Olive oil (and flaxseed oil) should be avoided because it is adulterated ('it is all fake') and has a problem with its acidity; instead a little corn oil and sunflower oil should be used for frying.

Original statement

لا ولا زيت زيتون ولا زيت بذره الكتان ولا مش عارف ايه هو شويه زيت ذره هو كله مضروب يا بيه شويه زيت ذره شويه زيت ذره وشويه زيت عباد نحمر فيهم

verbatim according to source. Translation by the project; the Arabic wording is authoritative.

Translation

Olive oil (and flaxseed oil) should be avoided because it is adulterated ('it is all fake') and has a problem with its acidity; instead a little corn oil and sunflower oil should be used for frying.

Origin

Source status

Video transcript (own words)

Attribution

Elawady (machine transcript)

Video

Dr Diaa Al Awady د ضياء العوضي is live! (Open source)

Published

18 February 2026

Timestamp

0:45:27 (location in the original video’s automatic YouTube caption track; confirms where the words occur, not who speaks)

Attribution uncertainty

Archive transcript (YouTube CC or AI-generated); no timestamps; wording may contain transcription errors; spoken live-stream language, context partly conversational.

Claimed mechanism

Adulteration/contamination of olive oil; 'acidity' problem (not specified).

Claimed health effect

Implied harm from olive oil.

Population concerned

Followers (advice given during Ramadan live stream).

Geographic restriction by Elawady

none found

Diverging source versions

Scientific assessment

Mostly false – Essential parts of the statement are not supported by the evidence or are strongly exaggerated.

Certainty of evidence: low – Further research is likely to change the assessment considerably.

1. What was claimed?

Avoid olive oil; use corn or sunflower oil.

2. What is demonstrably correct?

Using corn or sunflower oil instead of animal fats is consistent with cohort evidence that higher linoleic acid intake is associated with lower CHD risk (RR 0.85 for CHD events, I-FAT-05) and with WHO's strong recommendation to replace saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat (I-FAT-08). Food fraud with olive oil is a real general concern (not quantified here).

3. What is wrong or exaggerated?

There is no evidence that authentic olive oil is harmful; free acidity is a quality grade criterion, not a health hazard at normal intakes (general food-quality knowledge; not separately sourced). Extra-virgin olive oil is part of the best RCT evidence for dietary cardiovascular prevention (I-FAT-04). The advice also contradicts the archive's own food list (olive oil allowed).

4. What remains unclear?

The RCT evidence for replacing saturated fat with linoleic-acid-rich oils is debated: the recovered Minnesota Coronary Experiment data showed no mortality benefit (I-FAT-06). Repeatedly heating frying oils produces oxidation products (not examined here).

5. Which studies support it?

I-FAT-05 (for corn/sunflower oils), I-FAT-08, I-FAT-106 (banned dyes in a minority of Egyptian market olive oils).

6. Which studies contradict it?

I-FAT-04 (olive oil benefit); I-FAT-105 (US cohorts: olive oil associated with 19% lower mortality and not different from other vegetable oils); I-FAT-06 and I-FAT-108 (caution on replacing animal fat with linoleic-acid oils); I-FAT-107 (Cochrane: omega-6 oils neutral for mortality).

7. What applies to Germany and Europe?

Authentic olive oil is regulated by EU marketing standards (not fetched here).

8. What is known about Egypt?

A survey of 870 olive oil samples from Egyptian markets found banned Sudan dyes in a minority (Sudan Yellow 5%, other dyes 0.1-0.9%; at most about 6% of samples) (I-FAT-106). Adulteration is therefore a real local problem, but most samples were free of the tested dyes; other forms of fraud were not measured.

9. What practical conclusion is appropriate?

Buying olive oil from reliable sources is reasonable; avoiding olive oil for health reasons is not supported.

Assessment details

Rationale for certainty of evidence

No evidence was found that olive oil per se is harmful; RCT evidence favours it. Adulteration of olive oil is a known food-fraud issue in general, but we did not verify its extent in Egypt. The recommended alternatives (corn, sunflower oil, rich in linoleic acid) are associated with lower CHD in cohorts, with conflicting RCT re-analyses.

Source quality

Elawady's own words (machine transcript); contradicts the archive food list (C-FAT-03).

Regional transferability

Adulteration concerns are market-specific.

Individual exceptions

None.

Regional scope of the claim

depends on production conditions

Last reviewed

26 October 2026 provisional

Scientific evidence in detail

Overinterpreted – A real finding exists, but the claim draws more from it than the data allow (e.g. association taken as cause, animal data applied to humans, small effect presented as large).

Research question: Should olive oil be avoided because of adulteration/acidity, and is a little corn or sunflower oil a better choice?

Study results as reported by the authors. Our assessment follows below.

Open questions

Comprehensive olive-oil authenticity surveys in Egypt.

How deeply was this checked?

8 linked studies: 1 checked in full text (0 of them with a structured risk-of-bias assessment), 7 on the basis of the abstract, 0 bibliographically only. No formal assessment with two independent reviewers and no independent human expert review has taken place yet.

Last scientific review: 26 October 2026

In plain language

In one live video Dr. Elawady advised against olive oil, saying it is often fake and has an 'acid problem', and recommended a little corn or sunflower oil instead. This contradicts the archive's own food list, which allows olive oil. Good studies show that olive oil, as part of a Mediterranean diet, protects the heart. Corn and sunflower oils are also acceptable plant oils. Fake olive oil is a consumer-fraud problem, not a reason to consider real olive oil unhealthy.

Studies on this claim

Regional context

Germany / EU

Authentic olive oil is regulated by EU marketing standards (not fetched here).

Egypt

A survey of 870 olive oil samples from Egyptian markets found banned Sudan dyes in a minority (Sudan Yellow 5%, other dyes 0.1-0.9%; at most about 6% of samples) (I-FAT-106). Adulteration is therefore a real local problem, but most samples were free of the tested dyes; other forms of fraud were not measured.

What applies in my country?

General scientific assessment

Mostly false Some olive oil sold in Egypt is adulterated, which is a food-fraud problem, but most tested samples were not, and authentic olive oil is one of the best-supported healthy fats; avoiding it for health reasons is not supported.

The following areas of food safety are relevant to this statement:

• Additives and processing
• Controls, imports, recalls, labelling

Limits: legal rules describe what is allowed, not what every single food contains. Measurement data come from samples and are meaningful only together with their method details.

Country of residence or purchase Compare with another country

References

1. Dietary linoleic acid and risk of coronary heart disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.. Farvid MS et al.. Circulation 2014 · PMID 25161045 · DOI 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.010236
2. Optimization and validation of a rapid LC-MS/MS method for the detection and quantification of illegal dyes in olive oil from Egyptian markets.. Ragab M et al.. Food Chem 2025 · PMID 40446662 · DOI 10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.144924
3. Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet Supplemented with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil or Nuts.. Estruch R et al.. N Engl J Med 2018 · PMID 29897866 · DOI 10.1056/NEJMoa1800389
4. Consumption of Olive Oil and Risk of Total and Cause-Specific Mortality Among U.S. Adults.. Guasch-Ferre M et al.. J Am Coll Cardiol 2022 · PMID 35027106 · DOI 10.1016/j.jacc.2021.10.041
5. Use of dietary linoleic acid for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease and death: evaluation of recovered data from the Sydney Diet Heart Study and updated meta-analysis.. Ramsden CE et al.. BMJ 2013 · PMID 23386268 · DOI 10.1136/bmj.e8707
6. Re-evaluation of the traditional diet-heart hypothesis: analysis of recovered data from Minnesota Coronary Experiment (1968-73).. Ramsden CE et al.. BMJ 2016 · PMID 27071971 · DOI 10.1136/bmj.i1246
7. Saturated fatty acid and trans-fatty acid intake for adults and children: WHO guideline. World Health Organization. WHO guideline 2023
8. Omega-6 fats for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.. Hooper L et al.. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2018 · PMID 30488422 · DOI 10.1002/14651858.CD011094.pub4