Tag: avocado

Mint Avocado Smoothie

Loaded with vitamin C, iron, calcium and vitamin A, this creamy, mint-flavored, green smoothie will brighten your holiday season!

Ingredients:

½ ripe avocado

1/2 banana (fresh or frozen)

A handful of baby spinach (about 1 cup)

½ cup fresh mint leaves

2 Tbsp lime juice

½ cup unsweetened almond milk

Directions:

Just put all ingredients into a blender & blend until smooth!

Nutrition Information (serves 1): 240 calories, 14g fat (2.5g saturated fat), 28g carbohydrate, 12g fiber, 6g protein, 90% DV Vitamin A, 60% DV Vitamin C, 20% DV Calcium, 20% DV Iron

 

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Should you eat the seed/pit of an avocado?

A few weeks ago, a video demonstrating how to chop and blend the seed of an avocado to mix into smoothies grabbed the attention of health conscious people as it claimed that the seed of an avocado is the most nutrient-dense part of the fruit; more than 20 million people viewed the video!

So, should you be saving and preparing those big avocado seeds/pits? Princeton Longevity Center’s Dietitians say “No! We continue to encourage people to eat avocados, but do not recommend eating the seed/pit of an avocado. There is some limited research indicating that there may be some beneficial compounds in the seed, but the safety of actually eating the seed has not been established. We feel that more research is needed to determine what, if any, benefits of eating the seed may be and if it’s safe to do so”. For now, follow the advice of The California Avocado Commission as they state on their website “The California Avocado Commission does not recommend consumption of the pit or seed of an avocado. The seed of an avocado contains elements that are not intended for human consumption”. Stick to eating just the flesh of the avocado! Here is a helpful link demonstrating how to peel an avocado.

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Avocado News

A study conducted by The Ohio State University (published in the June 2014 edition of The Journal of Nutrition) found that combining certain foods with avocado can enhance the absorption of certain nutrients. This research investigated if fresh avocado, when eaten with either an orange-colored, high beta-carotene tomato sauce or raw carrots, would promote the absorption of provitamin A carotenoids and the conversion of these carotenoids to an active form of vitamin A. The researchers found that when avocado is eaten with raw carrots or orange-colored tomato sauce, the absorption of vitamin A was in fact increased. Vitamin A helps to support skin health, immune function and vision. Specifically, the study found that:

–  Eating avocado with tomatoes or carrots significantly increased absorption of beta-carotene 2.4 times and 6.6 times respectively compared to eating tomatoes or carrots without avocado.

–  Eating avocado with carrots more than quadrupled the absorption of alpha-carotene when compared to eating carrots without avocado.

–  Eating avocado with tomatoes or carrots significantly increased the conversion of provitamin A, the inactive form to vitamin A , the active form more than eating tomatoes or carrots without avocado.

You can read more about this research here.

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