Giuseppe Cilento
Olive oil, the elixir of life

National Park of Cilento, has been existing for nearly forty years.

Giuseppe Cilento, the President of the Cooperative, is the interviewee. He describes their method for cold pressing the olives, the so called Integral System. He explains that during the extraction they use the vegetation water, since it is rich in polyphenols, allowing a better conservation of antioxidants.

If contemporary television created the idea that the seed oil was lighter, thanks to Giuseppe Cilento we discover that is not so; the longevity of his family is due to tomato salads filled with a large amount of olive oil.

Speaking of the Mediterranean diet, he quotes Ancel Keys – who affirmed he wanted to be back in Cilento in order to live twenty years more – and reminds us that the famous biologist has lived up to one hundred years.

Among the olive trees of San Mauro Cilento, Giuseppe Cilento remembers a typical and healthy local dish, the chickpea soup with homemade bread and olive oil. Who knows they are not the ingredients of the elixir of life!