Avocados!  1 Serving (3 ounces or about ½ of a medium sized avocado) contains about 20 different vitamins and minerals,  about 5 grams of fiber, and healthy unsaturated fats at about 130 calories.  If you love them already, great!  If you avoid them because they are a “high fat” fruit, it might be time to reconsider. Yes, avocado is technically a fruit.  It grows on a tree, you pick it like a peach and it has a big pit in it too (like a peach). Interesting news about avocados … a study done with overweight and mildly obese people found that including a 2 to 3 ounce serving of avocado with lunch had several wonderful effects.  All the participants ate the same breakfast followed a few hours later by a prepared lunch that either contained no avocado, or contained 2 to 3 ounces of avocado instead of some other portion of the lunch (so the calories consumed were not changed), or had the standard lunch with the addition of 2 to 3 ounces of avocado (so the calories consumed increased an average of 112).  When compared to no avocado, the avocado with lunch groups showed these results at 3 hours after lunch:

• A 22-24% decrease in feelings of hunger
• An 11 % increase in feelings of fullness
• A 22-26% increase in meal satisfaction
• A 24-40% decrease is desire to eat
• A 17-23% decrease in the amount they felt they could eat.

OK, need I say more?  Probably not, but I have one more fun fact to add.  Avocados contain a unique sugar, d-mannoheptulose. It looks like this sugar can support blood sugar control and weight management by affecting certain enzymes that affect carbohydrate metabolism. This is an exciting area of ongoing scientific research.  Who knew?? So, it looks like avocados should be added to our healthy diets. Yumm.  This study was about avocado with lunch but it seems to me, that avocado anytime during the day might be a really nice addition. Please pass the guacamole!!

Resources:

Avocado Facts

D-Mannoheptulose