Are Avocados Good For You?
Avocados contain nearly 20 vitamins and minerals, many of which are essential for the health of your heart, bones, skin and even mood. Many people believe avocados are unhealthy because they contain a lot of fat, but the kind of fat they contain is actually healthy; they do contain significant calories, but, like all food, your intake should not be excessive.
Here I present to you 9 reasons why avocados are good for you.
Heart Health
As already stated, avocados have healthy fats. They have monounsaturated fats that lower cholesterol. Specifically, they contain beta-sitosterol, omega 3s and oleic acid. Along with beta-sitosterol, avocados have campesterol and stigmasterol which have anti-inflammatory properties beneficial to the cardiovascular system.
Healthy Bones
Avocados have vitamin K which can prevent osteoporosis because it helps with the absorption of calcium and prevents the loss of it through urine.
Did you know that avocados help keep your bones healthy?
Eyes
This delicious fruit (yes, it's technically a fruit) has a lot of lutein and zeaxanthin, carotenoids that are good for your eyes. They are antioxidants that reduce damage to the eyes and prevent macular degeneration.
Weight
Avocados are very fibrous and so make you feel full and satisfied quicker.
Believe it or not, those good fats in avocados can also help you lose weight. They help in sending signals to the brain that you are full and slow the break down of carbohydrates into sugar and keep the sugar levels of your blood stable.
Digestive System
Because avocados contain a lot of fiber, they keep you regular and ensure a healthy digestive system.
Why Avocados are Good For You
Keeps Heart Healthy
| Bones
| Eyes
| Weight
| Digestion
| Skin
| Fights disease
| Mood
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Good fats in avocados keep your cholesterol down and act as anti-inflammatories that help the heart
| Vitamin K in them help absorption and retention of calcium for healthy bones.
| Contains cartenoids that keep eyes healthy.
| High in fiber so you feel fuller quicker and don't eat as much.
| Fiber in the fruit keeps you regular.
| Has properties that help produce cells that keep the skin healthy.
| The fiber acts as a detoxifier and the nutrients such as B vitamins fights disease and infection.
| Folate, a B vitamin, lowers the risk of depression, helping produce hormones for a better mood.
|
Fights Disease
The fiber that keeps your digestive system regular also helps to keep your body clean inside, preventing disease and infection. In addition, avocados have a good assortment of B vitamins, including folate, which help fight disease and infection. Folate protects you from colon, stomach, pancreatic and cervical cancers. It also helps to prevent miscarriage in pregnant women and prevents neural tube defects.
Skin
Folate also helps in cell repair and keeps your skin healthy.
Depression and Mood
Folate, which is in avocados, helps lower the risk of depression. This nutrient prevents the formation of homocysteine, a harmful amino acid that blocks nutrients from reaching the brain. Homocysteine can also interfere with the production of serotonin,a hormone that makes you feel good and can also block dopamine and norepinephrine; dopamine and norepinephrine also aid in mood.
Nutrient Absorption
Avocados not only contain a good amount of nutrients--including B vitamins, vitamins C, E and K, potassium and magnesium--it also helps in the absorption of nutrients.
Why? Well, believe it or not, it again has to do with fat. The fat in avocados actually helps your body absorb nutrients. Research has indeed shown that avocados aid in the absorption of nutrients.
So, for a healthy heart, a trim body, healthy bones and eyes and skin, a good mood and a regular digestive system, and to fight off disease, avocados are just what the doctor ordered.
