Turkish woman’s tryst with olive oil to beat cancer

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – Natural olive oil cure and medical attention helped Gamze Deniz, a cancer patient, to recover from the deadly disease. She has now established a boutique firm producing cold-press olive oil in the Aegean Sea resort town of Bodrum.

After she was diagnosed with cancer in 2017, she started to receive medical treatment -- chemotherapy and radiotherapy – leading to second-degree burns on her skin. She then started using high-quality olive oil.

"The most striking thing was the thesis of the Nobel laureate scientist Aziz Sancar, who said that if the person undergoing cancer treatment takes chemotherapy in the evening and uses high-quality olive oil, the DNA and RNA repair will be more accurate," she said.

Quoting another research, she said the high-quality olive oil has the same effect -- even more -- as the oil extracted from sharks and used in the chemotherapy medicines.

"I have not seen any side effects in my continuous chemotherapy treatment for more than two years, on the contrary, I did not have nausea and weakness," she added.

Deniz said because of using olive oil, she did not lose hair, which is normal for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

“This is a very important motivation for a woman,” she said.

"After experiencing such positive benefits, I decided to do this job most correctly," she said, adding that her olive oil production adventure started in 2017 under the brand of 'Zeynira' after undergoing training at the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization of Turkey (KOSGEB).

"I did a lot of research and decided in 2018 to establish my firm with great efforts. The KOSGEB supported 75% cost of machines," she said.

"I owe my life to olive and olive oil, I embarked on this road to raise awareness of quality olive oil to everyone," she added.

- Process requires lot of labor

Explaining the process of producing olive oil, she said fresh olives are collected by employing manual labor and are washed and sorted for pressing purposes. They are then crushed and kneaded by the mixer and pure olive oil -- also known as olive milk -- is extracted in this phase.

The production of this type of oil is not very common in Turkey and it is not easy to find a reliable producer, she added.

Stressing that the boutique brands should produce olive oil carefully and with significant efforts, she said such firms should be patented and approved.

"Producing a good olive oil requires a lot of labor, experience, and craftsmanship, producers should avoid false facts," she said.

Zeynira accepts olives only in packed boxes. They do not accept them in sacks. She added that her main goal is to offer high-quality olive oil with the right production and cost.

She also said that the biggest problem for boutique producers is branding, lamenting that people know only big industrial companies with brands.