Getting Better Fats – Avocado

When it comes to losing weight a lot of people think that it’s best to ditch the fats and switch to veg. This means that the benefits of fats are often overlooked. Often it’s far more sensible to opt for healthier fats in your diet, rather than just cutting them out completely. 

As far as healthy fats go it’s hard to look past the avocado. The amount of health benefits associated with this fruit are really quite astonishing. This is one of the main reasons that the avocado is becoming a far more popular ingredient in the kitchen for people all over the UK.

• Fats

The fats in an avocado are primarily monounsaturates, which are the types of fats that we generally refer to as good. This is because the fats in avocado are mostly present in fatty acids which can help reduce levels of bad cholesterol, as well as reduce the risk of strokes and heart disease.

• Sugar

Fruit isn’t something that really gets criticised a whole lot, but if there is one thing that people like to mention it’s their relatively high levels of sugar. Well if you’ve ever had an avocado you’ll probably know it isn’t particularly sweet and that’s because avocados have low levels of sugar compared to most other fruits.

• Protein

If you’re a protein lover then the avocado probably isn’t going to replace the lean meats in your life, but avocados do have more protein in them than the other things that you’ll find in your fruit bowl.

• Fibre

Just one regular sized avocado contains the half of the fibre that you’re recommended to have in one day. And when it comes to fibre you really don’t want to be missing out – it has a number of important benefits, including that it will help to reduce blood sugar levels, making it ideal for diabetics.

• Vitamins

If you aren’t sold on the idea of adding avocado to your diet already, would it help if I told you it contains vitamins B, K, C and E? If your answer to that question is no, wait until I get onto the benefits that they all offer.

So that’s what you’ll find in the avocado itself, but we need to know what all those things actually do for us!

Here are just some of the benefits:

• Reduced risk of diabetes – the fibre helps to reduce blood sugar levels
• Weight loss – avocados can be used as a substitute for red meat and because of its slow burning energy it reduces both hunger and your appetite
• Improved skin condition – moisture levels in the skin increase due to the antioxidants within avocado
• Improved vision – due to the presence of lutein
• Lower cholesterol – levels of LDL (bad cholesterol) have been shown to decrease following regular consumption of avocado, while HDL (good cholesterol) levels have been shown to increase

It really doesn’t matter what your goal is – lose weight, gain muscle, or lose fat – avocados are so full of nutrients that they can help with all of those things. It’s not always just as simple as switching to low-fat versions of your favourite foods. Don’t you think it seems weird that more and more low-fat products are bought every year, but as a nation we’re getting bigger and bigger?

It’s all about making sensible choices. So if you’re already a lover of avocado, great, keep on eating it, and if you’ve never even tried it in your life – it’s well worth a shot!  And here are 13 Health benefits of Avocado on top of what we have already mentioned