Avocado Nutrition Facts…or Fiction
Avocados are easy to love. Their creamy texture, gorgeous green colors ranging from the dark green pebbly skin to the pale green flesh, and their versatility make them a must-have produce item – something to buy every time you visit the grocery store. But are they really good for your health and wellbeing? Which avocado nutrition facts are real, and what is fiction? Here’s the scoop.
Like other fruits, avocados are mostly water.
While it is true that, by weight, avocados are mostly water, they contain less water than many other fruits. A Hass avocado, otherwise known as a California Avocado, is 72% water, followed by 15% fat, 9% carbohydrate (mostly fiber), and 2% protein. The remaining 2% is made up of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.
Avocados contain good-for-you fats.
This is an avocado nutrition fact. Nearly 80% of the fat in Hass avocados is unsaturated with the majority being monounsaturated fat, the type that helps maintain healthy cholesterol levels and reduce risk of heart disease.
Avocados are full of fiber.
This may be surprising given their creamy texture, but it is true. One serving of avocados (about ⅓ of a medium avocado) provides 3 grams of fiber, or about 11% of your Daily Value. Adding avocados to your daily food routine is a great way to boost your fiber intake.
Adding avocados to salads helps you get more nutrients from other fruits, vegetables, and other foods.
This is also true. The good-for-you fats in avocados help our bodies absorb fat-soluble vitamins like vitamins A, D, E, and K, as well as phytonutrients.
Let’s say you make a spinach salad topped with oven-roasted salmon, blistered cherry tomatoes, diced avocado, slivered almonds, and a Ranch-style dressing made with whole milk. The good fat in the avocado will help your body absorb more of the vitamin K from the spinach, lycopene from the tomatoes, vitamins A and D from the salmon, vitamin E from the almonds, and vitamin D from the milk.
Here are a Few Delicious Recipes Featuring Avocado to Get You Started!
Avocados are a nutrient-dense food.
Yes, this is an avocado nutrition fact. Avocados contain nearly 20 essential vitamins and minerals, as well as phytonutrients with multiple health benefits, like lutein and zeaxanthin, carotenoid compounds that promote eye health.
Check out this Avocado Baked Eggs recipe from our friend GFREE Foodie.
Looking for Delicious Avocado Recipes to Try?
The next time you purchase a California Avocado, take a moment to thank the farm families who grow them and to celebrate all the amazing avocado nutrition facts you just learned!
This article was written by Amy Myrdal Miller, MS, RDN, FAND Registered Dietitian Nutritionist
Amy Myrdal Miller, MS, RDN, FAND, is an award-winning dietitian, farmer’s daughter, public speaker, author, and president of Farmer’s Daughter® Consulting, Inc., an agriculture, food, and culinary communications firm. Amy’s career highlights include working for Dole Food Company, the California Walnut Commission and California Walnut Board, and The Culinary Institute of America. A farmer’s daughter from North Dakota, today Amy and her husband Scott Miller live in Carmichael, California with “the interns” Violet Grey and Schroeder the Shredder.