Benefits of Avocado: 7 Reasons to Love Avocados

Avocado is a favorite many people. And there are good reasons.

Whether you’re making avocado toast or green smoothie, avocado adds essential nutrients to your meal.

There are many types of avocado grown all around the world. Some of them include:

• Hass
• Choquette
• Lula
• Reed
• Pinkerton
• Gwen
• Zutano
• Cleopatra
• Monroe
• Bacon

Regardless of the type, Avocados have one thing in common.

They have a green or sometimes yellow flesh with one seed in the middle of it. And the food in this fruit has a buttery or creamy feel.

What is the nutritional value of avocado?

Avocados can be added to any recipe to give it an instant nutritional and energy boost.

They could be in salads, like desserts, soups, and many more ways.

The Hass avocado is the type is most of us are familiar with it. Thus, the most popular variety.  

It is available all year round and has a buttery, nutty flavor and spherical shape.

Its skin turns from a bold green to a dark purplish-black as it ripens. Avocados are rich in thiamin, riboflavin.

They’re also rich in vitamins and minerals, as well as antioxidants, unsaturated fats, and fiber.

All of these nutrients help lower your risk of various chronic diseases and improve your heart health.

Apart from its nutritional avocado benefits, a lot of us are not aware of the other benefits.

Let’s take a closer look at some more avocado benefits.

1. Maintains healthy blood sugar

Avocados are rich in dietary fiber. Approximately, 6 to 7 grams of fiber is in every half fruit.

There is soluble and insoluble fiber. The insoluble dietary fiber requires an adequate intake of fluid.

This helps in the smooth passing of stools and promotes digestive health and bowel regularity.

The soluble fiber helps maintain healthy blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

This kind of fiber also requires an adequate fluid intake to function. All these work to prevent constipation and colon cancer.

2. Promotes eye health

Carotenoids are the plant pigments responsible for eye health.

Research shows that the more carotenoids one eats, the more protection from eye disease one receives.

Avocado is rich in lutein and zeaxanthin. These are two helpful carotenoids that help the eye remain healthy.

These carotenoids are taken up into the macula of the eye where light is focused. The macula is the central area of the retina and has a yellowish tint.

What’s more? Lutein and zeaxanthin are responsible for giving the macula its color.

These antioxidants also help filter out blue light which can damage the eye. And they help protect and maintain healthy cells in the eyes.

3. Maintains healthy skin

Apart from the internal benefits avocado provides, there are some amazing external benefits. Particularly the skin.

Avocado is rich in many nutrients that help your skin glow and keeping them smooth and soft.

It’s one of the few fruits that promote healthy skin.

The vitamins in avocados, including Vitamin C and E, also protect your skin cells by keeping your skin hydrated.

It can be used as a face mask to moisturize and nourish the skin. Honey, as an option can be added for added softness.

It can be used on all skin types.

If you have dry skin, fear not, avocado works like magic to restore your skin back to its youthfulness.

4. Promotes healthy hair

Avocado takes care of your hair be it a type 1, 2A, 3A all the way to 4C.

It moisturizes, revitalizes, and helps your hair to grow healthier than it has ever done. Dry, damaged, and weak hair not only breaks but can fall out completely.

The vitamins, proteins, and fats in avocados help to reverse the damage and stimulate healthy hair growth.

Oils in these fruits are some of the few that can actually penetrate your hair cuticle and moisturize it from within.

The oil combined with the vitamin E content can heal a dry scalp and nourish the hair follicles.

With the added moisture, your hair is softer and your scalp will be free from dandruff. A well-moisturized hair leads to healthy growth and that is what avocado provides.

Stunted growth, slow growth, and breakages are all deficiency symptoms of nutrients that are all found in avocado.

5. Loaded with Potassium

Potassium is one nutrient a lot of people find hard to incorporate in their meals. We do not get enough of it even if we do get them.

The good news is, avocado has a lot more stored in them.

Potassium reduces the chances of high blood pressure. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, and kidney failure.

6. Nourishes pregnant women

Moms to be are not left out of the avocado benefits basket.

Avocado contains a great amount of folic acid. Folic acid is important for preventing birth defects such as spina bifida and neural tube.

Also, Avocado has a lot of the essential B vitamin is essential.

This is why doctors recommend high amounts of avocado intake before and during pregnancy.

Vitamin K is yet another valuable nutrient for pregnant women. Deficiency in vitamin K causes bleeding or VKDB.

This is a condition where newborn babies cannot stop bleeding because their blood does not contain enough vitamin K.

Eating more vegetables and fruits that contain vitamin K during your pregnancy can help.

It’ll make sure you pass enough of those vitamins to your unborn child. Extend this avocado benefit to your unborn baby and keep it even healthier.

7. Protects the heart

An avocado a day keeps the cardiologist away.

Do your heart some good by incorporating avocado to your diets. It helps lower cholesterol levels, in turn reducing the risk for heart disease. 

Avocados contain 25 milligrams per ounce of a natural plant sterol called beta-sitosterol.

Regular consumption of beta-sitosterol and other plant sterols has been seen to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

Takeaway

These and many more avocado benefits are what our bodies need to function to its optimum capacity.

It is definitely one food we highly recommend adding to your weekly dishes.