12 Amazing Health Benefits of Avocado

What is in avocado?

As a unique fruit, avocado is rich in healthy fats unlike most fruits which consist more of carbohydrates. There are powerful health benefits of avocado supported scientifically by numerous studies. Eating an avocado helps improve your health and wellbeing.

Here are scientifically proven health benefits of avocado:

1. Avocado is highly nutritious

Avocado is scientifically known as Persea Americana. It is a fruit that grows from the avocado tree (1). It has high nutrient value for which it is highly prized.

Also, avocado can be added to various dishes due to its rich texture and good flavor. In addition, it is the major ingredient in guacamole.

Health-conscious people refer to avocado as a superfood. These days, it is incredibly popular due to its health properties (2).

Avocado has many types with distinct shape and color. Its appearance ranges from pear-shaped to round and green to black. Also, their weight varies. They can weigh between 220 grams (8 ounces) and 1.4 kg (3 pounds).

The most popular variety of avocado is the Hass avocado. It is often called “alligator pear”. The name describes its pear-shaped, green, bumpy skin semblance of an alligator.

You eat only the yellow-green flesh inside the fruit and discard the skin and seed. Avocados are high nutritious, containing 20 different vitamins and minerals.

Here are nutritional facts about avocado:

A single 100-gram (3.5-ounce) serving of avocado yields the following nutrients (3):

• 20% of Folate’s daily value
• 26% of Vitamin K’s daily value
• 17% of Vitamin C’s daily value
• 14% of Potassium’s daily value
• 10% of Vitamin E’s daily value
• 14% of Vitamin B5’s daily value
• 13% of Vitamin B6’s daily value
• Small amounts of phosphorous, zinc, manganese, iron, magnesium, copper, vitamins A, B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin) and B3 (niacin).

Further, avocado contains 15 grams of healthy fats, 2 grams of protein and 160 calories. 7 of the 9 grams of carbs it contains are fibers, with only 2 as ‘net’ carbs. Therefore, it is a low-carb friendly plant food.

Experts recommend avocados because of their huge health benefits. For example, avocados are low in saturated fat. Additionally, they don’t contain any sodium or cholesterol.

2. Avocados are rich in potassium

Most people do not get enough of potassium (4). Potassium is an important nutrient that helps maintain electrical gradients in the body’s cells. It also serves other important functions.

Avocados are rich in potassium. A 100-gram (3.5-ounce) serving of avocados contains 14% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA). In contrast, same serving of bananas, a typical high potassium food, packs only 10% of the RDA (5).

Numerous studies show that high intake of potassium is associated with low blood pressure. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for strokes, kidney failure and heart attacks (6).

3. Avocado is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids

Avocado is one of the fattiest plant foods in existence with 77% of the calories in it coming from fat. So, it is a high-fat food.

However, they do not contain just any fat. Most of its fat is oleic acid. This is a monounsaturated fatty acid which is also a main component of olive oil. Olive oil is responsible for some of avocado’s health benefits.

Oleic acid may reduce inflammation. In addition, it has beneficial effects on genes associated with cancer (7, 8, 9, 10).

Avocado fats resist heat-induced oxidation. As a result, avocado oil is a safe and healthy cooking choice.

4. Avocado is high in fiber

Avocados are rich in an important, indigestible nutrient – fiber, a plant matter that helps with weight loss. Additionally, fiber helps reduce blood sugar levels, and is associated with reduced risk of some diseases (11, 12, 13).

Fiber is divided into soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber helps feed the friendly intestinal bacteria which help you achieve optimal body function (14).

A 100-gram (3.5-ounce) serving of avocado contains 7 grams of fiber. This is 25% of the recommended daily allowance for fiber.

It is important to note that 75% of the fiber in avocado is insoluble while 25% is soluble (15).

5. Eating avocados can reduce triglyceride and cholesterol levels

Many blood markers are associated with a high risk of heart disease, the world’s most common cause of death (16).

These blood markers include but not limited to inflammatory markers, triglycerides, cholesterol and blood pressures.

Studies have shown the effects of avocado on these risk factors to include the following (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23):

• Avocados can reduce blood triglycerides by 20%
• Increase HDL cholesterol by 11%
• Reduce total cholesterol levels
• Reduce LDL cholesterol by 22%

One study found that a low-fat, vegetarian diet that includes avocado improved the lipid profile (24).

Despite these impressive results, these human studies include only 13 to 37 people and lasted only 1 to 4 weeks. Therefore, the results should be interpreted with caution.

6. Eating avocados helps improve overall health and wellbeing

A study examined that health of people that eat avocados and their dietary habits. 17,567 people participated in the study.

People who ate avocados appeared healthier than those that did not eat the fruit. Also, they had much higher nutrient intake and were less likely to have metabolic syndrome. Therefore they have a low risk for diabetes and heart disease (25).

In addition, people who ate avocados had less belly fat, a lower BMI and weighed less. They also had higher levels of HDL (good) cholesterol.

However, this study was about correlation, not causation. Therefore, the study findings should be interpreted with caution.

7. Avocado increases the nutrient value of other plant foods

Intake of nutrients is one thing, and absorption of these nutrients is another. Absorption usually follows the intake of the nutrients. This involves the movement of these nutrients from your digestive tract to your body where they are used.

Avocado’s fat content helps you absorb nutrients from other plant foods. Fat-soluble nutrients need to be combined with fat in order to be utilized.

Examples of fat-soluble nutrients include antioxidants such as carotenoids, and vitamins A, D, E and K.

Research shows that adding avocado or avocado oil to salsa or salad can facilitate antioxidant absorption 3- to 15-fold (26).

So, avocado is highly nutritious and improves the nutrient value of other plant foods. Try to include a healthy fat source like avocado when eating veggies. This will help prevent loss of beneficial plant nutrients.

8. Avocados are rich in eye-protective antioxidants

Avocados not only increase absorption of antioxidants from other foods, but also are rich in antioxidants including lutein and zeaxanthin. Carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin are incredibly essential for eye health (27, 28).

You may want to read about the antioxidant property of this medicinal herb.

Research shows that avocados are linked to reduction in the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration (29, 30). So eating avocados will help improve your eye health over time.

9. Avocado helps prevent cancer

Avocado may help in cancer treatment and prevention though there is limited evidence to prove this. Test-tube studies suggest that avocado may minimize the side effects of chemotherapy in human lymphocytes (31).

In a laboratory, avocado extract has been shown to prevent prostate cancer cells growth (32).

It is important to note however that these studies were done on isolated cells, not humans. Therefore, they should be interpreted with caution as human-based studies are not yet available to corroborate or refute these findings.

10. Avocados can be easily added to your diet

Avocados are incredibly delicious. They are not only healthy but also go with many food types. You can scoop avocados out with a spoon and eat them plain. Similarly, you can add them to salads and other recipes.

Avocados’ texture is rich, fatty and creamy. They blend well with other ingredients. For example, guacamole is a popular use of avocados. Depending on the recipe, guacamole includes an avocado with garlic, lime, salt and a few other ingredients.

Avocado nutrients will oxidize and become brown not long after fleshing it. However, you can add lemon juice to slow down this process.

Avocados can take time to ripen and when it does it feels slightly soft.

11. Eating avocado helps relieve arthritis symptoms

Arthritis is common especially in Western countries. Many types exist and they are chronic problems that people live with for the rest of their lives.

Studies show that avocado oil extract (avocado unsaponifiable) can reduce osteoarthritis, same for soybean oil extract (33, 34).

However, it remains to be seen whether avocados themselves have this effect.

12. Eating avocado helps you lose weight

Evidence shows that eating avocados will lead to weight loss. Indeed, they are weight loss friendly food.  

One study showed that people eating avocado with a meal were 23% more satisfied than those who didn’t include avocado. Also, they desired less to eat over the next 5 hours, compared to people who didn’t eat avocado (35).

It goes without saying that including avocados in your diet will help you eat fewer calories. Additionally, this will make it easier for you to adopt healthy eating habits.

Conclusion

Many of the nutrients lacking in the modern diet can be found in avocados. So, avocados are an excellent plant food that you should always eat.

Make it your dietary lifestyle to always eat avocado and other healthy foods.

Finally, avocados are tasty, delicious, heart healthy and weight loss friendly.

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