Nutrition
The fibre and healthy fats packed into avocados make them a tempting food to eat in abundance.
Avocados are packed with fibre and healthy fats.
Question: My family love avocados and know they contain good oils. But should we limit how many we eat?
Answer:
Avocado New Zealand is expecting a bumper crop, so it’s looking like a great season for avocado lovers. They’re a popular food for eating as well as for photographing and featuring – or pinning – on social media site Pinterest. By all accounts, avocados were the most pinned food of 2015. Perhaps with good reason. Each fruit is packed with healthy fats, vitamins, minerals and fibre, making it a nutrient-rich addition to the diet. But tempting as it is to slice one onto your lunch, is it a good idea? After all, they also contain a lot of fat.
Fat is not the only thing they have in abundance. A single avocado contains 8g of fibre, a sizeable contribution to the daily target of 25g for women and 30g for men. A kiwifruit, in contrast, has 1.72.2g of fibre, a banana 2g and an apple about 2.7g.
In terms of fat, they’re a big source of the healthy varieties. A single fruit has about 44g of fat, of which 31g is monounsaturated, 5g polyunsaturated and 6g saturated. The predominance of monounsaturated fat qualifies avocados as good for heart health. A number of clinical trials have shown that they may improve blood cholesterol levels, thereby lowering cardiovascular risk.
The healthy fats also boost absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and antioxidants from other foods, such as tomatoes, carrots and leafy greens. Scientists have found that when avocado is added to a tomato salsa, it enhances the uptake of lycopene (a carotenoid found in tomatoes) and beta-carotene (found in carrots and leafy greens, among other things) by 4.4 and 2.6 times respectively. Adding 150g of avocado to a salad boosted lutein and alpha- and beta-carotene absorption by 7.2, 15.3, and 5.1 times.
Because they’re rich in fat, they’re also high in energy. The 44g of fat in an avocado equates to about 1630kJ, or about 19% of an average person’s daily energy intake. The Ministry of Health recommends we get 20-35%
of our energy from dietary fats.
New Zealand has no standard serving size for avocado, but most guides suggest it should be half a fruit, which is in line with the US. For people who eat plenty of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, lean meats and low-fat dairy products, half an avocado is fine. It may also be quite satiating, according to a 2014 study – funded, notably, by the US-based Hass Avocado Board.
In another study funded by the board, US researchers tested a moderate-fat diet (34% of daily energy from fat) containing an avocado a day, along with small amounts of cheese, low-fat dairy products and some
nuts, on a group of overweight and obese adults. The group maintained their body weight during the study and their blood cholesterol levels improved, leading to the conclusion that an avocado a day as part of a moderate-fat diet could have beneficial effects on cardio-metabolic risk factors.
Those who took part in the trial were, or course, under close supervision to ensure their energy intake was balanced. So if you opt to eat an avocado a day, consider your total fat (and therefore energy) intake and limit the inclusion of other high-fat foods such as cheese, nuts and oils.