Roll over, retsina: the Greeks are going crazy for a new drink — olive-leaf juice. It has been ignored as a potential nutrient for 3,000 years, but a brief television reference that suggested it may lower cholesterol and reduce cancers in laboratory mice has made it as sought-after as the tree’s fruit.

The craze has led to one death and yesterday the Health Ministry called for calm, urging chat shows to stop parading purported “healers” talking up the benefits of the leaves.

The olive fruit is known to be a cholesterol-reducing agent and is an essential part of the Mediterranean diet. The tree is highly valued and the Ancient Athenians regarded it as a gift from Athena, goddess of the city, but its leaves have never played a part in cuisine.

All it took was for television to show a couple of hale and hearty old peasants chewing olive leaves like cud, and the craze was on. Middle-aged Athenians have been stripping the ubiquitous olive trees in parks and suburban streets, putting the leaves in a blender and guzzling the result. Granulated olive leaf is a yellowish powder that, when mixed with water, results in a translucent dark-green fluid bitter to the tongue — and, doctors say, useless and even dangerous.

In the past week talk shows have been inundated with guests claiming that a regular dose of the stuff cured them of cancer, heart disease and a variety of other ailments. The claims have little foundation, appearing to be based very loosely on a small-scale study of mice at the University of Athens.

The Health Ministry warning said: “There have been no tests on the toxic levels of olive tree extract, and it is possible that it contains hazards for patients.” Nonetheless, cancer patients have been forking out up to €60 (£40) for a kilo of the narrow, pale green leaves that sharp merchants have packaged and sent to health shops.

In the craze’s first fatality, a man stabbed his brother to death in Messini, southern Greece, in an argument over whether a third brother, who had cancer, should be given olive-leaf juice.

“Don’t listen to the charlatans,” urged Dimitris Kremastinos, a cardiologist and former Health Minister. “Chewing olive leaves does nobody any good. They’re not poisonous but they are not beneficial, either.”

The Athens Medical Association said that some cancer patients had abandoned treatment to try the potion. Most of the potential danger, doctors say, centres on whether the olive trees have been sprayed with pesticide. Apart from relatively few organic olive groves, most of Greece’s olive trees are sprayed with chemicals.

Mythic tales

The first olive tree was planted by Athena on the site of ancient Athens. She was worshipped as the city's protector because of this.

Olive branches secured the safe journey of the dead across the Styx. Spartans were buried on beds of olive branches.

In 500BC the olive's significance to Greek culture was recognised on the official currency.

At the first Olympic Games, (instigated, according to Pindar, by Heracles), prizes included olive oil.

Sources: Filippoberio.co.uk

Roll over, retsina: the Greeks are going crazy for a new drink — olive-leaf juice. It has been ignored as a potential nutrient for 3,000 years, but a brief television reference that suggested it may lower cholesterol and reduce cancers in laboratory mice has made it as sought-after as the tree’s fruit.

The craze has led to one death and yesterday the Health Ministry called for calm, urging chat shows to stop parading purported “healers” talking up the benefits of the leaves.

The olive fruit is known to be a cholesterol-reducing agent and is an essential part of the Mediterranean diet. The tree is highly valued and the Ancient Athenians regarded it as a gift from Athena, goddess of the city, but its leaves have never played a part in cuisine.

All it took was for television to show a couple of hale and hearty old peasants chewing olive leaves like cud, and the craze was on. Middle-aged Athenians have been stripping the ubiquitous olive trees in parks and suburban streets, putting the leaves in a blender and guzzling the result. Granulated olive leaf is a yellowish powder that, when mixed with water, results in a translucent dark-green fluid bitter to the tongue — and, doctors say, useless and even dangerous.

In the past week talk shows have been inundated with guests claiming that a regular dose of the stuff cured them of cancer, heart disease and a variety of other ailments. The claims have little foundation, appearing to be based very loosely on a small-scale study of mice at the University of Athens.

The Health Ministry warning said: “There have been no tests on the toxic levels of olive tree extract, and it is possible that it contains hazards for patients.” Nonetheless, cancer patients have been forking out up to €60 (£40) for a kilo of the narrow, pale green leaves that sharp merchants have packaged and sent to health shops.

In the craze’s first fatality, a man stabbed his brother to death in Messini, southern Greece, in an argument over whether a third brother, who had cancer, should be given olive-leaf juice.

“Don’t listen to the charlatans,” urged Dimitris Kremastinos, a cardiologist and former health minister. “Chewing olive leaves does nobody any good. They’re not poisonous but they are not beneficial, either.”

The Athens Medical Association said that some cancer patients had abandoned treatment to try the potion. Most of the potential danger, doctors say, centres on whether the olive trees have been sprayed with pesticide. Apart from relatively few organic olive groves, most of Greece’s olive trees are sprayed with chemicals.

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