The avocado is often considered a vegetable but it’s actually a fruit, the “oily berry”. Many dieters avoid avocados because of their fat content. Not only are they unaware of that the lipid theory of heart disease is bogus and people switching to high healthy fat diets are losing weight, but they’re missing one of the healthiest foods available. Avocado is increasingly being considered a superfood.

It’s important to understand that a body needs fats, as long as they’re healthy ones. Omega 3 fatty acids are missing in the average western diet. And this missing fatty acid is behind lots of bad health and disease. It just so happens that avocados are high in omega 3 and omega 6.

Avocados are a rich source of wholesome unsaturated beneficial fats with lots of oleic acid, which is good for heart health. High fructose corn syrups (HFCS) and refined sugar in processed foods and beverages more commonly create obesity, along with cooked starches, pasteurized dairy, and factory farm meats.

Avocados Come with All the Amino Acids You Get from Animal Protein

The avocado provides all 18 essential amino acids needed by a body to create a complete protein. But instead of going through the effort of breaking down complex animal proteins for usable amino acids, avocados offer complete amino acid kits for your body to use according to its needs.

Unlike meats, avocados don’t putrefy in the stomach, and with avocados’ high fiber content there’s no threat of constipation. Avocados are without the antibiotics and hormones that are injected into the GMO corn/soy meal fed cattle raised for mass slaughter to fill the meat counters of supermarkets.

Avocado’s Other Nutrients

Avocados are bursting with enzymes, phytonutrients, and rich in minerals, including the usually deficient master mineral magnesium, which is involved in over 300 cellular metabolic functions. They also help the liver manufacture glutathione, the important master antioxidant that replenishes spent antioxidants.

Vitamins A, much of the B complex, K, E, and C are also available in avocados. The nutrient order of importance is enzymes, minerals, and vitamins. Vitamins won’t work without minerals, and neither minerals nor vitamins get into your cells without enzymes.

There are few accessible tasty foods packing as much nutritional value as avocados. Here’s a table of fats, amino acids, minerals, and vitamins – all the nutrients in avocado.

Picking and Preparing

You can get away with non-organic avocados and save some money. Consult the EWG’s (Environmental Working Group) “Dirty Dozen – Clean 15” list.

Many of them come from Mexico, where avocado is served commonly in homes and restaurants. Other tropical and semi-tropical regions bountiful in avocado trees are India, South Africa, California, and Florida.

You can tell when avocados are ripe mostly by feel. If you can mush an avocado slightly with a gentle squeeze, it’s ready to eat. However, if you are not using all of them right away, it’s okay pick some hard ones and let them ripen at home.

Remove the skin by cutting into it just enough to peel it off and preserve the dark green section nearest the skin where a lot of nutrition is concentrated. Sliced for salads is an ideal way of eating avocados easily and often.

There several recipes for blending avocados and making dressings or sauces. But the party or snack favorite is the big Kahuna for nutrition as well as taste: guacamole!

The combination of mashed avocado, olive oil, sea salt, pepper, a little chopped chili or jalapeno, finely chopped onions and mashed garlic creates a synergistic super food as well as a tasty treat.

Consider the following video a guide that you can adjust according to your individual taste. Personally, I go light on the hot stuff and heavy on the salt and finely diced onion. Just make sure you eliminate the seeds from chili pepper or jalapeno carefully without getting any in your eyes.

But the video will let you see how easy and quick “guac” is to make.