The goodness of avocado is well known, with the fruit being valued for its high nutritional value, distinctive flavor and creamy texture. Are avocados healthy? Health conscious people are realizing the benefits of eating avocado every day, as it contains valuable minerals and vitamins. The fiber in avocado is of the insoluble type promoting bowel regularity.
How to eat avocado fruit? Avocados are popular in many dishes like guacamole and even sushi rolls. They add a delightfully smooth touch to any cuisine. You can eat the yellowish green fruit but discard the seed and the outer skin.
There are many types of avocados available all offering amazing health benefits. One of the main benefits of eating avocados is that they protect your body from several diseases and keep you healthy due to the nutritional content of avocado.
1. Advantages of Avocado: Healthy Heart
Avocados may be high in fat, but they are a heart healthy fruit, as the fat is monounsaturated fat.
- The dietary fiber, vitamins and the minerals present in Avocados can make your heart healthier.
- 100 grams of avocado contains 10% of daily value of Vitamin E needed by your body. Such a diet could prevent coronary heart diseases, according to research.
- Consuming avocado is linked with reduced risk of Metabolic Syndrome or Met S, which is a major risk factor for heart diseases and strokes.
Tip: Go beyond guacamole to get the entire benefit of eating avocados. The taste of avocado fruit is creamy, thick, smooth and buttery with a subtle flavor. Add some avocado to your daily sandwich or salad to absorb carotenoids present in several fruits and vegetables that are necessary for a healthy heart.
2. Skin/Hair/Beauty Benefits: Look Gorgeous
- Avocados are used in many beauty products like hair conditioners, bath oils and facial creams.
- Anti Aging properties:
## It helps reduce wrinkles and is a known anti-ageing fruit.
## You can apply the fleshy fruit as a facemask or just drink a glass of avocado juice. The antioxidants detoxify your body and reduce wrinkles, making the skin look supple.
- Use it as a conditioner for dry or damaged hair. The fatty amino acids coat the hair shaft and keep it moist. The minerals and vitamins nourish the hair and the scalp and promote healthy growth of hair. Vitamin E prevents damage to hair and unclogs follicles.
- Avocado benefits for skin: Get rid of scars, spots, acne, eczema and pimples with Avocado paste mixed with lemon. Apply on affected area, allow to dry and then wash off to get a flawless skin.
3. Put the Spark Back on Your Libido
Put the sizzle back on your sex life and check out the benefits of eating avocado sexually. Avocados can help you set the perfect, romantic mood and are among the top foods that turn you on sexually. You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars for it. Even the Aztecs used avocados as a sexual stimulant and would not allow virgin women to leave the house during the harvest time.
- Avocados are a kind of aphrodisiac, as they help the heart beat strong. A healthy heart keeps the blood blowing to the right spots. Most men with heart problems also suffer from ED or erectile dysfunction.
- Avocados contain monounsaturated fat, Vitamin B6 along with potassium, which help in enhancing production of male hormones.
4. Anti Inflammatory
Suffering from joint inflammation or cartilage degradation? You may be taking medicines, but they have many side effects. Avocados are a healthy alternative for offering relief for arthritis and can also prevent onset of the disease.
- One of the benefits of eating avocados is that they contain antioxidants as well as anti-inflammatory properties offering protection to cartilage and helping those suffering from osteoarthritis.
- The oil content in the fruit can reduce osteoarthritis pain by reducing inflammation.
- It also reduces oxidative stress and prevents progressive cartilage damage.
5. Prevents Cancer
Research has shown that avocados are great cancer fighting food, due to the presence of antioxidants, carotenoids, vitamins and lutein.
Important: One of the benefits of eating avocados is taking increased amounts of lutein in diet have been shown to have a lower rate of breast cancer. Other foods containing lutein are broccoli and kale.
- The Avocatin B found in avocados combats AML or myeloid leukemia, a rare, deadly type of cancer.
- It is also capable of killing the leukemia stem cell without affecting the healthy cells around it.
Tip: Take care to peel the avocados properly before eating, as the carotenoids that fight cancer are mostly present in the dark green area closest to its skin.
6. Benefits of Eating Avocados for Improving Vision
- The MUFAs or monounsaturated fatty acids of Avocadoes offer optimal absorption of carotenoids present in the fruit and also in other foods that you eat. Carotenoids promote eye health and prevent eye diseases.
- The carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin present in Avocados are especially useful as they are absorbed in the eye macula.
- The antioxidants present in avocados help filtering out of blue light, which can be harmful to the eye and protect the eye cells.
7. Belt Shrinker: Avocado Benefits for Weight Loss
How fattening is an avocado? Some people are wary of the fat in avocado and its calorie content. It helps you feel satiated and has been proved to reduce cholesterol, hunger pangs and belly fat, so it’s the queen among foods for reducing weight.
- The monounsaturated fat in avocados lowers cholesterol, one of the factors for obesity. This is one of the major benefits of eating avocados.
- Use avocado oil in cooking to reduce belly fat to reduce the metabolic syndrome leading to weight gain.
- One tablespoon of avocado oil is the equivalent to extra virgin olive oil. However, it is even better than the latter as avocado oil has a high smoking point and can be used for stir-frying and sautéing without producing free radicals.
- Add a little avocado oil to your green salad for better absorption and to shrink that waist. Given the taste of avocado.
8. Pregnant Women and Babies
(Source: momjunction.com)
Folate is very important for an expecting mother. Lack of folate can lead to miscarriage and defects in the neural tube. Folate is the main nutrient for prenatal stage, as it helps maintain new cells and is important for the formation of the central nervous system of the baby.
Here are the benefits of eating avocados for pregnant women and babies:
- Avocados have more folate content per ounce of the fruit than any other fruit. There are 45 micrograms of folate present in half a cup of avocado.
- Pregnant women are advised to take around 400 micrograms of the fruit in a day.
- Once the baby is able to eat solids, avocados in the diet of the baby can provide the necessary good fat for cognitive development and eye health. The potassium content also boosts energy.
- It is the perfect food for babies providing complete nourishment. The creamy and soft texture also makes it easy to digest and the nutrients present in it are easily absorbed.
- Babies especially need fat for better brains and intelligence, especially the healthy fats present in avocados.
- Due to its antimicrobial properties, it can remove toxins from the body and control inflammation; heal wounds and rashes much quicker than medications.
9. Anti Oxidant
Free radicals can sabotage your metabolism and destroy DNA and body cells leading to health issues.
- Benefits of eating avocados: They contain antioxidants that can neutralize the free radicals.
(The low rates of disease in Mediterranean countries are associated with olive oil, which is nutritionally similar to avocado oil. In fact, Avocado Oil could soon be referred to as the olive oil of America).
10. Potassium Content
Most people lack potassium in their diet. Avocados contain more potassium than bananas, which contain only 10% of the potassium present in Avocados.
- High intake of potassium can reduce blood pressure.
- This in turn reduces risk of heart seizures and strokes as well as kidney failure problems.
source: getthatright
