# Black Olives are bad?



## rayo de sol (Sep 28, 2006)

I've heard that black olives aren't good for us.

Can anyone link to an article or site that explains why?

(I'm assuming it's because they're processed with lye, but is there more to it than this?)

Thanks!


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## dogmom327 (Apr 19, 2007)

:

I thought it was because unless they specify that they are tree-ripened, they are normally picked before they are ripe and "ripened" using formaldehyde. I may have that wrong though.


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## tinyblackdot (Aug 31, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *dogmom327* 







:

I thought it was because unless they specify that they are tree-ripened, they are normally picked before they are ripe and "ripened" using formaldehyde. I may have that wrong though.

OMG what?!?!?! DD eats them all of the time!


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## Norai (Mar 21, 2009)

I don't *think* it's the lye that makes them bad, because all lye is is a strong base. It's aka sodium hydroxide, when it combines with an acid it reacts to form salt and water (type of salt depends on the type of acid).

Lye has a high pH (kind of like baking soda on steroids), but I'm sure they neutralize it before people eat it. Must be the formaldehyde, lol.


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## purplemoon (Sep 24, 2008)

WHAT! Tell me it isn't so.


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## Ola_ (Sep 5, 2008)

A Google search has yielded some information about chemicals being used to turn them black (ripen) artificially after picking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive
http://www.olives101.com/2008/09/08/...in-the-market/


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## futurmama8 (Aug 15, 2008)

You have got to be kidding me!! I just half a jar of those little buggers. Jeez it seems like every food we have out there now is dangerous.


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## JElaineB (Nov 12, 2005)

So I am assuming the "bad" black olives would be ones found in the cans sitting on the supermarket shelves? There appear to be at least some brands of black olives that are ok, such as these: http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/organic_olives.htm. That website indicates ferrous sulfate (a form of iron) is used to turn green olives black. Does anyone know if the olives you find in barrels at the store would be ok?


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## FullMetalMom (Aug 27, 2008)

Does this include organic black olives?







:


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## Magelet (Nov 16, 2008)

what about kalamata olives? I've never seen green version of those? or does this only refer to truely black olives, not brownish ones?


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## flower01 (Aug 1, 2007)

Yep, just the squishy flavorless black ones. Kalamata olives and others are really good for you. I can't remember all the reasons, but i saw a really interesting episode about olives by Alton Brown.


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## MoonWillow (May 24, 2006)

I might have to stick my head in the sand about this one. I just bought a ton of canned black olives and I love them.







:


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## cristeen (Jan 20, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *JElaineB* 
So I am assuming the "bad" black olives would be ones found in the cans sitting on the supermarket shelves? There appear to be at least some brands of black olives that are ok, such as these: http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/organic_olives.htm.

I have a jar of these olives. They are not the same type of olives like you'd find on a pizza or in a can. They're a Kalamata type olive.

At this point I go with salt cured, oil cured or water cured olives and stay away from the lye cured. I've never been a huge fan of olives, though, so it's a minor change.

And olives will turn naturally black/dk purple on the tree. So the problem is not that they're black, it's how they're treated.


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## jimblejamble (May 18, 2007)

Dang it! I love popping open a can of olives and snacking on them!


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## rayo de sol (Sep 28, 2006)

Can anyone find a link that talks about formaldehyde being used on black olives?

I've been googling, and I can't find anything....


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## SandyMom (Mar 26, 2009)

The Santa Barbara Olive Company makes really yummy RIPE green olives - they don't turn them black, but they tate just like black olives - better actually. The rub is they cost twice as much.







:


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## calebsmommy25 (Aug 23, 2008)

Man, this blows.







: Olives are expensive enough, I delighted in the fact that I could grab a small can and use in pasta salads, and taco salads for cheap. Oh well...I guess another thing to add to the list and just use the good ones for treats once in a great while. Makes me so sad though.


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## JElaineB (Nov 12, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *calebsmommy25* 
Man, this blows.







: Olives are expensive enough, I delighted in the fact that I could grab a small can and use in pasta salads, and taco salads for cheap. Oh well...I guess another thing to add to the list and just use the good ones for treats once in a great while. Makes me so sad though.

I have looked a few other websites and it appears during lye-curing the green olives turn black if exposed to air, giving you the standard "California Black Olive". Some form of iron is added to stablize the black color in most of the canned olives. So I don't think these types of olives are as high a quality as brine-cured or oil-cured, or organic for that matter, it sounds to me as if they are not dangerous (the lye is completely rinsed out before eating and replaced by brine). I haven't found anything about formaldehye, other than what a poster here said.

If you want really natural olives, without really any processing I found this:
http://www.funkyraw.com/shop/index.p...roducts_id=250


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## BarnMomma (Dec 12, 2008)

Ok this is one of the BAD things about reading too much. LOL

Put olives on the list of foods I will no longer eat. Sniff. And they are totally a favorite.


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## lisa_nc (Jul 25, 2008)

What the hay?! No more monster fingers?


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## rayo de sol (Sep 28, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *JElaineB* 
So I don't think these types of olives are as high a quality as brine-cured or oil-cured, or organic for that matter, it sounds to me as if they are not dangerous (the lye is completely rinsed out before eating and replaced by brine). I haven't found anything about formaldehye, other than what a poster here said.

Thanks!

If they're not dangerous (just poor quality), I guess one could eat them occasionally?


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## Spirit Dancer (Dec 11, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *rayo de sol* 
Thanks!

If they're not dangerous (just poor quality), I guess one could eat them occasionally?

I read the links on this thread and they are not 100% reputable sources. I am not saying they are making stuff up but they could be or could be really stretching the truth. I mean you can find "proof" for anything on the net these days. Surely you cannot believe all you hear and read.

All I mean is I would like a bit more proof before I just ditch the olives. I mean heck the list of good food to eat grows slimmer by the minute.









PS Wikipedia is NOT a foolproof source nor is it an academic one. Anyone can post on it. Some of my profs give an automatic F if you put wikipedia as a source on a paper.


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## MoonWillow (May 24, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *lisa_nc* 
What the hay?! No more monster fingers?









laughup


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## LittleBlessings (May 26, 2008)

This is sad. I love olives and so does DC and eats them all the time


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## claddaghmom (May 30, 2008)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *lisa_nc* 
What the hay?! No more monster fingers?









OMGsh I was just thinking this. My 6yo brother loves loves loves to do that.

He makes veggietale penguins out of them too.


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## Abismommy (Jul 3, 2008)

Even the ones on the bar at Whole Foods..say it is a LIIIEEEE..:*(


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## Mama2Rio (Oct 25, 2008)

olives are one of the few foods i'd eat as a kid, espeically the black ones... well i'm not dead yet from them!!! i wonder how many lbs i've eaten in my life time! and i was just planning to buy some b/c i havenn't had any in a while.... but i'll eat any kind f olive it's just the black ones are so cheap and something i could actually afford.







:

edit: from this website

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/olive.html

Harvest: Olive fruits that are to be processed as green olives are picked while they are still green but have reached full size. They can also be picked for processing at any later stage up through full ripeness. Ripe olives bruise easily and should be handled with care. Mold is also a problem for the fruit between picking and curing. There are several classical ways of curing olives. A *common method is the lye-cure process in which green or near-ripe olives are soaked in a series of lye solutions for a period of time to remove the bitter principle and then transferred to water and finally a mild saline solution.* Other processing methods include water curing, salt curing and Greek-style curing. Explicit directions for various curing and marinating methods can be found in several publications including Maggie Blyth Klein's book, Feast of the Olives, and the University of California Agricultural Sciences Publications Leaflet 21131. Both green-cured and ripe-cured olives are popular as a relish or snack. For *California canned commercial olives, black olives are identical to green olives. The black color is obtained by exposure to air after lye extraction and has nothing to do with ripeness.* Home production of olive oil is not recommended. The equipment required and the sheer mass of fruit needed are beyond most households.


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## dogmom327 (Apr 19, 2007)

While I'm glad to hear it's lye and not formaldehyde (turns out my sources were wrong thank goodness!), I still don't want lye on my food. So frustrating.


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## JElaineB (Nov 12, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *dogmom327* 
While I'm glad to hear it's lye and not formaldehyde (turns out my sources were wrong thank goodness!), I still don't want lye on my food. So frustrating.

Lye is just sodium hydroxide, a strong base. Essentially the opposite of a strong acid (like hydrochloric acid, which is found in your stomach). It makes the pH of the solution the olives are soaking in very high, which draws out the bitter compounds. Then the olives are soaked in brine (saltwater) solution for a period of time which removes any trace of lye. Eating lye would be bad, yes. But it is gone by the time you eat the olives.


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## texaspeach (Jun 19, 2005)

aren't both hominy and masa (corn flour) treated with lye?


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## mamadelbosque (Feb 6, 2007)

I'm pretty posotive that masa is just ground up posole/hominy, which is indeed treated with lye (at least, thats my understanding), in the drying process. I'm not about to stop eating black olives just cause' they're treated with lye!!


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## texaspeach (Jun 19, 2005)

I'm not about to stop either. gotta have corn tortillas! the lye that is used to treat the corn actually makes it so certain vitamins are more accessible. with out it, north/central american traditional cultures would have had serious vitamin deficiencies.

there's lye in soap too. But that doesn't mean it's unsafe. I'm ok with lye being used to treat olives


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## AJP (Apr 30, 2003)

Masa and hominy are usually made with calcium hydroxide (a.k.a. pickling lime or cal), not sodium hydroxide (lye). I think it's not quite as strong a base as lye. It is also all washed away after its done its thing to the corn - it's called nixtamalization, and does indeed free up the vit. B3 (niacin), which is essential for someone whose staple food is corn. Lack of niacin results in pellagra, not a pleasant disease, but not something people who have other dietary sources of niacin and only eat corn occasionally need to worry about. I think I've read that ages ago corn was also treated with water in which wood ashes had been soaked, which would have been more similar to lye than pickling lime (a mined product). I believe some cultures that used acorns as a food would soak the ground acorns in ash water, also, to neutralize the high tannic acid levels, and then rinse thoroughly in running water.

Anyway, I'm not freaked out by black olives having been treated with lye. Lye itself can be kind of scary because it's so caustic, but there isn't any left in the food treated with it by the time it gets to you. If there was, you'd probably know it, contact with lye above a certain concentration produces an immediate burn. Regular canned black "ripe" olives (as in, what you'd find in a normal grocery store) do have some chemical added to them to stabilize the color, I believe, but I forget what it is. I prefer to buy the brand mentioned above, Santa Barbara Olive Co., or Natural Value, both of which are just olives, water and salt.


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