Today, for lunch, I ordered a delicious avocado burger with avo mayo, plus avo fries on the side (I also couldn’t decide between the avo pudding or the avo tart for dessert). Once I had finished, I decided to find out what makes the avocado so special. The following is what I found out.
Let’s start with what we know about the avocado. It’s got a blackish peel, a hard, round pit inside and creamy, green flesh. Fun fact: did you know that, technically, the avocado is a ripened ovary? It’s true––as we bite into apples, bananas, and more fruit, we are actually eating ovaries, since seeded fruits are technically the ovary of a flowering plant. (The more you know!)
But why is the avocado so great?
Here are some things you might not know:
Its creamy, green flesh is rich in monounsaturated fats––a.k.a. our good fats. Yes, there are good fats. So, when your friend asks if her jeans make her butt look fat, and you don’t wanna lie but you don’t wanna hurt her feelings, you can say, “They make it look monounsaturated fat––keep eating that avocado, girl!”
What else makes this funny–shaped fruit so good? It’s full of a lot of good things: fibre, vitamins C, E and K, many of the B vitamins, folate, copper and potassium. Is there anything this little fruit doesn’t have? Yes! Sugar. Avocados score very low on the glycemic index, which means that their carbs come from fibre rather than sugar.
How does all of this affect your health, you may wonder?
Let’s break it down:
- Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), which, again, are our good fats, contribute to heart health, great skin, weight management, cholesterol and inflammation.
- The fibre in avocados aids in digestion and weight loss. Fibre helps to bulk and bind so that our bodies are more efficiently able to excrete waste, including some fats.
- B6 (or Pyridoxine), one of the B vitamins that the avocado is highest in, contributes to stress reduction via the adrenal glands, produces energy via metabolic regulation, and helps the body maintain a healthy nervous system.
- If it’s not already apparent, it seems as though the ever-popular avocado lives up to its hype.
So, if you want that avocado toast, try it on rye––it’s delicious. If you want that avocado-oil shampoo, go get it. If you want a tattoo of a dancing avocado, book that appointment! It seems that this fun fruit will keep us healthy for the long haul.
