6 Benefits of Eating Avocados
Avocado is a nutritious fruit that originated in Mexico but is now grown worldwide. In addition to being delicious, avocados are packed with important nutrients like fiber, good fats, potassium, and vitamin K. The studies show that it can boost heart health, promote weight loss and keep the digest running smoothly.
1. Improve heart health
Avocados (especially avocado oil) promote heart health by balancing blood fats. In terms of their chemical composition, fat in avocados is about 71% monounsaturated, 13% polyunsaturated and 16% saturated.
It is well known that diets with moderate amounts of healthy fats, especially monounsaturated fats (MUFA), are more effective at preventing plaque buildup in the arteries than high-carbohydrate diets that tend to boost insulin production.
2. Lower your risk of metabolic syndrome
Some studies suggest that eating avocados may reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome in adults. Metabolic syndrome is the term for a group of conditions that increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Avocados may also help treat high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and excess belly fat.
A study published in the Journal of Nutrition assessed the eating habits of 17,567 adults over a seven-year period. Researchers found that people who regularly ate avocados had a more balanced, better-quality diet than those who didn't.
3. Protect eye, skin and hair health
Avocados are high antioxidant food containing lutein, a carotenoid that protects eye health and maintains healthy skin and hair. Carotenoids are a group of antioxidant phyto-chemicals found in vegetables such as carrots, squash and sweet potatoes.
Studies have shown that carotenoids in the diet offer health benefits related to disease prevention, particularly certain skin cancers and age-related eye diseases such as macular degeneration. Lutein seems to be beneficial to eye health because it absorbs the type of harmful blue light entering the eyes and skin that can alter DNA and cause free radical damage.
4. Improve digestion
Depending on the size of the avocado, whole fruit contains between 11 and 17 grams of fiber, which is more than almost any other fruit and most vegetables, grains, and legumes.
High-fiber foods are important for anyone with digestive problems because fiber help change the balance of bacteria in the gut, increase healthy bacteria. Studies have shown that fiber also helps increase stool volume, and helps move waste and toxins through the gut and colon.
5. Temper your emotions
Fatty acids play an important role in regulating central nervous system function and cognitive processes because they affect neurotransmitter levels and help naturally balance hormones. So when you eat enough healthy fats, your mood will also improve.
While studies have shown that consuming trans fats may increase the risk of depression, the opposite is true for natural avocados. In other words, high-fat diets may reduce the risk of depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders.
6. Protect blood vessel health
Avocados are also meaningful for our blood vessel health, mainly because they can help us alleviate the problem of diabetes. In the flesh of avocados, it can be found that the sugar content is actually very low, so avocados are very suitable for diabetics with high fat and low sugar food.