Posted by Avocado is a unique fruit from the Persea Americana tree; a tree known for its origin in South Central Mexico. Although there are different kinds of avocado based on their shape and colors, we are focusing on the most popular one which is the alligator pear or Hass avocado.
It is green, shaped like a pear and has bumpy skin like that of an alligator. It has a large seed called stone or pit. Whether taken alone as a fruit that it is or added to dishes, it will still give you all the avocado benefits it promises to provide.
The Avocado fruit, which is also called alligator pear is very rich in healthy fats, unlike other fruits that have carbohydrates as their primary components.
It is a highly nutritious fruit. It has over 20 vitamins and minerals with vitamin B5, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, potassium and folate being the major components. Avocados are free from sodium and cholesterol making them a super healthy thing to eat.
As you read on, you’ll get to know the avocado benefits and various ways to use the fruit.
Health Benefits Of Avocado
1. Nutrient-Packed Fruit: Avocado is that fruit you might want to go to when you feel the need to take in all the nutrients in this world (a little exaggeration there). But my point is, avocado is a nutrition powerhouse. I have stated above the vital nutrients of this superfood, but it doesn’t stop there.
Other avocado benefits are that it also contains calories, good fats that can help you in your weight loss journey, protein, with a low level of carbohydrate.
Its monounsaturated fat stimulates your body to absorb antioxidants such as beta-carotene. You may wonder when fat became such a big deal, but remember we’re talking about healthy fats here. These good fats do not have cholesterol and are in fact very essential for the body.
2. Helps With Successful Weight Management: Avocado enables you to maintain a healthy metabolism which is for sure important in having a healthy weight. The role of your metabolism in processing the food you eat is so there can be lesser fats in your body.
Furthermore, with the fruit’s richness in protein and good fats, you will feel full for a long time thereby reducing your urge to eat. Adding avocado to your daily meal is a healthy way to lower your appetite.
3. Avocado Cholesterol Benefits: Regular intake of avocado can help lower cholesterol and triglycerides levels in your body. As you may already know, heart disease is sometimes related to high cholesterol in your body. Thus, ability to maintain a right cholesterol level may be a way to get free from heart diseases.
As avocado helps reduce the bad cholesterol level by 22 percent, it helps increase the good cholesterol by 11 percent.
4. Fiber In Avocado: Fiber is another way to have your weight loss dreams come true, and it also contributes to lowering your blood sugar level. When you take about a 100 gram of avocado, you would have taken in up to 7 grams of fiber which is 27 percent of the daily required fiber intake.
5. Potassium In Avocado: As rich as banana is in potassium, avocado is even richer! Potassium is an essential nutrient as it supports the electrical gradients in our body’s cells. Unfortunately, we don’t get enough potassium we need. Eating avocados might be the perfect way to get as much potassium as possible.
A 100 gram or 3.5 ounces of banana will give you 10 percent of potassium while the same amount of avocado will provide 14 percent. Amazing right? Who would have thought avocado fruit could be more abundant in potassium than bananas?
Potassium helps with blood pressure; therefore you may want to eat enough avocados henceforth.
6. Healthy Fat In Avocado: Avocado fruit is a fat rich food, but this time I’m talking about the good fats that have a lot of benefits to offer you. Most of its fats are oleic acid, so you can tell how healthy they are.
Oleic acid is a monounsaturated fatty acid which majorly makes up olive oil. This fatty acid may be beneficial for inflammation reduction and could be useful on genes related to cancer.
It might also interest you to know that these fats contained in avocado can resist heat-induced oxidation. Thus, you can tell how safe and healthy avocado oil will be for you if you opt for it in your cooking’s.
7. Aids Nutrient Absorption: Having a lot of nutrients to take in is different from being able to absorb them. If you cannot absorb the nutrients in the foods you are eating, it is more like not eating it at all in the first place. One of the avocado benefits is that it helps you absorb the nutrients in plant foods, thanks to the fats in them.
No wonder why people add avocados to their salads. It may be a good way to increase antioxidant absorption into your body. Because there are nutrients which are fat soluble, combining them with fat such as avocado or others, is the best way to gain from them.
Example of such nutrients are vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K. From now, you may want to add some avocados or avocado oil in your veggies/salads.
8. Beneficial To The Eyes: Avocado is an antioxidant-rich food, part of which are Zeaxanthin and Lutein nutrients. These two nutrients are highly beneficial for your eyes. As some studies have shown, these two nutrients may help curb the risk of getting some aging-related eye problems such as macular degeneration and cataracts.
9. May Help Prevent Cancer: Some tests were done in isolated cells, and they proved that avocado may disrupt the growth of prostate cancer cells and may also reduce the side effects that come with chemotherapy in some cells too.
However, one cannot say for sure if these effects will be the same when used directly on human beings as against the studies carried out on isolated tests.
10. May Relieve Arthritis: According to studies, avocado and soybean unsaponifiables, which are extracts from avocado and soybean oil, may relieve the symptoms of osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is an arthritis of the bone.
11. A Tasty Way To Have Your Meals: If you are the type that loves to explore your creativity with food, you may want to start using avocados in your meals. Avocado is a very delicious fruit that can be paired with different kinds of foods.
How to eat avocado? Apart from the regular way of eating the fruit plainly with your spoon, you can throw some into your salad and a whole lot of combination. I have seen people eat avocado with bread and some with rice.
The fatty/smooth texture, richness, and creaminess of avocado makes it delicious with other forms of ingredients or meals. One standard way of enjoying avocado is guacamole. This recipe includes- of course- avocado plus garlic, salt, lime and some other ingredients.
12. Avocado Benefits For Skin: No doubt, what you eat will show on your skin. If you’re taking healthy fats, your skin will tell and vice versa. Avocado benefits your skin because of its healthy fats and the fruit gives your skin collagen metabolism support.
What this does for your skin, asides making it beautiful is that it helps your skin heal quickly in cases of injury.
13. Beneficial For Pregnant Women: Avocado contains folate. Folate is also known as Folic acid, and it is one of the major nutrients every pregnant woman should take for the sake of the growing baby. Folate helps to prevent the baby from having different types of congenital disabilities upon being born.
Another avocado benefits are that it is packed with vitamin B, a nutrient that plays a vital role in a baby’s brain development. You may want to increase your avocado intake from now on if you have a life developing inside you.
14. Avocado For Hair: With so much said about avocado benefits and the internal health, let’s talk about the hair health too. Avocado has a lot of roles it plays in making the hair healthier and better. Let’s examine some.
– Moisturizes Hair: If you are struggling with dry, weak and damaged hair, you may want to turn to avocado for some help. As you already know by now about avocado benefits being rich in Vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin B6. Also, it is high in protein, iron, magnesium, copper, folic acid and amino acids.
With avocado oil, you can moisturize your hair and get rid of dryness or damage. This oil can go deep into the hair cuticle and give it life. It contains monounsaturated fatty acid even much more than you will find in olive oil. Avocado oil can strengthen, moisturize and nourish your hair.
Apart from the healthy look, it gives your hair; it also protects it from various forms of damage. Avocado oil may also stimulate new hair growth for you.
– Enhances Hair Growth: Did you know that lack of certain nutrients is one of those things that denies you of hair growth? Eating the right food goes a long way in giving your hair life and length. Avocado is one of those foods you might want to start eating to improve your hair growth.
It is rich in vitamins and minerals which you already know by now. Vitamins B and E are part of those vitamins, and they help to strengthen the hair and repair hair and scalp damage.
You can make a hair mask from avocado fruit and egg yolk. When you apply this to your hair, it helps with hair growth by strengthening your hair roots, hair strands, and hair follicles. This avocado hair mask will also lock in moisture into your hair cells, and leaves your hair silky and smooth to the touch.
– Prevents Dandruff: Dandruff affects people regardless of their age or gender, and if you have it, you can tell how annoying it could be. Adding moisture to your scalp often is an excellent way to say goodbye to dandruff since it thrives more on dry scalps. Avocado benefits your scalp by giving it a soothing relief and moisture.
To battle dandruff, you can create a hair mask using avocado, argan oil, tea tree oil, and honey.
This mixture will serve as a conditioner for your hair, and treat split ends too. With the tea tree oil, you’ll get antifungal treatments for your dandruff also. These and more make this avocado mask ideal for dandruff.
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