by Eric Ruark

Created on: March 06, 2009   Last Updated: March 16, 2009

It has been said that you are what you eat. If you want to be healthy, eat healthy, and eating healthy means choosing food that provides real nutrition to the human body. Enter the avocado. If you're interested in lowering your cholesterol and increasing your cardiovascular health, then look no farther than the Persea americana. The avocado, whether it is the West Indian, Guatemalan or Mexican type, is an incredibly nutrient-dense food that offers some very surprising

health benefits.

It is high in unsaturated fatty acids (monosaturates) especially oleic acid and linoleic acid which in various studies have been shown to help lower LDL cholesterol levels while raising the healthy HDL cholesterol levels. The cholesterol lowering power comes from the avocado's beta-sitosterol content. Beta-sitosterol is the plant equivalent of cholesterol in animals. In the human body it competes for absorption with cholesterol in the blood stream. When the Beta-sitosterol is absorbed, the LDL cholesterol is not.

Avocados are also an excellent source of potassium, magnesium, folic acid, vitamin A, vitamin E, B vitamins, and fiber. In fact, an avocado's potassium level is two or three times the potassium content of a banana. Potassium helps regulate blood pressure by helping to balance the acidity/alkalinity of the body's fluids. Magnesium is essential for healthy bones and also has been shown to aid in the prevention of migraines and type II diabete. Magnesium is also very important in the regulation of cardiac rhythms. The folate in avocados contributes to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Because of this, avocados are considered a vasodilator. They also contain glutathione, an antioxidant that has been shown to block thirty different carcinogens.

But perhaps one of the most interesting effects that researchers have discovered about avocados is that the fruit acts as a "nutrient booster". The human body has to absorb the nutrients from the food it takes in for them to be of any benefit. According to one study, "adding 75 grams of avocado to a carrot/lettuce/spinach salad increased the absorption of... alpha-carotene by 8.3 times, beta-carotene by 13.6 times, and lutein by 4.3 times compared to the same salad without the avocado."

However despite the benefits of avacados, there is also one word of warning. Avocados contain chitinases, enzymes that cause allergic reactions in people with a sensitivity to latex. Some avocados are treated with ethylene gas to induce ripening. This also increases the presence of the allergenic enzymes. Therefore, people who are senstive to latex should not handle or eat avocados.

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