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)
Lipids’ Main Function? Check Out These Important Jobs…
- Energy storage
- Supporting cell membranes
- Hormone and vitamin support throughout your body
The fats sources you choose matter tremendously.
Butter, meat fats and dairy are saturated fats. While fine in moderation, these fats can raise the LDL cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol) in your system.
Olive oil, avocado… these are unsaturated fats. You still don’t want to over do too much of a good thing, but in the proper amounts, these healthy fat sources can turbo charge your diet.
Tips on Eating Healthier
When choosing an olive oil, always choose the kind labeled “extra virgin”, and “first cold pressing” for the highest quality oil.
And to get the benefits of avocado nutrition, use at least ½ an avocado or even a whole one (between 75 to 150 g).
Be sure to check with your own doctor before making changes to your diet.
Sources:
- Carotenoid Absorption from Salad and Salsa by Humans Is Enhanced by the Addition of Avocado or Avocado Oil
Nuray Z. Unlu, Torsten Bohn, Steven K. Clinton and Steven J. Schwartz
The American Society for Nutritional Sciences J. Nutr. 135:431-436, March 2005 - Evidence of postprandial absorption of olive oil phenols in humans.
Bonanome A, Pagnan A, Caruso D, Toia A, Xamin A, Fedeli E, Berra B, Zamburlini A, Ursini F, Galli G.
Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2000 Jun;10(3):111-20.
The Author:
Dr. Blankstein has been practicing for over 30 years as a leading Cardiologist. Trained in traditional medicine and Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease, he knows the importance of good medical care. This consideration has allowed him to discover safe and natural ways of healing. His dedication to bringing the latest and best in health solutions to his patients and the public has given him the experience to research and develop proven natural remedies for many illnesses.
© 2010 Chesapeake Nutraceuticals
