Avocado

Taken from Here

Probably you heard this word before right? Maybe in a healthy recipe or a healthy channel. If you are interested to know more about it. Well, you came to right place my friend.

Today we will mention briefly the healthy facts about Avocado and whether you should consider to start adding it your diet or NOT?!!

Avocado could be anything from pear shaped to round and weigh from 220 grams to 1.4 Kg, the most popular type is called Hass avocado. It's a black or green unique fruit which consists primarily of healthy fats. It's the fruit of a tree called Persea americana. It became a very popular fruit for healthy individuals (now you are one of them) where it's often referred to as a Superfood. (1)

1- High in potassium

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We all know that "Banana is Potassium and Potassium is Banana" right?? Well, shame on you cause here is a shocking fact, Avocados are higher in potassium than Bananas!! Potassium is a very important nutrient which helps to maintain electrical gradients in our body cells and many other functions that you need to know more about them. (click on the above Potassium word if you are interested) (2)

Compared to bananas, every 100 grams serving contains 14% of the RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowances) compared to 10% in bananas. (3) 

For your information potassium is linked to reduced blood pressure so less chance of heart strokes, attack and kidney failure. (4)

2- Cholesterol effect

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As we talked before about the bad cholesterol and the good cholesterol in our article (Dark chocolate)

Here is a stunning fact, Avocados are mainly fats right?? However, It can lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels! 

Studies have been made on 8 humans controlled trials, one group is instructed to eat avocados while the other is not. The studies showed that avocados can reduce total cholesterol levels, triglycerides by up to 20%, LDL ( bad cholesterol ) by up to 22% and finally increase HDL (Good cholesterol) by up to 11%. (5,6,7,8,9)

3- Improves nutrients absorption from plant food

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Some nutrients like vitamin A, D, K, E and antioxidants "Carotenoid" are fat soluble which means that they need to be combined with fat to be utilized. If you ate something your body must absorb it, there is no benefit in eating things that can't be absorbed by your body. A study showed that adding avocado or avocado oil on either salsa or salad can increase antioxidant absorption by 2.6-15 fold. (10) It increases nutrient value of other plant food so always keep in mind to add a healthy fat source when eating veggies to make them more beneficial.

4- Protects the eyes

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Avocado contains important nutrients like Lutein and Zeaxanthin which are very important for your eyes health. These nutrients also can decrease the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration  (11,12,13,14) 

5- Anti-Cancer!

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Really? actually no so don't read this. 

Still reading? Okay, let me tell you the truth. One study showed that it may help to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells (15,16) But keep in mind that these studies were done in isolated cells and not a living human so still not good enough. ( i don't know why i mentioned this fact but maybe cause i want  people to eat avocado to avoid cancer?! )

6- Arthritis relief

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Arthritis is a chronic disease where there is inflammation in one or more joints "joint disorder"

Studies showed that Avocado and Soybean unsaponifiables can reduce the symptoms of that chronic disease(17,18)

7- Delicious VS Weight loss

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Well, here is the good fun part so turn off the lights and get ready (i don't know why but just turn them off) There is one study made once where one group of people were instructed to add avocados to their meals and other group were instructed not to and then they were asked about their hunger and satisfaction. The results are amazing, the people eating avocados felt 23% more satisfied and 28% lower desire to eat over the next 5 hours!! (19).

 This actually works the best when you want to lose weight but if you're in the bulking season then don't eat it (kidding, it's healthy so just eat it).But wait a second, we all know about the contrariety between something delicious and something healthy right? You LOVE eating cheese burgers but when it comes to apples, NAH not even close right?! The thing is, avocados are pretty delicious and go with all sorts of food where you can eat them plain or add them your salads to boost your absorption as mentioned above or to many other recipes. Lastly, avocados often takes some time to ripen and it feels soft when ripe and the nutrients in it can oxidize rapidly after fleshing so my advice is to add lemon juice to it to slow down this process. 

At the end of the day i guess you will consider eating avocados right? Healthy, delicious, weight loss friendly and healthy again so why not?! 

As always if you found this article helpful. Well, don't be selfish and share it with everyone!

 "Be Healthy, Be Safe".