, usually in most countries that produce olive oil, it’s the time that it’s called early harvest. You get the olive when it’s green like I showed you. when it’s green, that’s how you get a real extra virgin olive oil low in acidity.
Now going to the cold pressed. Cold pressed has nothing to do with harvest or anything like that. It’s all setting that you have in the machinery that you produce olive oil. After you have the olive fruit put in the machinery, there is a temperature setting that you use usually to get more yield. That’s why the companies don’t use cold press because the more heat you apply to the olives, the more yield of olive oil you can get. Cold pressed is 20 to 24 degrees Celsius.
I’m not sure what that is in Fahrenheit. I’m thinking like 65. In this temperature, you have a lower yield but the quality is very high. That’s what cold pressed means. It’s something that is done in. low temperature relative to high ones. It’s healthy and it preserves all the taste, the color, and the health benefits of the olive oil.
This is fascinating. I didn’t know that. Now, what about the label organic? What is that mean?
This is not unique to olive oil. Organic shows that you have used organic fertilizer. The land is organic certified. Even if you use any sprays, those are organic best sprays. Sometimes, they could be copper best sprays. In the groves that we use, we don’t use sprays at all. It’s just rarely when there is very high temperatures and humidity that there is a possibility of the olive fly depositing eggs on the olives, but we didn’t have that so we got lucky. If the gram advises us to spray with organic spray, we do it because we want to protect the olives. That would ruin completely the harvest if you find out that there is olive fly eggs on the olives.
It would ruin it in terms of the taste, I imagine and the quality.
Ethically, you don’t want to serve that to your customers, or to your possible clients, even if they’re in the supermarket or online. It’s just unethical thing as well. With organic, we have 100% organic. I know in the US when you are a USDA organic, you can be 95% organic and still be called. In Europe, you have to be in 99%, but we are 100% organic. That’s our certification as well. For olive oil, it’s important if you’re consuming it as a health food to be organic but majority of people use it for cooking as well. For cooking, it’s okay to use high-quality conventional olive oil as well.
The Best Process In Producing Olive Oil
I do want to talk to you a little later about the health benefits because I do have several friends who drink a tablespoonful of olive oil every day. I know you know the science behind why that might be a good practice but I want to ask a little bit more now about process because you were explaining that in conjunction with the first label I asked you about. Harvesting and producing the olive oil, how does your company go about it, for example? How do the best companies go about it?
First, I’m going to start with a land that you use. The land that we use is a rich soil and we pick it out. When we started, we went and visited all the best lens. Now, we work with the farmers that have the best land and what that means is nutrient rich lands and lands that have biodiversity. The lands there ahs sheep.
It’s the grass there and there is organic fertilizer from the sheep or the cows. There is a lot of bugs. There is other plants not just olive trees and that increases the biodiversity. Therefore, it makes the only fruits much more nutrient-dense and rich. We work with three organic certified lands. They’re small and the trees that we use are a century old tree. The reason we use those trees is because they’re roots are much deeper than younger ones. Therefore, it has better nutrition.
The access and the nutrients that are available in the soil because those roots are going down deep.
This is the benefit those trees offer but something that is very difficult to do with century old trees is harvest mechanically. All of our harvest is done manually by hand. This increases the quality of the product but increases also the cost. That’s why majority of the times, when you see premium extra virgin olive oils that are organic, you’ll see higher cost than the regular supermarket.
Various studies in the United States show that 80% of extra virgin olive oil is either fake or cut with other seed oils.
That makes sense because you don’t have a machine doing it because the machine could damage the tree.
Damage the tree and the olive fruit. When you it falls in the ground, it gets bruised and when it gets bruised, it gets oxidized. Therefore, it deteriorates it quicker. After we have determined the soil and the olive trees, now the time of harvest and production is very crucial. If you truly want to create and produce a premium extra virgin olive oil, the time between harvest and production needs to be as fast as possible.
For the reasons you were stating early extra virgin.
You always want to delay the effects of oxidation and how you do that is the time. It’s keeping away from heat and light. You want to do a cold press production. Now, we are between 3 to 6 hours for Donika premium. With our premium product, we use three hours to production, which is pretty fast.
That’s incredible. From literally picking the olives to beginning to extract the oil or juice from them, as you told me earlier. It’s only 3 to 6 hours.
Majority of the time.
That’s fantastic.
Hilda, the reason why we can do this is because we produced in small batches and we have a limited production. It’s very difficult to increase production and maintain that, but to the readers, it’s okay to know that if a company is doing within 24 hours, they’re producing a good quality. It’s just we’re trying to take it to the next level.
I understand and I want to just interject here, this makes me think about the difference between an apple you buy at the supermarket and an apple you get at the Farmer’s market. At the Farmers market, it’s going to come from, hopefully a local producer that harvested the apples and they’re there at the market maybe within a week or so.
The apples you get at the supermarket, at least in the United States Bianti, have probably been sitting in a warehouse for who knows how long. They’re available year-round. They keep them in this temperature-controlled environment to avoid their ripening or decay. The problem is, you’re getting food that has lost its nutrient density and it’s just not the same product. It’s helpful to understand this.
The thing with why it’s very difficult to find a real extra virgin olive oil is also because only such few countries can produce it. It’s I think about twenty countries in the world that can produce extra virgin olive oil. Now, in the US, is California as well. It’s a state. Not a country. The reason why it’s so hard is because of the transportation.
If it’s produced here, it takes about 40 to 50 days to get into the United States by container. On that time, if not preserved and stored properly, it could oxidize a lot. Most olive oil in the United States is sent by containers and shipments. That’s where it’s losing a lot of its quality and when it oxidizes, the acidity increases. You might have olive oil that was produced extra virgin olive oil but when it gets into the US, it’s not extra virgin anymore.
It probably can still bare the label.
Yes, because the testing was done when it was produced but now it’s been in the supermarket shelf for 6 months to one year. That’s definitely deteriorating there.
We’ve harvested the olives. You’ve gotten him over to the processing plant. What happens next?
When we get them to the processing plant, it goes through the different parts in different machines. First, it goes to a leaf removal process because they’re hand-picked. There is also some leaves in there. After it goes to the leave removing process, it goes to a cleaning process. It’s washed with drinkable water then sprayed with drinkable water. Now the olives are clean from maybe mud or something. After, it goes to a crashing or a pressing thing.
I know you skipped a part, the crates. This matters to me. I have been to your plants. I saw that a lot of olive oil producers will bring their olives bagged up in plastic and the problem is they’re getting hot in there, which changes and facilitates this oxidative process. The other is, who knows how the plastic is affecting them. I like that you bring your olives by crate.
We do bring the olives from the harvest to the factory by breathable crates. What this does is it allows the olives not to hear in the transportation because in Vlorë, as you can see, we have more than 300 days of sun and it’s usually very sunny. People might think like, “That’s paying attention too much of details,” but we have done a lot of testing that this affect the quality of the olive oil a lot. It’s not just a few percentages. It’s a lot. All the fruit is very strong on the tree. It’s very durable from heat and from lack of water, but when you pluck it off the tree, it becomes very a delicate fruit. You want to take care of it as much as possible.
It gets more vulnerable in a way.
We do the transportation by plastic, a breathable crate, and then it goes to the process and now we’re at the pressing. We do a pressing and when it’s pressed, it’s done with olive pit as well. It’s done with the poke and the olive pit. After, it goes into a process of about 30 to 40 minutes. It’s just a mill that goes around and now it’s olive paste. Now we have all the paste and the mill is going around and what this does is, it basically separates the olive oil from water and the waste.
It’s really a waste but the hardest stuff of olives. It’s not separated yet. It’s just in paste but it’s kind of separate. After, it goes into a separator and how it’s done there, it’s done in fast motion separators, which separates the water, the olive oil and let’s call it the paste. The olive oil that we have now is about 90% to 95% pure. We know there is about 10% to 5% of things that we don’t want to be in the olive oil. It goes into another filtration thing and then it comes out 100% extra virgin olive oil.
If you are doing this with such attention to detail, why aren’t you like using your feet to make the olive oil like they used to do back in the day?
It’s because doing that, it will have such a low yield and it’s going to be heat outside. The street is not very sanitary to do that way. Having production for facilities that are done cold press and have very good new equipment, it’s much better than doing it the traditional way.
Damaging Variables To Olive Oil Production
Speaking of equipment. Talk to me about how you control for the variables that are damaging to the olive oil quality like the temperature, the light, and the air itself.
After the olive oil is produced, a lot of companies do this part right. Where they lack is storing the olive oil. After olive oil is produced and as I told you it’s very delicate because the oxidized is faster. Even quicker if it’s organic. We have to store it very nice and proper. What we do is after it’s produced, we put it in a stainless-steel tank. They’re underground and vacuum sealed. Being underground keeps the temperatures. Olive oil needs to be 14 to 20 degrees Celsius. That’s around, let’s say 55 to 65 Fahrenheit.
It’s maintained there and it preserves all the health benefits, the taste and their aroma. Aroma is very important in olive oil. It’s kept in vacuum sealed so oxygen doesn’t have contact with olive oil and it’s a way from light. The three enemies of olive oil are oxygen, light, and temperature. Equally, I’ve never seen anywhere else is that we don’t bottle the orders until we get the order from the customer. When we get to order from the customer whether it be a supermarket or small gourmet or an individual person, that’s when we bottle it and then we immediately ship it to them.
What happens when it’s transferred? What difference does it make? I know you don’t do this with all olive oil, nor do other companies necessarily do it but what difference do you see in that?
Basically, you get in your own house in the United States. You get the oil exactly how it was in the first day of production with the maximum health benefits, taste and aroma, which is a completely different experience. We have a lot of customers that tried for the first time this olive oil and said, “It was different than anything else that we have consumed.” Those are the variables that make it different, the time of the process. The variety is very important. The variety of olives which we’re going to talk about that later and all the things that we mentioned before. Time is very important. Attention to detail is key.
Cultivating Olive Trees In Albania
I think so, too. Talk to me about olive trees in Albania. You said that you harvest from some of the oldest trees around. How many trees are there? How many olives are produced?
As like other countries that produce olive oil, we have different varieties of olive trees, but in Albania there is currently 12 million olive trees. It’s a lot for being a small country because olive oil has been always part of our tradition. Albania is a place where olives grow naturally in the past. There is cultivation as well now, but what’s fascinating and why we entered this industry is because six million of those trees are not being harvested. Albania is producing only from half of the trees.
What’s happening with the olives that aren’t being harvested?
The other ones are going to waste. Nobody’s taking care of them and the reason is because Albania has been in the shadow of other production countries around us. There has not been a lot of interest to harvest them. Our mission and vision has been to produce quality, create demand, and to incorporate all the families and farmers that work in olive cultivation and give them a reason to come back and harvest those plants.
I love that you’re supporting the small farmers in Albania and putting your country on the map because you’re right, Italy and Greece outshine or have out shown Albania, but you’re going to get it there.
Olives are very durable from heat and from lack of water. But when you pluck it off the tree, it becomes a very delicate fruit that needs utmost care.
Italy and Greece have small farms that have good missions as well. The problem here has been with mass production olive oil and that’s why we want to shine light, too. Mass production olive oil is not being done how it’s supposed to be, and it’s a little bit unethical.
Health Benefits Of Olive Oil
Now, I want to go to health benefits because I know you’ve studied the science behind olive oil and its benefits. Talk to us just in general. What benefits can a person expect? Why would they use olive oil for health benefits?
I will go in detail because there is many reasons why you should use olive oil. One of the ones that I thought of lately is because when you use olive oil, you’re getting rid of the other seed oils, which we know their very bad for your health. Even if your olive oil is not, let’s say, the top line of the olive oils. It’s still good to consume it because you’re not consuming the other seed oils. It’s the replacing the bad stuff, so that’s a good start. No matter what olive oil you use.
Now, if you use the premium extra virgin olive oils, they are usually in high polyphenols. Those are antioxidants that fight a lot of diseases in our body. Whether it be helping with prevention of cancer or heart health, or cognitive function, especially in a woman. A lot of study shows they prevent breast cancer. There is a lot of studies show that in all men and women, it declines or reduces the risk of dementia and cognitive function.
I’ll tell you this study because I thought it was fascinating. They study about six months where they put mice. They were feeding one group of mice extra virgin olive oil and another group of mice that weren’t. they put them in a maze and the majority of the mice that were fed extra virgin olive oil would find their ways on the maze and the other ones who gets stuck. This show that it improves brain function a lot and memory.
Let’s talk a little bit about polyphenols. Usually, a regular olive oil found in a grocery store or in the supermarket has about 55 units of this of these polyphenols. For olive oil to be considered a high phenolic olive oil, it needs to have over 500, so ten times more than what is seen in most grocery stores. Our company, Donika, harvested 810 in 2024 which is way over the cut. The higher you have of those antioxidants, the better it is for your health.
Now, an issue that we saw is that the higher of those antioxidants are polyphenols you have, the more bitter the olive oil becomes. Our unique selling proposition is that we have a lot of polyphenols but we still make the olive oil taste good. We have found a balance between the highest amount of polyphenols we can get and the taste because we don’t nobody likes to eat a product that doesn’t taste very good. That’s what we have done.
It’s also interesting to me as I’ve studied Wise Traditions that people in this region of the world consumes so much olive oil and it is preventing cancer and look at all the sun that you get and how this is a natural almost curative thing. It has curative properties. That’s fabulous. I’m very interested in that. Tell me more about the polyphenols.
There’s a lot of phenols. There are different types of these polyphenols. All your canthal is one of the most important ones and it’s the one that has direct correlation.
I wanted to ask you more about polyphenols. I know polyphenols means a lot of phenols. Which phenols in particular are found in olive oil and are particularly good for us?
You are right, polyphenols means a lot of females. I will talk about 2 or 3 of them that a very important for people to know. It’s oleocanthal and oleacein. Those are the two main ones where we’re talking about preventing or helping prevention of cancer and heart health. All olive oil has those. It’s just that in premium or extra virgin olive oils you can have those at a higher concentration. Now, the other polyphenol that is very important is hydroxytyrosol. This is phenol that keeps the olive tree live almost forever. It’s like an anti-aging and repairing element.
If it works for the olive oil tree, it can work for us, too.
Consuming is a very good way of getting this phenol. The other way that you can get it is for your skin. A lot of females and men too, but females in Albania and maybe in Greece and Italy, too. My mom and sister, for example. They use it on their skin as well. When you have or organic extra virgin olive oil, you can use it on your skin as well like as part of your skin care.
I can testify. Your mother and her sister are absolutely beautiful.
Thank you. I might start applying it myself, too. Those are the three main polyphenols that are very important for human consumption. You can feel the effects of them in the first 3 to 5 days. I think olive oil is so cool is because these are the health benefits you got from it. You can also get a lot of help with weight loss, because you’re consuming healthy fats. Your body is getting satisfied with a healthy fat and it’s getting rid of cravings. Bodies in general have cravings because we are not satisfying our body with a nutrition that we need.
When you’re consuming one or two tablespoons of olive oil, you’re satisfying the body with a healthy fat it needs. Therefore, it reduces your appetite and your cravings which helps you maintain weight, weight control. Another thing I want to say because it’s fascinating. There has been studies into autistic people, is that extra virgin olive oil high in polyphenols helps them a lot because it regulates their gut issues. Gut issues have shown to be very aggravating for people with autism. Olive oil helps with their gut and their much calmer. It’s something that is very high demand on parents or other people that want to feed those to their kids or their parents that have this. Any way you look at it, it’s very healthy to consume it.
Take one to two tablespoons of olive oil a day.
Using Olive Oil In Cooking
It’s one reason people want to always go on this Mediterranean diet because the olive oil is a key. I also want to ask you about olive oil. You know so much about olive oil, Bianti. I’m curious what you know about it in terms of cooking. Some people say it has a certain smoke point that makes it not as good for cooking at high temperatures. Is that true?
Smoke point is 400 degrees. It’s very high.
I don’t ever get to that temperature.
There is some people that cook in cast iron that could go higher than 400 degrees. That’s not a recommended, but anything below that, especially baking, cooking in a pan or a pot, it’s normal. It’s rare that things are being cooked over 400 degrees and what I’ve seen and what study shows in cast iron is usually not recommended because they go over. In baking and frying below 400 degrees, it’s perfect.
The best olive oils aren’t necessarily and particularly bitter, perhaps olive oil could be used in place of a seed oil for a biscuit or a cake or what someone’s making.
Majority of people in Mediterranean diet don’t use other oil. We only use extra virgin olive oil. The thing is, for cooking, we use a virgin olive oil. This would be from harvest after November when the olives are riper. They still produced them and this is a little more less flavorful olive oil and it’s less costly. People use it all for cooking. We have two types of olive oil. One that is used for dressing, salads, and putting to improve your dish and take one or two tablespoons of it every day. Another one is used mostly for cooking.
That makes sense.
This is what we have here, at least.
Common Price Range Of Olive Oil
I’m glad you made the price point differentiation because there are people who may even be reading this thinking, “That’s great for you to talk about all these wonderful high-quality olive oils but we can’t afford it.” What do you say to the person that is like, “That’s not worth it. I’m just going to buy any old olive oil?”
Price is a factor on people buying’s decision but I would say that a bottle of olive oil can last a family usually a month. Buying a relatively High price olive oil would cost around $1 to $1.5 per day if you break it down because people are looking at like, “it’s a $50 bottle olive oil,” but that’s not something that only lasts you a day. It’s something that lasts you a month. $50 a month it’s like around $1.5 or $1.6 a day, which is not a lot when you put in weigh the benefits that you’re getting from.
Let’s say you’re focus on the benefits, but what you’re not consuming, the seed oils which I believe is one of the worst foods in the world. This is what I have to say about the price. Two, it’s a way that you look at things. You want to pay the price in food now or you want to pay the price later in health. This is the dilemma there is in the world. I’m not saying that everybody is going to consume this olive oil but there are more affordable versions of holy world that could be used. Everybody in the world should consume olive oil at a quality or another. It needs to be done because it’s very healthy and seed oils are very responsible for a lot of diseases now.
One way or another, olive oil is going to be worth it. It’s important to weigh the trade-off or the cost, to your health or to your pocketbook.
I want to add something. At our company, we’re also working on more affordable alternatives. We believe that in our 2026 harvest, we’re going to have an olive oil that is very similar from the same varieties, same production, and all the things at a lower price. We’re going to have this distribution in the US and everything. Even though we have distribution now, the operational side of thing is going to be much better. Therefore, we can lower the cost for people.
Best Container For Olive Oil
A good vision and a good mission. I want to ask you just two more questions. One is, what container should the olive oil be in when you’re purchasing it? I’ve seen it in plastic bottles even in light bottles sometimes and I’m like, “Is that good?”
You would want to container that preserves the olive oil and that preserves you from oxygen. We talked light and temperature. Dark glass is recommended in most premium extra virgin olive oils because it does all three of those, but there’s been studies and done in practice that tin or stainless. Tins are also are also good alternative. People choose them because they’re a good alternative like glass and they weigh less. It’s better for transportation.
They’re sturdy.
Both of those are good options, but one thing with tin is that inside, so from outside is tin and inside could be layers of plastic or other metals. It’s a bit 50/50 with a tin, but it’s a common thing to use because it’s much lighter. It does a lot of similar things so glass, but if you want to be 100% sure, glass is the way.
Good to know because it could be line with BPA or some other plastic compound that isn’t beneficial.
There is companies that do a very good job with tin from Italy or Greece or Spain. They show that even from the inside, they have good tin. One recommendation I give to all the readers, especially in this industry that is new and there is a lot of counterfeiting and all the adultery. It’s to know the company and the people behind what they’re getting. It’s very important because it’s very easy, I don’t want to say to lie, but it’s very easy to cut corner.
Bianti’s Health Tips
I think so, too. That’s why I’m glad I came with my own eyes to meet you, see the grove and to understand your process. Now I know you’re an olive oil encyclopedia, Bianti, but I want to ask you a question about health because a lot of people that follow me and this program are interested in improving their health. If you could just give one bit of advice or one recommendation for the readers to improve their health. What would it be?
From my experience and what I have read in the Mediterranean diet and all those, I’d say 1 to 2 tablespoons a day. I know you said one thing but I’m going to say two. It’s crucial. All my family does it and myself as well. All the producers, all the farmers, and all the people that work at the Donika company all do it and it’s improved our health dramatically in a good way. Two, I’d say exercise. Some type of movement. Maybe not every day but most of the time. It’s very important for all aspects of health. Those are two things.
Thank you so much, Bianti. Another cheers with yogurt drink. I love it.
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Our guest was Bianchi Danaj. You can visit his website Donika Olive Oil to learn more. I am Hilda Labrada Gore, the host and producer of this show on behalf of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Now for a letter to the editor from the Wise Traditions Journal. “I had to stop drinking anything from a can, especially beer about months ago. They were causing symptoms even after just a few canned items. Beer is one of the worst. I assume because of the acidity and solvent alcohol. Beer is now almost always sold in cans.”
“As soon as you can buy beer of good quality, they force it to be sold and put in cans, which ruins it just for a different reason. It’s also not a coincidence that government cites and parks and so forth, are requiring cans and banning bottles. That’s the government’s contribution, which I call passive force. Disney has the same policy. Supposedly, the switch to cans is for safety or whatever. That’s just an excuse. Bottles were fine for the last 200 years then, all of a sudden, they are dangerous. Nonsense. Brewers are going to cans solely because it’s cheaper to ship, store, and transport them.”
“The parks banned on bottles is just an encouragement so that the coincidental nexus of needs of all parties happens to match the elites desire to make sure all food is as poisonous as possible, especially medicinal alcohol. I’ve even seen vodka and organic olive oil in tin. Gross. I was always curious as to what replaced the infamous BPA and canned food linings since they made such a big deal about replacing it in 2012, so I looked at it up. It turns out that BPA has mostly been replaced with BPF and BPS, which according to Wikipedia are structurally almost identical to BPA.”
BPS shows almost identical effects on the placenta as BPA with both BPA and BPS altering almost identical sets of genes. Nothing’s changed in fact. Things have even gotten worse. BPAF, BPB, BPF, and BPS have been shown to exhibit estrogenic and/or anti-androgenic activities similar to or even greater than that of BPA. This is exactly what I assumed would be the case when I first heard about the BPA controversy, so no surprise is here.”
“It seems obvious that a factor causing the gender dysphoria kids are having now is the cans. Gender dysphoria is apparently just another phrase for environmental estrogen poisoning.” That’s a letter from Rob from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Rob, thank you so much for sharing this information. A lot of us knew about the BPA stuff, but I had no idea that these BPF, BPS, and so forth are just as harmful. I did have an idea but you enlighten me even more, so thank you.
You too can write a letter to the editor. It just might be included in an upcoming journal by writing us at Info@WestonAPrice.org. Put letter to the editor in the subject line. Talk to us about the topic of your choice. It could be something like what Rob learned or something related to the show or simply your experience in the world as you try to live out wise traditions.
By the way, you can get this journal by becoming a member. This is the year to do. It’s only $30 is you use the code POD10. Go to WestonAPrice.org, click on the join now button and join hands with us in our mission of education, research, and activism. Thank you so much for reading. Stay well and remember to keep your feet on the ground and your face to the sun.
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The content on this show is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for the advice provided by your doctor or other healthcare professional. It is not intended to be nor does it constitute healthcare or medical advice.
About Bianti Danaj
Bianti Danaj is an Albanian-American entrepreneur and founder of Donika Olive Oil, the first certified medicinal olive oil brand in Albania. Born in the U.S. and raised in Albania, he moved back to the States at age 14 and immediately noticed a stark difference in food quality, sparking his passion for real, nutrient-rich ingredients. In 2023, he launched Donika to share Albania’s ancient Kalinjot olive variety with the world—harvested by hand, cold-extracted early in the season, and boasting exceptionally high polyphenol levels. Through Donika, Bianti is on a mission to elevate Albania’s global reputation and support local farmers by bringing premium, health-driven olive oil to international markets.
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This was so interesting. Thank you for the deep dive. I do want to ask, though. You said at the beginning of the episode that you would say where you can find the best olive oil no matter where you live. I don’t feel like that was clear. I don’t understand how to tell a good olive oil from a bad one by the label, which may be lying to me. Can you please help highlight where that was discussed?