The avocado is one of the most delicious fruits on the planet earth. Native to Mexico and Central America, this tree-grown lip-smacking fruit belongs to the Lauraceae family. The interesting thing is that this family of fruits also includes cinnamon, bay, camphor and laurel. The avocado tree is full of beautiful flowers in the spring season. The fruit is a pear-shaped, single berry. In the middle, you can find a big, walnut-colored seed as well.
According to another source, the name was given because the fruit had something to do with the Aztec fertility rites. Another argument suggests that the fruit is power, natural aphrodisiacs. So, for those who are looking for something that can boost their stamina in bed, avocado may be a good choice. Ooh-la-la!
The term ahuacatl soon developed into aguacate. In Spanish, this term means avocado. In South and Central America, the exterior of avocado looks like a near-scaly reptile. Over there, people think that the fruit has a pear-like shape and they gave it the term Alligator Pear. Today, if you do a bit of research, you will see that the earliest written reference to this fruit dates back to 1500s. we found the reference in the book authored by Martin Fernandez de Enciso.
As far as the growth environment is concerned, the avocado tree grows best in the tropical and Mediterranean places of the world. As soon as you have removed an avocado from its tree, it will start to ripen. Moreover, as you pluck the fruits, its skin will be thick. But as time goes by, it will get thinner and thinner. In addition, it will also change its color. At first, it will be light green and will turn dark green. The inside of the fruit can be of yellow or light-green. You can find this fruit in both colors. The seed, on the other hand, has a different color. It can be either dark brown or walnut brown. Mostly, the avocados are found in the pear-like shape, but you may also find some that look like an egg in shape from its outward appearance. As far as growing an avocado tree is concerned, you can use many ways, but the most popular one is the grafting method.
One variety of avocados that is native to Puebla, Mexica is known as the Persea Americana. This is an undomesticated variety of the tree and the fruit contains a big seed on the inside. The color of the skin is dark black. This variety has been around for more than 10,000 years. Nowadays, this fruit is still the most popular choice among today’s healthy eaters.
As said earlier, the original “birthplace” of the fruit is the tropical and Mediterranean climates. Usually, the grafting is down in the natural season and the fruit keeps growing between spring and fall. By the end of fall, the fruit is fully ripened. As far as the most suitable soil is concerned, we suggest that you choose direct sunlight and dry soil. However, people grow the tree throughout the year. That’s the reason you can buy the fruit throughout the year.
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Many people find it a lot of fun to try out a variety of low-carb recipes. As far as our opinion is concerned, we think that the keto diet allows you to enjoy a lot of keto friendly, delicious meals, and you will still feel full and totally satisfied. Hopefully, you will enjoy different recipes you can find on the web or get from your friends or family. Do let us know about your kitchen adventures. We would be more than happy to hear from you.
Avocado and the keto diet
If you are on the keto diet, you may have a lot of questions on your mind. Most of the questions may be related to what you should eat and what you should not as many foods can throw you out of the ketosis. One such fruit is avocado. In this article, we are going to talk about avocado, which is a type of fruit quite popular among keto dieters. It has so many benefits that every keto dieter should make it part of their diet. Let’s find out more about it.
As far as nutritional facts are concerned, avocado is full of fiber, folate, copper, and potassium. In addition, this fruit contains a good deal of vitamins, such as Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, and Vitamin B1, B2, B3, B5, and B6. You see it has multiple B-Vitamins. Aside from these, you can get a good deal of magnesium, manganese, iron and zinc by consuming avocado in moderation.
As far as the keto-friendly foods are concerned, 100 grams of fresh avocado will provide you with just 2 net carbs. That’s the reason experts recommend that avocado must be included in your keto diet. The beauty of avocado is that it contains only a small amount of saturated fat and zero cholesterol and sodium.
If you have hypertension, eating avocados may also help you keep it under control. This fruit is rich in potassium. According to a study, there is a relationship between blood pressure and potassium levels in your body. Aside from this, this fruit offers a good deal of monounsaturated fatty acids, which are good for you. Around 20% of the contents of avocados consist of soluble and insoluble types of fiber, which means it can help you maintain the functioning of your GI tract and other digestive processes.
Phytonutrient, a substance found in some specific species of plants, is also part of the avocado content. This substance plays a great role in maintaining the human health and helping in the prevention of different types of diseases. In addition, avocado is also a good source of oleic acid, which helps you fight inflammation and lower cholesterol levels.
All in all, avocado contains a lot of carbohydrates, healthy fats and nutrients, which makes it the best superfood for those who are on the keto diet. So, if you like the taste of avocados like most people, we suggest that you go ahead and eat it on a regular basis. This fruit can keep you full for a longer period of time, which is why it can make a great food.
Tips to cook avocado
Now, you may be wondering how you can consume avocados on a regular basis to reap all the benefits that we have to shed some light on. Like other fruits and veggies, you can eat this fruit in many ways.
Generally, avocados can give you all the benefits if you eat them raw. They will give you a mixture of flavors that are smooth, buttery and creamy. Each flavor offers a fresh and earthy scent. You can get a few avocados whenever you have to make a dish even more delicious.
There are many techniques to prepare avocados for consumption, such as raw, baked, pureed, and friend, to name a few.
Before consuming avocados, don’t forget to wash them first. Once you have washed them with clean water, take a sharp, paring knife to cut each piece into two halves. However, it’s important to keep in mind that you need to remove the hard seed from each fruit. As soon as you have cut them in half, the internal fleshy, raw part of the fruit can be eaten raw. Another way to consume it is to take out the fleshy part and mix it into your desired dishes. Moreover, if you are a bit fancy, get a knife and make an avocado rose.
Like most avocado lovers, you may already know that avocados can be used to make guacamole as well, but keep in mind that the fruit is a good alternative to meat too. The reason is that it contains a good amount of protein, which is what helps you maintain or gain the lean muscle mass. So, if you are a vegetarian, make sure you make avocado an essential part of your grocery list.
Another way is to make slices out of the fleshy fruit and garnish your desired dishes for additional color and flavor. To get the most out of your dishes, you can cut the fruit in half once you have removed the pit. The indentation left can be used once the seed has been removed. That’s it! You will have an avocado bowl for your favorite salad.
There are many ways to use the cut-up fruit. For instance, you can use it in your salads, casseroles, and soups, just to name a few. Apart from this, some people also use the avocado in the form of a low-calorie mayonnaise. Since your goal of being on the keto diet is to reduce your carbohydrate intake and cut calories, you can choose to puree the flesh of avocado for use as the mayonnaise. You can also use the puree for chicken salad, tuna, or deviled eggs, which will make a great keto meal or snack.
Great Avocado combos:
If you have never bought avocado before, you need to keep a few things in mind. Buying fresh avocado is a great idea if you want to get the most out of this delicious fruit.
Before you pick the avocado at a grocery store or Farmer’s Market, don’t forget to take a look closer at the skin of the fruit. You may want to pick avocados that have fresh, soft skin. Apart from this, you need to make sure that the skin contains no spots, holes or cracks. It’s not a good idea to compromise on the skin as this is the most important factor to consider when buying avocados.
For best flavors, the sign you need to look for is the short neck. Don’t go for avocados that have rounded-off tops. As a matter of fact, avocados with short necks have had a lot more time on the tree. Therefore, they ripen properly and will taste a lot better than the half-ripen ones.
It’s also a great idea to store your avocados. However, there are a few things to keep in mind when storing them. For instance, you may not want to refrigerate them unless they are properly ripe. If they are not ripe, you can boost the ripening process. All you need to do is put avocados in a clean paper bag and then store it at room temperature.
Avocados offer a lot of benefits. They are also quite popular for their beauty benefits. According to many experts, the use of avocados can help you improve the health of your eyes, skin, and hair. However, the benefits of this amazing, delicious fruit are not limited to this department only. You can enjoy many other benefits if you consume this fruit. Let’s find out more about 5 major health benefits that you can enjoy if you make avocados part of your keto diet.
We all know that vitamins, minerals, and fats play a great role in helping us maintain our health. Unlike other fruits, avocados provide as many as 19 minerals, vitamins, and monounsaturated fats. Apart from this, they are also rich in phytochemicals that can help you absorb nutrients from a variety of other foods more easily.
Avocados offer monounsaturated fats that can help you improve your absorption of different fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin A, D, E and K. The 4 vitamins are required by your body if you want the better absorption of fat.
Many studies have been done to prove the above-given benefits. According to a study, if you consume avocados with salsa and salad, it can help you improve the absorption of carotenoids in your body. Further studies showed that the beta-carotene, which is precursor to the vitamin A in particular, was around 15 percent higher. Moreover, the same study observed the absorption of lutein and alpha-carotene. The absorption of both of these was 7 and 5 times greater respectively.
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey has done a lot of surveys between 2001 and 2008. Based on the surveys, the organization concluded that eating a healthy diet has a positive relationship with better general health.
The research also provides ample evidence for those who are looking for ways to shed their extra weight and get into shape. According to the surveys, the consumers who ate avocados had a lower BMI, waistline and body weight.
So, if you are looking for a way to reduce your weight on the keto diet, avocado can play a great role.
According to statistics, the number one killer in the world is the heart disease. This has been the case for over 15 years. Avocado is good news for those with cardiac problems as avocados can provide a lot of nutrients that can help you improve your heart health. As said earlier, this fruit is heavy with the B vitamin folate, potassium, beta-sitosterol, and monounsaturated fat. All of these are good for your cardiac health.
As a matter of fact, the healthy fats contained in avocados are good for your whole cardiovascular system. A fresh avocado contains 70% monounsaturated fat, 16% saturated fats and 13% polyunsaturated fats. The monounsaturated fat (MUFA) offers oleic fatty acid, which plays a positive role in improving the health of your heart. Olive oil is popular for the same reason: it contains a good amount of oleic fatty acid.
An unripe avocado is rich in saturated fat, but as it ripens, the amount of oleic fatty acid goes up while the amount of saturated fat comes down. That’s the reason it’s better to, to pluck an avocado when it is completely ripe to get the most out of it.
Oleic fatty acid is also good for your heart because it reduces the amount of LDL cholesterol in your body, which is also known as the bad cholesterol. A high amount of LDL cholesterol in your body may cause the growth of plaque inside your arterial walls, which stiffens the arteries. As a result, the flow of flood in the arteries becomes negatively affected. This raises your chances of having a heart attack.
The oleic fatty acid helps you reduce your LDL levels and blocks the growth of atherosclerosis. So, it’s recommended that you make avocados an essential part of your overall healthy diet.
Avocados are also rich in beta-sitosterol, which is a phytochemical. This chemical supports the health of your heart. In 100 grams of ripe avocados, the amount of beta-sitosterol is 76.4 mg. this chemical helps you balance and maintain the healthy levels of cholesterol.
According to many animal studies, the consumption of dietary avocado can help boost the antiatherogenic of the good cholesterol, also known as HDL cholesterol. The role of HDL is to eliminate the plaque that builds up in your arteries.
Even if you consume just half of an avocado, you can get a good deal of potassium. According to experts, half of an avocado contains 14% of the daily amount of potassium you need, which makes it a great food to support your cardiac health.
As a matter of fact, potassium is one of the most beneficial minerals that your body needs for the neurological electrical conduction, vasodilation, and muscle movement.
The regular consumption of foods rich in potassium can help you reduce your likelihood of heart attacks, blood clotting, and strokes. This is how important potassium is for your cardiac as well as mental health.
Most of the articles you will find on the web focus on the importance of reducing your intake of sodium. What this overlook is the importance of potassium, which is quite important for our health. We need to spread awareness regarding the benefits of avocado, as they are a great source of potassium.
Avocados are also rich in the B vitamin folate. An average-sized avocado offers 163 mcg of folate. On a daily basis, you need around 815 mcg of folate. So, eating just an avocado can provide your body with 20.5% of the amount you need per day. Folate is really important for your health as it helps you prevent a number of birth defects related to the spine, but it is also good for your cardiac health.
Folate, also known as folic acid, helps you break down the homocysteine. This compound is a metabolic byproduct to both types of stress: good and bad. If you have too much of homocysteine, you will be more likely to have a heart disease, peripheral vascular disease or stroke.
So, it’s important to consume foods that can provide you with enough of folic acid so you can prevent stroke and heart attacks.
As far as heart disease is concerned, many factors play a role and metabolic syndrome is one of them. This syndrome will increase your likelihood of having diabetes, stroke or heart disease.
The risk factors include high levels of blood glucose, high blood pressure, low HDL, high triglycerides, and large waistline (obesity). Even if you have 3 of these 5 risk factors or symptoms, chances are that you need to get checked up for metabolic syndrome.
Regular intake of avocados can help you lower your risk of having metabolic syndrome.
Many studies have been done to prove that avocados can help prevent the metabolic syndrome. According to the NHANES study data, the experts found that people who consumed avocados on a regular basis reduced their likelihood of developing the metabolic syndrome.
The study also found that people who had avocados enjoyed a better diet as they ate more produce but less sugar. This types of diet offer a good deal of Vitamin E, K, potassium, magnesium, dietary fiber, PUFAs, and MUFAs, to name a few. These nutrients play a great role in promoting heart health, maintaining weight and regulating blood glucose levels.
Since avocados are rich in dietary fiber and healthy fats, they can help you maintain your weight. You won’t gain or lose a lot of weight, which is what most keto dieters’ goal is.
Another great benefit of avocados is that they help you stay full for a longer period of time, which leads to reduced consumption of calories.
According to health experts, an average person needs at least 35 grams of fiber per day to maintain good health. And the great news is a fresh avocado can provide you with 14 grams of fiber. The recommended amount of fiber per 1k calories is 7 grams, experts suggest.
Apart from the nutritional content, the amount of fiber and fat found in avocados can keep you sated for a longer period of time. This will keep you from eating too much, especially if you are already overweight.
In 2013, experts conducted a comprehensive review of the various benefits of avocados. The study results showed that consuming this fruit is a great idea as far as losing weight and maintaining healthy body weight is concerned.
According to a number of studies, avocados can also trigger cell cycle arrest. This term refers to the effect of avocados that prevents cells from performing anything. In other words, they can hamper cellularly grown and trigger apoptosis in the cancerous and precancerous cells. In addition, they can also be consumed in order to fight the side effects of some chemotherapy medications.
Experts also found that the regular consumption of avocados can also prevent the rapid growth of the oral cancer cells. Avocados contain lutein that can reduce the likelihood of cancer in women. Aside from this, since this fruit contains oleic fatty acid, it can also prevent cancer because of its anti-inflammatory properties.
Prostate cancer is quite common these days. The good news is that avocados contain monounsaturated fatty acids and phytochemicals. Both of these can reduce the proliferation of the prostate cancer cells.
Although avocados can help you prevent or fight cancer, it’s not a good idea to use them as an alternative to the prescribed treatment plan. But they can be used as a nutritional part of your treatment plan.
Typically, avocados are picked before they are fully ripe, as they don’t last more than a few days. As they ripen, the amount of oleic fatty acid keeps rising. At the same time, this healthy fat starts going rancid pretty fast.
So, before you buy avocados, make sure to keep this point in mind. If you buy hard avocados, keep in mind that they will take a couple of days to fully ripen. To reduce this time period, all you need to do is put them in a paper bag and store in a cool, dry location. This will boost their ripening process.
It’s a good idea to store them at room temperature in order to increase their shelf life. Ripe avocados are dark in color. Another way to check its ripeness is to tug on the stem. If it resists, know that the fruit needs more time to ripe. But if it pops off without a problem and shows green flesh as well, you are good to go. It may also pop off and show brown flesh. If this is the case, know that the avocado is useless as it has gone bad.
You can also mix lemon juice or squeezed lime into your avocado spread to prevent it from turning brown.
If you are allergic to banana or latex, know that you may be allergic to avocados too. If this is the case, it’s better to avoid them. The avocado plan has calledpersin, which is a toxic substance. This substance is not harmful to cats or dogs but may cause diarrhea or vomiting in humans. So, you may not want to have avocados if you have this problem.
In short, if you have been avoiding avocados, know that you are missing all the benefits we have described above. Avocados are rich in nutrition. So, what are you waiting for? Go to the grocery store today and buy some fresh avocados to reap all the health benefits.
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