Eat avocados, get healthy

Source: Best Health Magazine, January/February 2009

Avocados’and their many nutrients’are well worth adding to your healthy diet. Easily added to many meals, avocados are packed with monounsaturated fat’the kind found in olive oil’that can help lower cholesterol, reduce risk of heart disease and keep blood glucose in check. They also provide magnesium, vitamin C and folate, and half a medium avocado has more potassium than a banana. Plus, avocados contain more soluble fibre and protein than any other fruit.

Weighty warning

The only negative: One medium avocado has roughly 320 calories, about 16 percent of your daily intake.

Healthy hit

Replace other fat sources by using mashed avocado as a spread on toast or in sandwiches instead of butter or mayonnaise, or slices of it to replace cheese.

Perfect pick

Choose a hard fruit that seems heavy for its size and allow it to ripen at room temperature over a few days until it darkens. Then press gently’if it gives a bit, it’s ready to eat.

Quick guacamole

For a fresh-tasting snack, mash avocado and mix with lemon or lime juice, chopped tomatoes, garlic, cilantro and red onion. The citrus juice will keep it from going brown. Store guacamole in a tightly sealed container and bring it to work with some rice crackers for dipping. Yum! Or try these healthy avocado recipes:

‘ Avocado and Chicken Club Sandwich
‘ Avocado and Shrimp Cups
‘ Avocado Carpaccio with Wild Blueberry Cottage Cheese Mix
‘ Broiled Salmon with Avocado-Mango Salsa
‘ Classic Guacamole

How do you like to prepare avocados? Share your tips in the comments.

This article was originally titled "Amazing Avocados," in the January/February 2009 issue of Best Health. Subscribe today and never miss an issue!