A glass of olive oil, poured as a morning ritual, can carry roughly as many calories as a fast-food breakfast sandwich, and that quiet arithmetic now sits beneath a wellness fashion carried by famous names. The oil's heart-protecting and inflammation-easing qualities are real, but they belong to modest, measured use rather than to a daily dose of several tablespoons. The story is an old one in new clothing: a good thing becomes a questionable habit once abundance replaces proportion.
Olive Oil Shots Are Trending With Influencers, but They Are Not a Health Elixir
A big gulp of salad dressing, with a breakfast sandwich's calories
Mark
Why does a trend like this deserve a closer look? It's just olive oil.
Mimi
Because the oil is genuinely good for you, which makes the shot sound harmless. The catch is the dose. A shot glass is about nine teaspoons, roughly 360 calories.
Mark
That's the same as a breakfast sandwich?
Mimi
Comparable to a bacon, egg and gouda sandwich at Starbucks, yes. Same calories, but nobody thinks of the shot that way.
Luke
Worth being clear about what's established. The calorie math comes from a per-teaspoon figure and a shot glass size, so it's an estimate. And the weight gain claim is Megan Meyer's projection of what will most likely happen, not a study of people taking shots.
Mark
What about the health benefits themselves?
Mimi
Oleic acid supports heart health, and the FDA says about 1.5 tablespoons in place of other fats may reduce heart disease risk. Vitamin E and polyphenols add to the case.
Luke
Note the phrase 'in place of other fats.' The FDA claim is about substitution, not adding oil on top of your diet. The piece doesn't say shots beat other ways of eating it.
Mark
And the skin benefits celebrities mention?
Luke
The article reports the claim but offers no evidence for it. That's unresolved here.
Mimi
And if you do want polyphenols, extra virgin has more, at $20 or more a bottle. Varying content means a shot isn't a guaranteed dose either.
Il Polso
- A single shot glass holds about nine teaspoons, roughly 360 calories, which turns a supposed health ritual into a meal's worth of hidden energy.
- Celebrities such as Hailey Bieber, Kourtney Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez have made the morning shot look effortless and glamorous, pulling a wave of imitators into the habit.
- Nutrition experts are pushing back, warning that one or two shots a day can add several hundred calories and steadily drive weight gain.
- The recommended daily range of just under two tablespoons keeps the heart and immune benefits intact, and the path forward is simply measuring the pour.
- The trend is settling toward a clearer verdict: the oil remains valuable, but the shot itself is an excess that most people are unlikely to need.
A glass of olive oil, poured as a morning ritual, can carry roughly as many calories as a fast-food breakfast sandwich, and that quiet arithmetic now sits beneath a wellness fashion carried by famous names. The oil's heart-protecting and inflammation-easing qualities are real, but they belong to modest, measured use rather than to a daily dose of several tablespoons. The story is an old one in new clothing: a good thing becomes a questionable habit once abundance replaces proportion.
A shot glass filled with olive oil holds about nine teaspoons, which comes to roughly 360 calories. That is about what a bacon, egg and gouda sandwich from Starbucks delivers, and it is the arithmetic hiding beneath a wellness habit that has spread through celebrity circles.
Model Hailey Bieber, reality star Kourtney Kardashian and actress Jennifer Lopez have been named as promoters, with claims of better skin and overall health. Bieber told TIME she mixes hers with lemon, and joked that it tastes like a big gulp of salad dressing.
The oil itself is not the problem. It is naturally anti-inflammatory, and its benefits are real. Experts caution about quantity: one or two shots a day can add several hundred calories, and since extra calories lead to weight gain, daily shots will likely add weight over time.
The guidance is moderation. Oleic acid supports heart health, and the FDA says swapping other fats for about 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil may reduce heart disease risk. Recommended daily intake is just under two tablespoons, while a nine-teaspoon shot is three. Vitamin E and polyphenols add further benefits at sensible amounts, and extra virgin oil, which costs at least $20 a bottle, carries the most polyphenols. Used within the daily range, olive oil keeps its benefits; taken as a daily shot, it quietly adds a sandwich's worth of calories to the morning.
A shot glass filled with olive oil holds about nine teaspoons. At 40 calories a teaspoon, a figure from Rochester Medicine, that comes to roughly 360 calories, about what a bacon, egg and gouda sandwich from Starbucks delivers. That arithmetic sits underneath a wellness habit that has spread through celebrity circles: taking olive oil as a morning shot.
The trend has high-profile backers. Model Hailey Bieber, reality star Kourtney Kardashian and actress Jennifer Lopez have all been named as promoters, with the claimed payoffs being better skin and support for overall health. Bieber told TIME in April that she mixes hers with lemon. "I sound so old! I'm like, 'Ah, I gotta take my olive oil shot in the morning,'" she said, adding that it tastes like a big gulp of salad dressing.
The oil itself is not the problem. It is naturally anti-inflammatory, and the benefits are real. The caution from experts is about quantity. Megan Meyer, a science communication consultant based in North Carolina, told Fox News Digital on Thursday that one or two shots a day can add several hundred calories to a person's daily intake. Because eating more calories than the body burns leads to weight gain, she said, a daily shot or two will most likely cause weight gain over time.
The root of that issue is that olive oil is mostly fat. The fat in it is considered good for you, provided it isn't consumed in excess. One of those fats is oleic acid, which has been found to support heart health and lower levels of the bad cholesterol that raises the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Oleic acid is part of the reason the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that replacing other fats and oils with about 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil may reduce the risk of heart disease. The recommended daily amount is typically just under 2 tablespoons, according to 2025 federal guidelines. A nine-teaspoon shot is three tablespoons, so a single glass goes well past that.
Other benefits are well supported at sensible amounts. Olive oil contains vitamin E, which supports a strong immune system and has been tied to a reduced risk of dementia-related death. It also contains polyphenols, plant compounds that, according to U.C. Davis Health, help the body manage inflammation that leads to disease.
Polyphenol content is not uniform, though. Extra virgin olive oil has more of them, and it costs at least $20 a bottle. Anyone chasing the compounds, then, is paying for the better grade as well as swallowing the calories.
The practical takeaway from the experts is moderation: olive oil used within the recommended daily range keeps its benefits, while shots taken daily can quietly add a sandwich's worth of calories to the morning.
Citazioni salienti
Taking an olive oil shot or two every day can add several hundred calories to your daily calorie consumption.— Megan Meyer, science communication consultant, to Fox News Digital
It really kind of just tastes like a big gulp of salad dressing.— Hailey Bieber, to TIME
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