Avocados Get The Green Light As Healthy Food

Fresh salads become ever more attractive as the summer mercury rises. And the nice thing about a salad is that there’s no end to the number of healthy ingredients one can include. Tomatoes, of course, as well as all those great greens – lettuce, spring onions, kale, celery and broccoli, to name but a few.

One remarkably adaptable and versatile green fruit that makes for a great addition to any salad is the avocado. Also, unlike most fruit, avocados can be served as a starter, main course or dessert. AND they mix very well with so many other healthy foods.

JIGGS IMAGES / Food Photos / CC BY-NC-ND

It’s difficult to explain to a non-connoisseur the importance of a good avocado. I’ll never forget once seeing my father turn back a hard avocado in an allegedly prestigious restaurant. Since then I have always scrutinized these fruit carefully, learning to distinguish between the over-ripe and the just SO right. And one of my most enjoyable experiences was being entrusted with looking after my beloved fruit on a kibbutz when I was 18.

On the subject of ripeness – if you are buying avocados at the market, then you should err to the other side and avoid the super-soft variety. Better to buy them slightly hard and allow them to mature at home. A good tip for ripening an avocado quickly is to put it in a tightly wrapped brown paper bag with a ripe banana and leave it for a few hours.

Half an avocado a day keeps the doctor away

Avocados received a bum rap a few years back. Just as popular health “experts” often warned against eating coconut oil or coconut milk, causing many people to spurn a nutritious and healthy food, another health myth was that avocados had a high caloric and fat content.

Actually, most health experts now agree that the opposite is true. Avocados provide all 18 essential amino acids necessary for the body to form a complete protein. Unlike the protein in steak, which is difficult to digest, avocado protein is readily absorbed by the body because avocados also contain fiber. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, avocados are a great nutritional ally to include not merely as an occasional treat, but as a regular part of your diet.

The fat content, which causes some uninformed health “experts” to deem avocados as unhealthy, actually protects against heart disease. Studies have shown that oleic acid improves cardiovascular health. Oleic acid is the primary fatty acid in avocados. Many people now take supplements in order to consume more omega-3 fatty acids to lower their risk of heart disease. Avocados are rich in omega-3, delivering 160 milligrams per cup of alpha-linolenic acid.

Starter, salad, snack or sweet

Avocados can make a very good starter or light snack. What better than an orange and avocado salad – or fruit salad and avocado – on a hot day? Popular variants that include avocado are hard-boiled egg whites with avocado, avocado tuna salad (with the avocado substituting for the usual “fatty” dose of mayonnaise) or roasted pineapple and avocado salad.

A classic and ever-popular starter is avocado vinaigrette. Slice the avocado in half (half an avocado a day is considered a great “dose” by most nutritionists) and prepare a sauce containing lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, a dash of mustard and pepper. Avocado with prawns and Marie Rose sauce is another classic, if perhaps rather more fatty entree. 

Chilled avocado soup

Avocado soup is an alternative (fairly unconventional) starter and you will benefit from a really  high quality blender in this process. For office workers on the move, a light lunchtime snack from your local deli could be avocado, feta and cabbage wrap or a spiced avocado sandwich.

Avocado can also figure in a more ambitious main course. Those with more voracious appetites could try chicken, avocado and mushroom in white wine and brandy sauceor sesame pork & avocado salad with ginger lime dressing or avocado scooped from the shell and tossed in a  pan with bacon, cucumber and a squeeze of lemon. If you’re so fond of avocado that you want one for dessert, then you will be pleased to know that avocado ice cream is available. A popular but little known Portuguese variant is avocado laced with port wine. The more ambitious could opt for avocado lime cheesecake tart.

Avocados may belong to the “acquired taste” set of culinary delights but, once acquired, there’s no turning back and – it’s official –  they are as healthy as they are tasty. So smile!!