From our love of guac to our obsession with avocado toast, these green and creamy fruits continue to steal the hearts of many all over the world. While they certainly have their own unique and gooey goodness, avocados also have a wide variety of health-boosting benefits.
Health Benefits of Avocado
Although avocados often get a bad rap as being a particularly fatty fruit, vitamin and nutritional content in these fruits make them too good to pass up. So if you’re ready to transform your health with this special fruit, keep reading.
1. Improve Your Nutrient Intake
Avocados are one of the most nutrient-rich fruits in the world. With vitamins like B6, K, E, and C, avocados also contain significant amounts of the nutrients potassium, magnesium, folate, niacin, riboflavin, and pantothenic acid. Additionally, these fruits are filled with omega-3 fatty acids, beta-carotene, and lutein.
Though avocados are often avoided due to their fat content, this fruit is actually one of the healthiest options for keeping you full. Fat itself isn’t terrible for the body. Indeed, these healthy fats help boost skin health. And they enhance the absorption of certain minerals, nutrients, and minerals.
When eating avocados, your body will slow the breakdown of other carbohydrates, which will help keep your blood sugar levels stable.
2. Boost Your Heart Health
Avocados are also one of the healthiest fruits to add to your diet due to the amount of beta-sitosterol they contain. Regularly consuming this beta-sitosterol through avocado recipes will help the body maintain healthy cholesterol levels.
3. Improve Your Vision
Avocados contain zeaxanthin and lutein. These two phytochemicals are located in eye tissue and this helps protect your eyes and minimize any damage from UV rays.
By consuming this fruit with the best avocado recipes, you’ll increase your intake of these phytochemicals, which will help to protect your eyesight.
Additionally, avocados contain monounsaturated fatty acids that help your body absorb beneficial antioxidants like beta-carotene which will help reduce your risk of macular degeneration.
4. Help Prevent Osteoporosis
Eating half an avocado will provide you with 25% of your recommended daily intake for Vitamin K.
While this nutrient is often forgotten, it is one of the most important vitamins for strengthening bones. Vitamin K helps to support bone health as it increases calcium absorption and reduces the likelihood of calcium loss through urinary excretion.
5. Protect against Cancer
Cancer has been linked to an inadequate intake of the nutrient folate. To protect against the likes of stomach, cervical, colon, and pancreatic cancer, be sure to increase your consumption of folate.
According to studies, this reduced risk has been linked to the presence of folate protecting against mutations in RNA and DNA during cell division.
Additionally, avocados may also play a role in cancer treatment as certain researchers have linked phytochemicals to inhibit the growth of certain cancerous and precancerous cells.
6. Boost Babies’ Health
Pregnant mothers that eat avocados regularly are able to fill up on folate and help reduce their risk of neural tube defects and miscarriage.
According to recent research, folate deficiency is much more likely to play a part in causing birth defects in baby mice.
7. Lower the Risk of Depression
Looking for a natural way to eliminate depression? Consider adding more avocados to your diet.
Foods that contain higher levels of folate have been linked to lowering the risk of developing depression. As folate helps to limit the buildup of the substance known as homocysteine, improving your levels of folate will help to boost the body’s circulation of important nutrients that are essential to proper brain function.
To elaborate, excessive amounts of homocysteine can interfere with the body’s ability to produce dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. As these regulate appetite, mood, and sleep, it’s very important to have the proper amounts of this substance.
8. Improve Digestion
This creamy fruit is also filled with fiber. With around 12 – 14 grams of fiber in each fruit, avocados are an excellent all-natural treatment for improving digestion.
By regularly using avocado recipes, you’ll find that this fiber content will help you avoid constipation and lower your risk of developing colon cancer.
9. Detoxify Your Body
Trying to detoxify your body? Believe it or not, by filling up on avocado recipes, you’ll be able to do so naturally.
The fiber content in this fruit will help to regulate your bowel movements, which will improve your daily excretion of bodily toxins through stool and bile.
Additionally, certain studies show that dietary fiber also helps to regulate one’s immune system and prevent inflammation.
10. Lower Cholesterol
Avocados are proven to be effective in improving one’s cholesterol profile.
Some experts agree that with one daily dose of avocado, one can expect that their bad cholesterol levels will improve. Additionally, studies show that the total cholesterol, fat in one’s blood, and level of triglycerides have been proven to be positively affected by the regular consumption of this fruit.
11. Treat Bad Breath
Believe it or not, avocados can be used to fight bad breath.
While most people rely on toothpaste to fight smelly breath, this condition starts inside the intestines and the stomach.
By eating avocados regularly, you’ll be able to break down any imbalances within your digestive system, helping to freshen your breath from the inside out.
12. Boost Your Immunity
As this fruit is packed with essential nutrients and vitamins, it plays a significant role in boosting your immunity. The vitamin E content in avocados primarily helps to boost your body’s immunity as they work to protect you again factors like stress and similar issues that may otherwise put your health at risk.
13. Eliminate Wrinkles and Marks
Instead of turning to popular products for fighting wrinkles and marks, consider adding more avocados to your beauty routine.
Just as this fabulous fruit will bolster your diet, it can improve the condition of your skin when used as a beauty treatment. Get into the DIY routine and make a paste of this fruit to lighten scars and condition your skin.
14. Condition Your Hair
Why purchase a hair mask when you have one of the best ingredients to make one yourself?
With this green fruit handy, you’ll be able to treat your hair to a moisturizing makeover. Take advantage of the vitamins B and E in avocados by creating your own hair treatment that will strengthen and protect your hair.
15. Stimulate Hair Growth
While many women and men turn to commercial products to help stimulate hair growth, avocados boast the same benefits when it comes to stimulating hair growth.
As an all-natural moisturizer, an avocado is an excellent option for generating hair growth. Since most hair loss occurs as a result of damaged and dry hair, using this fruit as a hair treatment will help to regulate your hair growth.
16. Improve Your Blood Pressure
Free of sodium, avocados have been proven as an effective treatment for lowering blood pressure.
Additionally, their potassium content is likely another benefit that helps improve your blood pressure. Moreover, when eaten as a replacement for similar fatty condiments, avocados can improve your blood pressure.
17. Lose Weight
Much more than your average fruit, avocados are full of healthy fats that will help you feel full for a longer period of time.
These nutrient-packed fruits will help you cut calories and lose weight while you stock up on nutrients.
18. Reduce Liver Damage
The chemicals that are contained in avocados can reduce the risk of liver damage. These organic compounds help to improve liver health. Thus, they are one of the best healthy options for fighting hepatitis C.
19. Fight Morning Sickness
Morning sickness is a common ailment during pregnancy. While there are many medications for treating morning sickness, avocados are one of the best natural treatments.
With the help of avocado recipes, pregnant women will be able to boost their intake of vitamin B6, ultimately reducing their vomiting and nausea.
20. Treat Your Skin
The many minerals and vitamins in avocado will help to maintain healthy skin. The carotenoids in avocados help to reduce UV ray damage.
21. Improve Cognitive Function
As we age, it isn’t uncommon for your cognitive functionalities to decrease. By upping your intake of avocados, you will be able to take advantage of the fruit’s lutein. This carotenoid is a powerful antioxidant that will help improve the lutein levels inside the brain. Those increased levels will enhance your problem-solving abilities and memory.
Final Thoughts on Avocados
Avocados have long since been a staple in many cultures and recipes around the world. This is a fruit offering you many nutritional benefits. Therefore, you can use this berry in several beauty and hair treatments to keep your skin and hair as healthy as possible.
If you’re hoping to start eating healthier and improve your beauty routine at the same time, start adding more avocados to your diet. Therefore, keep these 21 benefits in mind as you begin to fall in love with the green goodness of avocados.
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