People can be very lukewarm about avocados. If you don’t know when they are at their peak of ripeness, they can be a bit off in both taste and texture; that is, tasteless and waxy in texture.
Until recently, people chose avocados not in part because they thought they were tasteless, but mainly because they thought they were high in fat and cholesterol. We all needed more information to make a healthy choice about this fruit.
If you eat a ripe avocado… that is, neither too green nor too ripe, it is a delicacy! The flavor is amazing and the texture is so creamy!
If that’s not enough to make you love eating them, do you know how healthy avocados are for you? They have great benefits, especially for vegetarians.
One of the biggest challenges if you eat a vegetarian, or primarily vegetarian, diet is getting enough good-quality protein. Avocados provide a complete protein! As the avocado ripens on the tree, the sun breaks down the proteins in the avocado into easily digestible amino acids. Your body needs all 18 essential amino acids to create complete proteins, and you can get this complete protein by eating avocados!
Avocados are also a wonderful source of healthy fats, and we now know that healthy fats are essential for good health, and especially good brain health. Studies have shown that eating avocados has beneficial effects on cardiometabolic risk factors and has produced lower levels of LDL (low-density lipoprotein), or “bad” cholesterol.
All of this makes eating avocados beneficial for everyone! But how do you eat them? They’re easy to add to your meals, so use your imagination. Cut them into a salad; shred them and use them as a sandwich spread; top your scrambled eggs with them; you can even make an amazing chocolate mousse pudding with avocados; And then there’s always the guacamole.
If you’re on a tight budget and trying to eat as much organic produce as you can, it’s good to know that so far, avocados are on the Environmental Working Group’s “Clean 15” food list. In other words, they are among the foods that are least sprayed with pesticides. At the moment, you can get conventionally grown avocados at lower prices than organic ones.
One last tip: eating an avocado at the right time can make you love them. Buy several at a time, keep a couple in the fridge, and take them out a day or two before you need them at the right ripeness. That way you’ll always have a beautiful, creamy avocado ready when you need it!