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TL;DR: In a recent TIME interview, Hailey Bieber said her morning routine now includes a daily olive oil and lemon shot. Below: her exact words, what's actually in her morning shot, what the science says about olive oil shots — and how to get the polyphenols olive oil shots are famous for, without the taste, bite, or 120 calories per tablespoon.
The Viral Moment
Hailey Bieber went viral this week after telling TIME magazine that her morning routine has shifted. Among her "three morning musts" — skincare, coffee, and now a shot of olive oil with lemon — the olive oil habit is the newest addition.
"I sound so old," she told TIME. "I'm like, I gotta take my olive oil shot in the morning. Lord help me."
The clip spread fast across health TikTok and X. Search interest in "olive oil shot," already trending up across 2025–2026, jumped overnight.
What She Said, In Her Own Words
"Shot of olive oil and lemon. That has been in my morning must without fail for, like, the last few months. It helps coat the gut. I think it's a good detox… It's not bad. It really kind of just tastes like a big gulp of salad dressing."
— Hailey Bieber, TIME interview
She also described the order she tries to take them in: olive oil first, then food, then coffee. "On a busy day, it doesn't always land there."
What's Actually in the Drink
The "Hailey Bieber olive oil shot" is straightforward — it's the same daily olive oil habit that's existed in the Mediterranean for generations, freshly rebranded for a 2026 morning routine.
The typical recipe:
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) extra virgin olive oil
- The juice of half a lemon (or to taste)
- Optional: a small pinch of black pepper or cayenne
One tablespoon of olive oil delivers roughly 120 calories from monounsaturated fat. The lemon adds vitamin C, a hit of acid, and (most importantly for the trend) cuts the oily mouthfeel.
Why Olive Oil Shots? The Real Reason
Drinking olive oil straight isn't actually traditional — but the high daily olive oil intake the Mediterranean diet is built on is. Greek, southern Italian, and Spanish populations consume 15–25 kg of olive oil per person per year (vs. about 1 kg in the U.S.), almost all of it with food: dressed onto salads, drizzled over vegetables, dipped with bread, cooked in.
The modern "olive oil shot" takes that traditional high daily intake and concentrates it into a single morning ritual. The reason that ritual leapt into Western wellness routines comes down to one ingredient class: polyphenols, a group of plant compounds concentrated in high-quality olive oil.
The most-studied polyphenol in olive oil is hydroxytyrosol. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has formally recognized that olive oil polyphenols help protect blood lipids from oxidative stress when consumed at a daily intake of 5 mg of hydroxytyrosol and its derivatives, in the context of about 20 g of olive oil per day.
That's the actual mechanism behind the buzz: not "detox," but the antioxidant activity of phenolic compounds the body absorbs from quality EVOO.
The Catch: Not All Olive Oil Is the Same
Polyphenol content in olive oil varies dramatically by brand, harvest, and storage. A standard supermarket EVOO often contains only 50–250 mg/kg of polyphenols. The EU recognizes 250 mg/kg as the threshold for an official health claim on olive oil — and most oils don't clear it.
A high-quality, early-harvest, single-origin EVOO can clear 500+ mg/kg — meaning you'd need many shots of a low-grade oil to match a single shot of a premium one, like Olivea's Ultra High Phenolic EVOO with over 1000+ mg/kg polyhphenols.
Which Olive Oil Is Best for a Daily Shot?
If you want the polyphenol benefits the trend is built on, the bottle on your counter has to actually deliver them. Most don't. Here's the quality checklist before you commit a daily ritual to it:
- Polyphenol content (published, in mg/kg). Look for a number on the label, ideally 500+ mg/kg for daily intake. The EU recognizes 250 mg/kg as the threshold for an official health claim — most supermarket oils don't clear it.
- Olive cultivar. Varieties like Koroneiki, Olympia, Picual, and Coratina are naturally higher in polyphenols. Generic "EVOO" blends usually aren't disclosed by cultivar.
- Cold-pressed (or "cold extraction"). Heat destroys polyphenols. Premium oils are pressed at temperatures well below the EVOO regulatory limit.
- Early harvest. Greener olives picked earlier in the season have substantially higher polyphenol content than late-harvest ripe olives. That peppery bite at the back of the throat? Those are the polyphenols.
- Harvest date on the label. Polyphenols degrade with time. Look for a harvest date within the last 12 months, not just a "best by" date.
- Low acidity. Premium EVOO is below 0.3%. The legal maximum for the "extra virgin" label is 0.8% — many bottles sit close to that ceiling.
- Single-origin / single estate. Most supermarket "Italian" or "Spanish" EVOO is blended from multiple countries. Single-source oils are traceable and quality-consistent.
- Dark glass bottle. Light degrades polyphenols. Clear glass and plastic are quality red flags. The best producers also nitrogen-flush the bottle to displace oxygen during filling.
- Organic certification. Doesn't directly affect polyphenols, but reduces pesticide residue exposure on something you're consuming straight.
- Third-party lab verification. The most rigorous brands publish independent lab results showing actual polyphenol numbers per harvest. If a brand doesn't show its work, the number on the label isn't verifiable.
For reference, Olivea's Ultra High Phenolic EVOO is built around each of these criteria — 1,000+ mg/kg polyphenols, USDA organic, hyper-early-harvest Olympia cultivar from a single Messinian estate, cold-pressed within hours of picking, bottled in dark glass with ultra-low acidity. The 2025 lab results are published if you want to verify the numbers yourself.
The Honest Downsides of the Shot
Olive oil shots have real benefits when the oil is high-quality, but they aren't for everyone:
- Calories. One tablespoon is ~120 calories. The 3–5-tablespoon doses some studies use total 360–600 calories of fat per day.
- Taste. A genuinely high-phenolic EVOO has a peppery bite that can take getting used to. Hailey called it "a big gulp of salad dressing."
- Polyphenol variance. If you're using low-grade EVOO, the shot is mostly fat without the antioxidant content the trend is built on.
- Travel. A glass bottle of EVOO is not a carry-on-friendly format. Consistent daily doses on the road are a real friction point.
- Inconsistency. A tablespoon eyeballed at 6:30 AM isn't a precise daily dose.
If You Want the Polyphenols Without the Shot
If the goal is consistent daily polyphenols — specifically hydroxytyrosol — there's a cleaner format that's quietly become popular among people who like the science behind olive oil shots but not the calories, peppery bite, or daily glass-of-oil ritual: a standardized hydroxytyrosol capsule.
The Olivea Hydroxytyrosol Supplement delivers 20 mg of hydroxytyrosol per capsule — the most-studied polyphenol in olive oil and the same compound the EFSA built its health claim around — alongside additional phenolic compounds for a total of 36 mg of polyphenols per capsule. That's roughly 2–3× the polyphenol content of a tablespoon of even premium EVOO, with no calories worth tracking, no taste, and a format that fits in a carry-on.
Olive Oil Shot vs. Olivea Capsule
| A typical olive oil shot | Olivea Hydroxytyrosol Capsule | |
|---|---|---|
| Total polyphenols per serving | Depends on oil quality (often <5 mg with mass-market EVOO; ~13–14 mg with a 1,000 mg/kg high-phenolic oil) | 36 mg standardized |
| Hydroxytyrosol | Varies by brand, rarely disclosed | 20 mg standardized (4× the EFSA daily threshold) |
| Calories | ~120 | 5 |
| Taste | Peppery, oily | None |
| Travel | Glass bottle, oil bottle, cleanup | A single capsule |
| Daily consistency | Eyeballed dose | Precise daily dose |
Same compound, more concentrated, no salad-dressing taste. Some people pair the two — a daily shot of high-phenolic EVOO with food, plus a capsule on travel days. Others go capsule-only.
FAQ
Is the Hailey Bieber olive oil shot actually good for you?
The benefits depend almost entirely on the polyphenol content of the oil you choose. A high-phenolic, lab-tested EVOO delivers meaningful antioxidant content (the kind EFSA has recognized for protecting blood lipids from oxidative stress). A bottom-shelf supermarket oil mostly delivers fat calories.
How many calories in an olive oil shot?
A standard tablespoon is about 120 calories. Hailey's version (oil + lemon juice) is essentially the same — the lemon adds about 5 calories.
Olive oil shot vs. capsule — which is better?
Functionally similar if you choose carefully. A premium olive oil shot delivers polyphenols plus the broader EVOO matrix (vitamin E, monounsaturated fats); it's also higher in calories and depends entirely on the oil's quality. A standardized capsule delivers a precise polyphenol dose at minimal calories with no taste, and travels easily. Both are valid — the better answer is the one you'll actually do daily.
Does Hailey Bieber take a specific olive oil brand?
She didn't name a brand in her TIME interview. The bigger takeaway is the daily habit — and which oil actually delivers the polyphenols is the more important question for anyone copying the routine.
What polyphenol level should I look for in an olive oil shot?
The EU recognizes 250 mg/kg as the threshold for an official health claim. Most supermarket oils don't clear it. For a meaningful daily dose, look for an oil that publishes its lab-verified polyphenol number — Olivea's UHP EVOO measures 1,000+ mg/kg, lab-verified for the 2025 harvest.
Source: TIME interview with Hailey Bieber.
Editorial Information
Editorial note. This article is published by Olivea and includes Olivea’s own product among those reviewed. Pros, cons, and rankings reflect the editorial perspective of the Olivea team.
