Avocados
- are high in monounsaturated fat, which benefits the skin and heart
- are great for the eyes as they are rich in lutein and zeaxanthin
- contain potassium, essential for blood pressure regulation.
-WONDERFOOD-
Creamy and delicious, avocados are loaded with good fats that lower cholesterol and protect against wrinkles. They are also packed with a variety of vitamins and minerals that help with everything from keeping eyes healthy to regulating blood pressure.
There’s little nutritional difference between different varieties such as hass or fuerte avocados. However, many of the phytonutrients are concentrated in the dark green flesh closest to the skin so don’t leave any of this behind when you peel them.
Avocados
Eat half an avocado three to four times a week. Although avocados have many health benefits, remember that they are high in calories.
Look for avocados with unblemished skin. Those with a slight “neck” rather than a rounded top may have ripened longer on the tree and will be more flavoursome.
If your avocado is not ripe, leave it at room temperature to ripen or pop it in a paper bag or the fruit bowl with a banana to speed up the ripening process. Don’t refrigerate avocados until they are ripe.
Best eaten raw. To check if they’re ready to eat, gently squeeze – if the flesh yields slightly, it’s ripe.
One study of people over 70 found a good intake of monounsaturated fats were linked to fewer wrinkles; almost two thirds of the fat in an avocado is monounsaturated. Avocados also contain vitamin E, an antioxidant that helps protect against cell damage to the skin, for example from the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays.
Avocados are rich in the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, which support eye health and have been linked to a lower risk of cataracts and macular degeneration. Plus the monounsaturated fats in avocados benefit the eyes by helping improve the absorption of eye-friendly carotenoids.
15x
Avocados help the body absorb significantly more carotenoids from foods such as carrots and spinach when eaten together.
Enjoy a salad of lycopene-rich tomatoes and lutein-containing avocado to protect against prostate cancer. In lab-based tests, lutein reduced the growth of prostate cancer cells by 25 per cent, while lycopene reduced cell growth by 20 per cent. Combining the two resulted in an even larger reduction in cell growth.
32%
reduction in prostate cancer cell growth with a combination of lutein and lycopene.
Adding avocado to diets has been shown to reduce total cholesterol, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and triglycerides, while also boosting HDL (good) cholesterol. These heart-healthy benefits are most likely thanks to avocados being high in monounsaturated fat. Avocados also contain heart-friendly phytosterols such as beta-sitosterol, which help to lower blood cholesterol levels.
Not only do avocados contain good amounts of fibre, potassium, copper, and vitamins B6, E, and K (see below for how these nutrients benefit the body), but studies also show that people who eat them tend to have better diets overall. In one study, avocado eaters had lower body weights and waist circumferences and were less likely to suffer with metabolic syndrome. Better still, avocados enable us to get more out of the other foods we eat them with, maximizing the absorption of carotenoids.
