Avocado Health Benefits
Avocado Health Benefits. All about avocado benefits and the health benefits of avocado.
Avocado Benefits
Health Benefits of Avocado: Monounsaturated Fat
Avocado contains many health benefits. It is an excellent source of healthy monounsaturated fat. Avocado contains oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat which helps lower cholesterol levels. Including avocados in your diet will help lower LDL cholesterol levels and increase the levels of good HDL cholesterol.
Health Benefits of Avocado: Magnesium
Avocados are also rich in magnesium, an important nutrient that helps regulate blood pressure and cardiac rhythms, ensure healthy bones and prevent Type II diabetes. Out of all fruits, avocado is the single best source of magnesium if you were to make ounce-by-ounce comparisons.
Health Benefits of Avocado: Potassium and Folate
As you would have read about in the article on the importance of potassium, potassium helps regulate blood pressure and prevent heart disease. In addition to potassium, avocados are also rich in folate, a nutrient which helps lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Nutrient Booster
Research has even suggested that avocados improve the body’s ability to absorb nutrients from foods. One nutritional study found that by adding half an avocado to a carrot/lettuce/spinach salad, the body’s absorption of all of the following nutrients improved: alpha-carotene by 8.3 times, beta-carotene by 13.6 times, lutein by 4.3 times.
Avocado Benefits: Source of carotenoid lutein
Avocados are an excellent source of carotenoid lutein, zeaxanthin, alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and Vitamin E. These important carotenoids help limit the growth of prostate cancer cells; avocados can thus play an important role to prevent prostate cancer.
More on Avocado Nutritional Value (Avocado Calories, Avocado Nutrition Facts).
