By
Dena Gottlieb
Have you been avoiding avocados because they're "too fattening"?
This nutrient dense food seems to have gotten on the naughty -food list
of a lot of people because of all the bad press it has received over
the years. You may want to incorporate avocados back into your diet now
that they have been shown to help lower your cholesterol levels.
Have you been avoiding avocados because they're "too fattening"?
This nutrient dense food seems to have gotten on the naughty -food list
of a lot of people because of all the bad press it has received over
the years. You may want to incorporate avocados back into your diet now
that they have been shown to help lower your cholesterol levels.
Avocados
are the fruits that got a "raw deal". Traditionally, weight and health
conscious people would avoid the avocado because of its high level of fat. No more. A recent study in Brisbane, Australia has shown that including avocado in your diet can help reduce cholesterol levels by 8 percent. This is as opposed to a standard, low fat diet which helped study participants reduce cholesterol levels by only 5 percent! HDL (the "good cholesterol") levels were actually found to increase by 15 percent in people who incorporated avocado into their daily menu.
What is it about avocados that help them lower cholesterol?
First of all, the fat in avocados is monounsaturated fat. The beauty of this is that monounsaturated fats (like avocado and olive oil) actually help to lower cholesterol instead of increasing cholesterol levels. Secondly, avocados contain a substance called Beta-Sitosterol. This substance can apparently block LDL ("bad") cholesterol absorption. Most of the middle aged women in the Australian study who consumed from a half of an avocado to one and a half avocados daily for a month, not only managed to lower their cholesterol but also managed to lose weight.
Is that cool or what? You get to add a delicious food into your daily menu and this food actually aids in cholesterol reduction and weight loss. It doesn't get any better than that!
Here's the second reason to eat avocados: Avocados contain folate. Folate is a substance that helps keep down homocysteine levels in the blood. High levels of homocysteine are associated with heart attacks and are usually treated with folic acid supplements. Avocados provide you with natural folate to help your heart stay healthy.
Thirdly, Vitamin C and B6 are both present in avocados as well. Omega 3 fatty acids are in there too and these have a definite connection with improving heart health.
And for our fourth reason to get cracking with the avocados - here is some fascinating information: Avocados have also been shown to aid the body in absorbing nutrients from other vegetables. In a recent study in the Journal of Nutrition, Ohio State University researchers reported that avocados can increase -- by as much as 15 times -- absorption of nutrients that protect against heart disease, cancer and blindness.
So, when you add a few slices of avocado to your salad, you may absorb much more of all the healthy cartenoids present in the salad vegetables. People in the study who ate their salad with low fat dressing and no avocado, absorbed much, much less of the disease fighting compounds such as lycopen, lutein, beta-carotene, and vitamin E.
This is fairly heavy-duty data about the real health benefits of avocado. All I can say is EAT AVOCADOS EVERY DAY. They taste great and are very beneficial to your heart health! Lower your cholesterol and increase the amount of disease fighting substances in your body by eating avocados!
conscious people would avoid the avocado because of its high level of fat. No more. A recent study in Brisbane, Australia has shown that including avocado in your diet can help reduce cholesterol levels by 8 percent. This is as opposed to a standard, low fat diet which helped study participants reduce cholesterol levels by only 5 percent! HDL (the "good cholesterol") levels were actually found to increase by 15 percent in people who incorporated avocado into their daily menu.
What is it about avocados that help them lower cholesterol?
First of all, the fat in avocados is monounsaturated fat. The beauty of this is that monounsaturated fats (like avocado and olive oil) actually help to lower cholesterol instead of increasing cholesterol levels. Secondly, avocados contain a substance called Beta-Sitosterol. This substance can apparently block LDL ("bad") cholesterol absorption. Most of the middle aged women in the Australian study who consumed from a half of an avocado to one and a half avocados daily for a month, not only managed to lower their cholesterol but also managed to lose weight.
Is that cool or what? You get to add a delicious food into your daily menu and this food actually aids in cholesterol reduction and weight loss. It doesn't get any better than that!
Here's the second reason to eat avocados: Avocados contain folate. Folate is a substance that helps keep down homocysteine levels in the blood. High levels of homocysteine are associated with heart attacks and are usually treated with folic acid supplements. Avocados provide you with natural folate to help your heart stay healthy.
Thirdly, Vitamin C and B6 are both present in avocados as well. Omega 3 fatty acids are in there too and these have a definite connection with improving heart health.
And for our fourth reason to get cracking with the avocados - here is some fascinating information: Avocados have also been shown to aid the body in absorbing nutrients from other vegetables. In a recent study in the Journal of Nutrition, Ohio State University researchers reported that avocados can increase -- by as much as 15 times -- absorption of nutrients that protect against heart disease, cancer and blindness.
So, when you add a few slices of avocado to your salad, you may absorb much more of all the healthy cartenoids present in the salad vegetables. People in the study who ate their salad with low fat dressing and no avocado, absorbed much, much less of the disease fighting compounds such as lycopen, lutein, beta-carotene, and vitamin E.
This is fairly heavy-duty data about the real health benefits of avocado. All I can say is EAT AVOCADOS EVERY DAY. They taste great and are very beneficial to your heart health! Lower your cholesterol and increase the amount of disease fighting substances in your body by eating avocados!
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