Avocado is a nutritious fruit and also very high in calories, 1 ripe fruit can contain up to 250-320 calories.
The avocado is said to be one of the most wonderful fruits in the world. You can eat it raw or cooked, mix in salads or blends, make ice cream, and easily add it to any diet or food.
This is a fruit that is rich in vitamins and healthy fats and has been linked with enough effects by the online community. But what are the real benefits of avocado? Hong Kong’s top 3 nutritionists will reveal the truth.
Stop hunger
Avocados have a lot of fiber, 7 grams of fiber for every 100g, making us feel full for longer when eating this fruit. When we are full, we tend to eat less.
However, nutritionist Cheri Ho affirms that avocados do not have the effect of losing weight as many people mistakenly believe.
“Our weight change depends on the balance between energy expenditure and intake. If you eat a lot of butter or eat too much of any kind of food, you will gain weight, ”she explained.
Ho also recommends that avocado contains many nutrients but is a high-calorie food so people who are losing weight should avoid overeating. On average, each cooked avocado contains 250-320 cal, equivalent to 1.5 bowls of rice.
Reduce the risk of heart disease
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world. Because avocados contain mostly healthy monounsaturated fats, which help reduce bad cholesterol, reduce blood fat, and thereby reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Avocados are also high in antioxidants like vitamin E, phytosterols, and carotenoids that helps to protect the cardiovascular system from oxidative damage.
Potential anti-cancer effects
Nutritionist Chloe Lee said all avocados are rich in phytochemicals, which are effective in preventing cancer. However, she thinks more clinical studies are needed to confirm this.
Meanwhile, expert Edward Li said that the anti-cancer properties may come from avocado seeds, which contain more antioxidants than fruit, but so far there has been very little research proving that antioxidants are retained when eating seeds.
Therefore, this expert does not encourage people to eat avocado seeds or process them into tea until further studies are available.
Improved eyes
Avocados are high in carotenoids, a natural organic pigment in plants that is used by the body to make vitamin A. This ingredient works to reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration. A medium-sized avocado contains 136 micrograms of carotenoids.
Increases nutrient absorption
When you eat butter with other dishes, it will increase the overall vitamin absorption from the main dish. Avocados are high in healthy fats, which are essential for the body to absorb fat-soluble nutrients.
Nutritionist Edward Li cites recent research showing that when we tested adding an avocado to a meal with ketchup and a portion of raw carrots, the results showed that eating avocado significantly increased the transition. change vitamin A in the body.
When combined with raw carrots, avocados quadruple the rate of carotenoid absorption. Therefore, we can eat butter with foods rich in vitamin A such as pumpkins, tomatoes.
Although it is a wonderful fruit, 3 nutrition experts recommend that people with kidney disease or irritable bowel syndrome should limit eating avocado.
“In each avocado contains up to 950 mg of potassium, double the amount of potassium in a banana so people with kidney disease or monitoring potassium levels should be very cautious with this fruit,” says expert Cheri Ho.
For people with irritable bowel syndrome, eating 1 avocado at a time can cause gastrointestinal discomfort, stimulating unpleasant symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain due to the high sorbitol content in avocados.
So how do you determine how much avocado you eat per day? There is no suitable answer for all but nutritionists recommend that we should not eat more than 1/2 of an avocado every day, the other half should be stored in the refrigerator with a slice of lemon on top or sprayed with lemon juice. to keep them from bruising.
