Avocados have an extraordinary ability to help your body absorb nutrients from other foods. You will get more efficient digestion and substantially more health benefits from the carrots and tomatoes in your salad if you add in a half of avocado as well. This is likely due to the monounsaturated fat of the avocado which increases your body's absorption of carotenoid phytonutrients, such as beta-carotene, which converts to vitamin A in your body when digested.
Fat
Avocados are 11 to 17 percent fat. The fat includes 63 percent monounsaturated fat, 20 percent polyunsaturated fat and 17 percent saturated fat. To meet basic dietary needs, we need only 1 tbsp. of unsaturated oil each day to help us absorb fat-soluble vitamins. Avocados are a perfect source of dietary fat: raw, pure and digestible. However, fat can delay the digestion of other foods in the stomach by inhibiting the secretion of gastric juices. To counteract this effect, avocados are best eaten with raw, green vegetables, thus restoring gastric secretion and normal digestion even when also combined with a faster digesting starch.
Protein
Avocados are a low protein food, having 1.3 percent protein in Florida varieties and 2.2 percent protein in those grown in California. Though avocados are low in protein, they have more protein than milk and more usable protein than a huge steak. Unlike a raw avocado, the protein in cooked meat is mostly unavailable to your liver, the organ that makes our body's protein. Various proteins will differ in type, gastric acidity and timing of secretions for digestion. For this reason and better digestion, you should not combine avocados with other proteins.
Fruit
Avocados, also known as alligator pears, are fatty, creamy fruit bursting with vitamins, minerals, enzymes, soluble fiber and a high water content. They have more easily digested fats and proteins than most other fruits. You can eat avocado with other fruits because the fat content of the avocado does not interfere with the stomach's emptying time. Also, the protein in an avocado is not adequate to interfere with the digestion of other fruit. Sweet, fresh fruits, such as a banana, will digest well with an avocado. You need to soak dried, sweet fruit overnight in water before eating it for it to easily digest with an avocado.
Nutrients
Avocados are a super food packed full of nutrients. An avocado will supply vitamins A, B-complex, C, E, H, K and folic acid. The many mineral benefits include magnesium, calcium, copper, potassium, iron and other trace minerals. An avocado provides all the essential amino acids plus seven fatty acids including omega-3 and 6. They have no cholesterol. Though avocados are relatively high in calories, 48 per ounce, they can help fight obesity because they boost the feeling of fullness that signals you to stop eating, thus helping to control calorie intake.
References
- Raw Food Explained: 4.3 Protein-Fat Combinations; 4.4 Fats in Combination with Other Foods
- "Ultimate Healing World's Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets"; Volume II; Bottom Line Books; 2008
- Living and Raw Foods: Avocado - the Fruit That Would Make Butter and Meat Obsolete; "Living Nutrition Magazine"; vol. 1.1; David Klein
