Avocados are an all-in-one Genius Food—the perfect food to protect and enhance your brain. To start, they have the highest total fat-protecting capacity of any fruit or vegetable.
This is good news for your brain, which is not only the fattiest organ in your body, but also a magnet for oxidative stress (a major driver of aging)—a consequence of the fact that 25 percent of the oxygen you breathe goes to create energy in your brain!
Avocados are also rich in different types of vitamin E (a characteristic not many supplements can claim), and they are a potent repository for the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin. Conveniently, avocados are an abundant source of healthy fats.
Today there is an epidemic of vascular disease, not only in the form of heart disease, but as vascular dementia, which is the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s.
Potassium works with sodium to regulate blood pressure and is essential for vascular health, but today we tend to consume insufficient amounts of potassium. In fact, scientists believe that our hunter-gatherer ancestors consumed four times as much potassium as we do today, which may explain why hypertension, stroke, and vascular dementia are now so common. By providing twice the potassium content of a banana, a whole avocado is the perfect food to nurture the brain’s estimated four hundred miles of microvasculature.
Finally, who needs fiber supplements (or cheap, industrially produced morning cereals) when you can eat an avocado? One whole medium avocado contains a whopping 12 grams of fiber food for the hungry bacteria that live in your gut, which will ultimately pay their rent in the form of life- and brain-sustaining compounds that reduce inflammation, enhance insulin sensitivity, and boost growth factors in the brain.
Pro tip: Avocados are known for taking a long time to ripen, and only a day or two to foul. To keep extra avocados from going bad, pop them in the fridge once ripe, and take them out when ready to eat.
Text Source: Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life
Avocado is rich in heart-healthy monounsaturated fatty acids which decrease the blood triglycerides and cholesterol.
One serving is about 1 tablespoon. It contains 45 calories.
Avocado doesn’t contain cholesterol and is low in sodium and saturated fats. It’s high with fibers which prevents constipation and decrease the risk of colon cancer.
