Healthy avocado and lime spread

The super goodness of avocados

I went back to researching fats and oils recently and came across an excellent chart for choosing the best oils for good health. But sadly, it omitted avocado oil, one of my favorites. So I did a little digging around to learn more about avocados.

Turns out avocado oil has many amazing qualities. First off, it has a fat profile almost identical to olive oil. As olive oil is generally considered one of the healthiest fats you can use, that means ditto for avocado oil. Check out all that avocados can do for you below.

While looking around, I found two interesting recipes featuring avocados and tweaked them both to my liking. The first one appears here. It’s my avocado and lime spread. It’s easy and can be made up to 4 or 5 days ahead. Store it in the fridge under plastic wrap pressed onto the surface to prevent exposure to air.

Creamy avocado and lime spread
Makes about one cup

• 1 medium ripe avocado, peeled and pitted
• 1/2 cup low-fat Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1 teaspoon grated lime zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Grate the rind of the lime and squeeze the juice into a small cup for measuring.

Roughly chop a handful of washed cilantro leaves.

Quarter the avocado and use a spoon to loosen the flesh from the skin. Discard the stone.

Roughly chop the avocado.

Puré all the ingredients together. I like my wand blender for this job. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if needed. Enjoy!

Use the spread as a side with chicken or pork, or include it in sandwich wraps. You can also serve it as a dip for veggie sticks, crackers, or chips. I found some chips that had been fried in avocado oil, for a double hit of the good stuff. Avocado oil is stable under very high heat, so it’s excellent for deep frying potato chips.

Avocado oil has a high smoke point, making it a great choice for deep frying.

How avocados protect our health

Avocados are simply loaded with good nutrition. They are a good source of omega-3 fats, a nutrient lacking in western diets. Omega-3 is needed to balance the over-consumption of omega-6 fats, which is much more readily available in western diets. Imbalance of omega-6 over omega-3 fats is considered the main cause of many of the serious chronic inflammatory diseases plaguing the population in the western world today – heart problems, stroke, diabetes, many types of cancer, and Alzheimer’s. Both of these fats are needed to ensure healthy body biochemistry, but must be present in a healthy ratio.

Avocados also provide a natural plant sterol called beta-sitosterol. Regularly consuming beta-sitosterol and other plant sterols may help maintain healthy cholesterol levels, which are so important for heart health.

Avocados protects vision.

Older folks might be concerned about worsening vison. Avocados protect against macular degeneration, a condition that can’t be corrected once it occurs. Phytochemicals, antioxidants, beneficial fats, and beta-carotene in avocados all work together to help promote healthy eyesight well into our senior years.

Vitamin K content in avocados helps prevent osteoporosis by increasing the absorption of calcium needed for bone strength and reducing excretion of calcium in the urine.

The folate in avocados is linked to brain health, making avocados one of our mood foods. Eat avocados – be happy! A simplification, of course, but the biochemistry, although complex, suggests that folate can assist in lifting depression and protecting against Alzheimer’s.

But one other important reason to eat avocados is that they taste good and they fill you up. If you are watching your weight, be careful of the amount of avocado you eat. It is full of good fiber and good fats, but that means the calorie count is higher than it is for other fruits.

Try this easy recipe or another one that I’m posting separately featuring avocados – easy guacamole. So till next time, “What does a duck who eats avocados say? Guac!”