Avocado is one of the tastier, healthiest, and most nutritious fruits that currently exist. It is a food from Latin America and is currently enjoying great popularity in the rest of the world. Its flavor, its texture, and the countless sauces that can be made with this delight have made it essential in many of our kitchens today.
Avocado has long been fashionable. This fruit is used for multiple dishes and salads and stands out for being a source of vitamin E and potassium. Apart from her kindness and flavor, which has conquered many, eating one a day could help redistribute abdominal fat in women to a healthier profile.
Below we name what are the properties and benefits of avocado, to make known in detail everything this ingredient can contribute, not only for its flavor but also for its nutritional wealth.
Properties of Avocado
We are facing one of the most nutritious fruits we can find today. Avocado offers a wide variety of highly beneficial nutrients for the body such as high-quality proteins, Omega 3, and other essential fatty acids and vitamins such as vitamin E. It is a rich ingredient to improve our cardiovascular health, as well as regulate cholesterol levels in the blood and triglycerides.
- Antioxidant
One of the most outstanding benefits of avocado is that it provides us with a lot of oxidants, ideal for the proper functioning of our body. Above all, we highlight the high contribution of vitamin E, an essential nutrient to fight free radicals and, therefore, avoid premature aging of cells. In addition, vitamin E is also essential to prevent infections, as well as to improve the body’s healing.
- Rich in Good Fats
Whenever you talk about fat, in food, it seems that we are talking about a sin. But we have to learn to differentiate what good fats are, from what bad or trans fats are. Good ones are essential for our body as they help us improve our heart system and have a healthier heart. And in this sense, avocados are very rich in good fats, in the same style as olive oil.
- Very Energetic Food
One of the properties and benefits of avocados is that it gives us a lot of energy. It is very high in calories, which are healthy for our body, and therefore it is recommended to take it if you are an athlete or early in the day. Precisely for this reason, avocados should not be consumed at night: extra calories can be stored as saturated fat. Much better to get in early in the day or during lunch, their properties will be made to the fullest.
- Folic acid
One of the most interesting properties of avocados is that it has a large supply of folic acid. This nutrient is essential to reduce the risk of cardiovascular system-related diseases. In addition, folic acid foods are also a perfect ally for pregnant women, as they contribute to the proper development of the fetus.
- Rich in fiber
This fruit is a fiber-rich food that is ideal to combat constipation and get a more refined and toxin-free body. The fiber we find in the avocado will help us improve intestinal transit and have a more detoxified body. In addition, fiber is an excellent blood sugar regulator.
Great Contribution to Potassium
Avocado has more potassium than bananas, in fact, 4% more. So it is one of the most large potassium foods. This mineral is optimal for lowering blood pressure and repairing muscles and tissues.
Benefits Of Drinking an Avocado A Day
It is the main conclusion of a study led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and published in the specialized journal Journal of Nutrition.
‘The goal wasn’t weight loss; we were interested in understanding what effect avocado consumption has on the way people store their body fat. The location of fat in the body plays an important role in health, Illinois professor of kinesiology and community health Naiman Khan explains.
Fat Reduction in Women
Participants were divided into two groups. One group received meals that incorporated a fresh avocado, while the other group received a meal that had almost identical ingredients and similar calories but did not contain avocado.
More than 100 overweight and obese adults took part in a randomized controlled trial that provided one meal a day for 12 weeks. The result: Women who consumed avocado as part of their daily meal had a reduction in the deepest visceral abdominal fat.
“In the abdomen, there are two types of fat: fat that accumulates just below the skin, called subcutaneous fat, and the fat that accumulates deeper in the abdomen, known as visceral fat, which surrounds the internal organs. People with a higher proportion of the fact that deeper visceral fat tends to have a higher risk of developing diabetes. So we were interested in determining whether the proportion of subcutaneous fat to visceral changes with avocado consumption,” explains Illinois professor of kinesiology and community health, Naiman Khan.
Women who consumed a daily avocado had a reduction in visceral abdominal fat, the fat difficult to reach associated with an increased risk, and experienced a reduction in the proportion of visceral fat to subcutaneous fat.
This would indicate a redistribution of fat outside the organs. However, the distribution of fat in men did not change and neither men nor women improved glucose tolerance.
Influence in Glucose
Khan values the study’s results: “While daily avocado consumption did not change glucose tolerance, what we learned is that a dietary pattern that includes an avocado every day affected the way people store body fat in a beneficial way to their health, but the benefits were mainly on women.”
Investigators aren’t staying there. From now on, they will begin a follow-up study that provides participants with all their daily meals and observe additional intestinal and physical health markers to obtain a more complete picture of the metabolic effects of avocado consumption and determine whether the difference remains between the two sexes.
We should not forget the cosmetic benefits of avocado, as it is also an ideal ingredient to improve skin and hair health. There are many homemade recipes for avocado masks for the face and hair, as they take advantage of the many nutrients of this fruit to improve appearance.
- For hair: We have already commented that it is a type of ingredient very rich in vitamins, proteins, and minerals. All this helps to strengthen the health of our hair and to make it more nourished and in perfect condition. But, in addition, thanks to its high water content and fatty acids, it is a great ally to hydrate and nourish your mane in depth.
- For the skin: the complexion can also benefit from the nutrients of the avocado and get a much healthier and more attractive appearance. This fruit is rich in antioxidants, such as the aforementioned vitamin E, a perfect type of nutrient to reduce the aging of the face and avoid the appearance of the signs of age. Thanks to its fatty acids and water, avocado is also ideal for reducing dryness and getting much smoother and softer skin.
To take advantage of the cosmetic properties of the avocado, it will be enough for you to prepare a homemade mask that can be done with the same fruit or avocado oil. Beauty is 100% form.