Today I’m excited to write about why avocados are important for healthy weight gain.

This is my main go-to fruit for gaining weight and there so many ways to enjoy it.

I’ve previously recommended avocado as a weight food and today I’m going to tell you why, and also give you some ideas of how to use this delicious food for healthy weight gain.

So avocados are pretty well known around the world, but there will still be some places where they aren’t that common.

Now one great thing about avocados is their tough skin prevents insects from eating them, meaning few pesticides are sprayed on them. This tough skin also protects the inside flesh from the chemicals.

Avocados are definitely a staple in my house. There is hardly a week that goes by that they don’t make it into the shopping basket.

On the whole I’m kind of obsessed with them and they have worked so well for me with gaining healthy weight. Oh, and they taste amazing.

But, there are also people out there that don’t like the taste of avocado and think it would be too hard to eat this to gain weight.

Honestly, my first taste of avocado was underwhelming! It took several tries before I got into it.

But no worries mate, because you can still enjoy the benefits by pairing it with other food that may somewhat “mask” the taste if it’s not to your palate.

So let’s start off with why this green fruit is so great. By the way, this is not a list of ALL the benefits, just a few.

Benefits of Avocados

1. Avocados are full of nutrients.

They have about 20 vitamins and minerals in varying amounts including vitamin K, C, B1, B2, B3, B6 and E. 

But wait, there’s more!

They are rich in folate and magnesium and have trace amounts of zinc, copper and iron among others. 

What does this mean to you?

Well it means avocados fuel your body through good fats and protein. The B vitamins help convert food into energy.This fruit also protects the body against inflammation and can help lower blood pressure. Vitamin E also helps with brain health. 

Very importantly for our weight gain needs, a medium sized avocado has about 250 whopping calories. How good is that? 

2. Rich source of unsaturated fats.

Avocados are rich in fats, and that is a good thing.

The best part is this fat is mostly unsaturated which can help in lowering cholesterol.

Unsaturated fats protect against heart disease. Some researchers even recommend eating an avocado a day for this reason.

3. Anti-cancer properties

The antioxidants and phytochemicals in avocados may help stop cancerous cells from forming.

Studies show people with a diet rich in foods such as oleic acid (found in avocados) have a reduced risk of developing some cancers.

4. They support brain and eye health

Avocados are a good source of vitamin E and lutein which may help protect against memory and cognitive decline, as well as diseases such as Alzheimer’s. 

Lutein helps with keeping brain cells healthy.

But lutein is also important for eye health too and has a number of benefits including protection from sunlight damage and inflammation.

5. Avocados help your body absorb other nutrients

While it is vital to eat a nutrient rich diet, the body also needs to be able to absorb these nutrients during digestion. 

For example, people are encouraged to pair plant based foods rich in iron with foods high in vitamin C.

That’s because the vitamin C helps the body to break down iron into a form that the body can absorb and use.

Similarly, fat soluble nutrients need to combine with a fat source to be absorbed during digestion. And this is where our good friend avocado come in.

In this way the intestine is able to absorb all the nutrients it needs and this is important, because deficiency has been linked to an increased risk of developing cancer.

6. Great source of fibre

Fibre is undigested plant material that can’t be broken down by the human body. Avocados as a whole food provide good amounts of fibre.

We need fibre for digestion, gut and bowel health, and to maintain glucose levels among other things.

How To Gain Weight Using Avocados:

So now you’ve seen some of the reasons why avocados are important for healthy weight gain.

But how do you get them into your diet? Well, there are tons of ways to enjoy this creamy fruit. Here I’ve listed a few ways to get started with avocados today.

• Have them in salads
• In sandwiches and paninis.
• With just salt, pepper, chilli, lemon, vinegar etc.
• As a spread or replacement for butter on breads. For example on toast, naan, chapati etc.
• They are delicious in smoothies
• Sliced over pasta dishes and risottos.
• Finger licking goodness in dips, especially guacamole.
• Avocado halves stuffed with eggs or cheese, canned fish or tomatoes and then baked in the oven.
• Sliced and enjoyed on a bowl of soup.
• Mashed in desserts like ice cream, popsicles and mousse.

Again I love avocados so I’m “just a little” biased, however if you don’t like the taste or texture, you could add to avocado into mixtures like home-made popsicles, dips e.g. hummus, smoothies etc. to disguise the taste.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post on why avocados are important for healthy weight gain, and will get them into your diet ASAP.

Honestly, there aren’t that many whole foods that can offer all these benefits.