Avocado Is Highly Nutritious, But Certain People Should Eat With Caution
Learn about the many benefits of avocado, but also who should be cautious when eating them.
By: Jingduan Yang | The Epoch Times
Avocado is a favourite fruit among many health-conscious people. It is rich in nutrients for hair and skin and is high in healthy fat, dietary fibre, and protein. However, for some people, avocados may bring some unfavourable effects.
Nutritional Value of Avocado
Avocado is incredibly rich in nutrients, which include potassium; magnesium; vitamins A, C, E, K1, and B6; pantothenic acid; choline; lutein; zeaxanthin; and phytosterol. It also contains 71% unsaturated fatty acids, 13% polylodic fatty acids, and 16% saturated fatty acids. These fatty acids help maintain healthy blood lipid (HDL) levels and promote the absorption of fat-soluble nutrients.
Clinical studies have found that avocado also plays a significant role in cardiovascular health, weight management, and anti-aging.
For most people, avocados should become an important part of their daily diet.
How Many Avocados Should I Eat?
So how many avocados should one consume every day?
Usually, half of a normal-sized avocado is good enough. One-half of one of these weighs about 68 grams (2.4 ounces), which contains 114 calories, 10.5 grams (0.4 ounce) of fat, and 4.6 grams (0.2 ounce) of dietary fibre. If a normal-sized person’s daily calorie intake is around 2,000 calories, half of an avocado accounts for about 5.7% of the calories required for a day.
If your diet is balanced and nutritious, you do not need to eat avocado daily. But if your diet lacks sufficient nutrients, then avocados’ healthy unsaturated fatty acids, dietary fibre, vitamins, and antioxidants can boost your nutrition. If you are an athlete, you may need more of these nutrients and can increase the intake of avocado in moderation. However, if your diet is already well-balanced and you exercise heavily, there is no need to eat avocado every day; every other day is a better option.
It is worth mentioning that the macronutrient proportions of a ketogenic diet are usually 70% fat, 20% protein, and 10% carbohydrate. For those on a ketogenic diet, avocado is a reliable source of fat. However, as each person’s situation is different, the intake of avocado should be determined accordingly.
Who Should Avoid Avocado?
Although avocado is rich in all sorts of nutrients, a few groups of people must be extra careful eating it.
For example, people with latex allergies should be cautious about eating avocados. This is more common among middle-aged women whose daily work requires them to wear latex gloves. Eating avocados may make them more sensitive to allergic reactions to latex, causing allergic reactions to other foods, such as chestnuts and bananas. Allergic reactions may manifest as rash, vascular edema, hives, asthma, conjunctivitis, and oral allergic symptoms, such as itching and swelling of the tongue.
People dieting also need to control the amount of avocado intake because of its high calorie content.
Those who must maintain a certain level of cholesterol should also be careful. Avocado contains beta-lanosterol, a compound that may affect the absorption of cholesterol.
Finally, people with liver disease should also be cautious. Animal studies found that excessive intake of avocado may lead to fatty liver in mice. The research mainly focuses on a specific diet ratio according to the calorie content: 40% from fat, 40% from carbohydrates, and 20% from protein. This proportion causes fat accumulation in mice, and the group with the most intake of monounsaturated fatty acid was the most likely to lead to fatty liver. Incidentally, most of the oil in avocados is unsaturated fatty acids.
In general, it is doubtful that people will consume such a large amount of avocado with carbohydrates simultaneously. So for most people, an appropriate amount of avocado should not lead to fatty liver.
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Liver Benefits of Avocado
An appropriate amount of avocado intake for people with normal liver function will benefit the liver.
First, avocado contains oleic acid, which helps reduce the amount of “bad” cholesterol (LDL) in the body and may even improve HDL. In this way, while not directly affecting the liver, it brings indirect benefits.
Research shows that the compounds in avocado can help the body produce the powerful antioxidant glutathione, which plays a significant role in detoxifying the liver, again another indirect liver-protective benefit.
Avocado also contains a variety of trace elements, vitamins, and antioxidants. These reduce chronic inflammation in the body, including liver inflammation.
The dietary fibre in avocado helps digestion and weight control, enhances insulin sensitivity, indirectly helps control obesity, and also benefits heart health and blood pressure regulation. Therefore, avocados can reduce the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver and some metabolic diseases. Studies have shown that avocado oil can alleviate nonalcoholic fatty liver disease by improving mitochondrial function and reducing oxidative stress and inflammation resulting from a high-fat, high-fruit-sugar diet.
To sum it up, avocado is a healthy addition to one’s diet in most cases, but those with latex allergies, liver disease, who need a certain cholesterol level, and those dieting may need to use caution when eating it. The most important thing is to maintain a balance and have a moderate diet because all food can hurt health when consumed in excess.
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Must Have: Indulge in the rich, creamy goodness of our organic avocados, handpicked with care to deliver unparalleled flavour and nutritional excellence straight from nature’s embrace to your plate.
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NEXT UP!
B Vitamins: Your Brain’s Natural Repair Kit
A patient—let’s call her Jane—presents with a startling problem: Despite once being a functioning member of society, her life has been upended. She is now unable to form new memories, becomes easily confused, and even struggles to walk steadily.
Following her husband’s death, our patient has struggled with alcohol addiction for five years, which has led to her developing what is known as Korsakoff’s syndrome. In this lamentable condition, vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency leads to the slow degeneration of proper brain function.
One may retain a past, but without the essential nutrients to ensure coordination of the nervous system, the future becomes bleaker.
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READ MORE: Why Do Those Who Don’t Drink Alcohol Have Liver Cancer?
Interesting! What Happens When You Eat An Avocado A Day?
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