Avocado Nutrition – Secrets to Food Combining For Health
Use this avocado nutrition information for heart healthy eating. Using proper food combining you can boost the bioavailable nutrients in foods you may already be eating.
How about some avocado in your salad?
It turns out that avocado nutrition offers a lot more than just good, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol to your diet. Adding either a half or a whole avocado fruit to meals in combination with vegetable-based foods aides in carotenoid absorption.
And why does this matter?
Carotenoids are found in fruits and vegetables in the pigment. They’re responsible for vitamin production in the body (specifically retinol, or vitamin A) and for producing antioxidants.
Incidentally, avocado oil offers nearly the same benefits as the fruit of the avocado.
What foods you eat, and what foods you combine in a meal, matter!
So mix up a big salad with lots of colorful red and yellow peppers, carrots, and some guacamole to help your body’s immune system, reduce damage caused by free radicals, protect against heart disease and possibly even reduce the risk of cancer.
This information comes from the first intervention study showing that consumption of a fruit as a lipid source with carotenoid-rich foods enhances carotenoid absorption in humans. (1)
This is radical news! You can turbo-boost the antioxidants in foods you’re already eating by adding in some of this great avocado nutrition to your diet!
Pass the guacamole…
The study shows that combining avocado in meals high in carotenoids (fruits and veggies that are red, orange or yellow) can improve carotenoid absorption while offering additional nutritional benefits.
Avocados contain many important nutrients, like vitamins, minerals, monounsaturated fatty acids and dietary fiber… all important to healthy eating.
What Are Lipids (And Why Should You Care)?
Fats are lipids. They combine at the cellular level to help your body form healthy cells. And lipids aren’t soluble in water, so you have to get them from healthy dietary fat sources (such as avocado fruits and oils, and olive oil).
For example, foods that are typical of a Mediterranean diet, such as olive oil, have also been shown to provide powerful antioxidants. (2) Read the rest of this entry »
The Health Benefits of Avocados – Why is Avocado Good For You?
Avocados are one of my favorite foods. The good thing is that they’re not just super-tasty but also highly nutritious and very healthy as well.
In this article I want to discuss the various health benefits of avocados and see what makes them so good for you to eat and enjoy.
Lower cholesterol
Avocados are rich in beta-sitosterol, a substance that has been shown to have a positive effect on your blood cholesterol levels. Research has shown that avocados not only lower overall cholesterol levels but also improve the ratio between good and bad cholesterol.
Rich in vitamin E
One of the best sources of vitamin E is avocado. Vitamin E has many functions and benefits and it helps to protect the body against various diseases and ailments.
Eye and vision health
One of the main health benefits of avocado is that it helps protect your eyes from cataracts and macular degeneration, two common eye diseases. This stems from it being very rich in carotenoid lutein.
Good fats
Avocado is rich in monounsaturated fats (the good fats) and in oleic acid, a substance that may reduce risk of developing a variety of cancers including breast cancer. This is according to research although the amount of protection this gives you is yet to be fully determined.
Rich in folate
Avocados are also good for your heart and may protect you against stroke due to the high amount of folate they contain. Folate has been shown to improve heart health and even reduce risk of strokes.
Avocados also contain the following elements (for 1 cup of avocado):
* 35% of your daily recommended amount of vitamin K.
* 25% of your daily recommended intake of potassium.
* 20% of your daily intake of copper.
* 20% of your recommended daily amount of vitamin C.
* And 20% of your daily dose of vitamin B6. Read the rest of this entry »