Avocados: Superfood??

It seems like everyone has been jumping on the Avocado Train recently, adding this “new” Super Food to their traditional menu to entice consumers and convince them that their menu is now healthy.

The term superfood is typically used to describe foods that are high density foods packed with nutrients  beneficial for health, giving you more bang for your buck.  Not too shabby!  So, then what makes avocados such a superfood anyway? And do these “Super Avocados” really make fast food meals more nutritious??

According to the NIH, there are 13 essential vitamins your body needs to stay healthy. Avocados contain 10 of these.  To give you an idea: it has more potassium than bananas, antioxidants that keep your immune system strong, as well as folate, vitamin K, fiber and B vitamins. Avocados have even been shown to have a protective effect on those undergoing chemotherapy, and it's potential to selectively induce cell cycle arrest is being investigated (aka. it could help protect from cancer!) Additionally, 1oz. or approx 1/5 of an avocado contains 4.5g of monounsaturated fat (MUFA), which is a “good” fat.  It has been shown to reduce levels of LDL (bad cholesterol) and improve HDL (good cholesterol) levels.  MUFA's also help your body absorb carotenoids, which are good things found in fruits and veggies.  So if when eating a salad, throw in some avocado for an extra nutritional kick!

The one place you need to be careful with avocados is that, per calorie, it is high in fat.  Eating an entire avocado provides nearly HALF of your daily recommended serving of fat (50-70g/day). Nevertheless, we should keep in mind that this is a GOOD fat. We have been trained to see fat and immediate shy away from it, but with avocados, it can be ok if incorporated into a balanced diet.

That being said, how should we view avocado filled meals that are now a part of many fast-food restaurants? With Wendy's Guacamole Chicken Club, the Smashbuger, Burger King's California Whopper, and Subway's sandwiches, avocado's nutritional value has recently been pushed excessively through advertising.  Is this SuperFood really super enough to make your 600 -800 (300-500 of which are from fat) calorie meal healthy??

Well, the obvious response is no. If you are eating fast food for your meals, the sodium content alone (1400mg!!) can be detrimental regardless of avocado.   However, studies HAVE shown that monounsaturated FA, from avocado's specifically, help reduce cholesterol in those with mildy high cholesterol (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8987188). So maybe you should get that whopper with guacamole, that is as long as the guacamole is made mostly of avocado and not some other additive.

Wait, so me, the health-nut is supporting fast food?? Ummm, that would be a negative. BUT, what I am saying is that I understand that sometimes you don't really have a choice and fast food is your only option.   Maybe you're on the road, maybe you're on a time crunch and eating a salad while driving isn't a feasible option.  For those one-in-a-while occasions where you have to eat fast food, yeah adding avocado could add a bit a nutritional value to an otherwise heart-stopping meal.  Plus, if you're grabbing fast food, you can't expect a top of the line nutritional experience anyway.  Might as well enjoy your moment of indulgent, and maybe add a little avocado to make yourself feel better.

As for everyday eating, its best NOT to eat fast food, but DO find ways to incorporate more avocados (maybe just ½ per meal if you're wary about the fat content - which is really ok as long as you're not eating other meals high in saturated fat) into your diet because they are AWESOME!!