# Olive Oil shots for health?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-shots-for-health/260098>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 16, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-shots-for-health/260098 "2004-08-16T17:23:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-shots-for-health/260098/1 "2004-08-16T17:23:20Z")

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I’ve recently been reading up on how olive oil is good for you. So good that you should drink shots of it every day. I can’t, however, determine why this is so. From my own experiments (i.e. using it to cook with), I’ve determined that it’s good for a laxative. I have also come across some homeopathic remedies that call for drinking this, but in those cases it appears to be used primarily for “fixing” results (one detoxification scheme was to drink both epsom salt and olive oil to clear out kidney stones, according to a thread here I can’t find, the idea was that the olive oil would cause the salt to clump together and pass through the digestive system, giving the appearance of loosing your kidney stones via your ass, which is patently silly as far as I can tell).

Is there a health benefit to drinking this stuff straight? Should I just keep cooking with it?

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**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-shots-for-health/260098/2 "2004-08-16T19:12:34Z")

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> [@Chairman Pow](#):
>
> … the idea was that the olive oil would cause the salt to clump together and pass through the digestive system, giving the appearance of loosing your kidney stones via your ass, which is patently silly as far as I can tell).

IANAD, but I think if you drank a cup of olive oil straight, there would be a whole lot of things clumping together and exiting your ass, very quickly. Some people take that as a sign of “detoxification”, but the whole intestinal toxins thing is a bunch of hooey. I’d avoid olive oil shots unless you really like crapping.

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**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-shots-for-health/260098/3 "2004-08-16T19:36:36Z")

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Olive oil is good for you, but a shot a day is too damn much. Besides, it’s high in omega-6 acids, which most people get more than enough of. It’s a poor source of omega-3 acids, which most people don’t get enough of.