Fats Foster Better Nutrition

[SuzeQuze]

This is a timely bulletin regarding adding avocado to salads! The fat helps your body absorb nutrients. Which reminds me, if you take a multi-vitamin you should take it when you are having a meal that contains some fat.

Fat has been so maligned in our culture. I think we should be eating more fat than "they" say. I have tried low fat diets and I wind up hungry all the time. I think about 30% fat is about right which is a reduced fat diet compared to the average American's 50%.

From drweil.com

Believe it or not, adding fats to salads can make them healthier, according to research conducted at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

In a study published in the March, 2005, Journal of Nutrition, eleven study participants ate a mixed salad or a tomato salsa, with and without avocado or avocado oils. From three to five times more carotenoid nutrients such as lycopene and beta-carotene were absorbed by the participants [guys, this is good for your prostate!] who ate the salad with avocados, which are about 17 percent fat. Previous studies have shown just as much benefit comes from including full-fat dressing on salads.

Naturally, the key here is balance. Fatty salad dressing may help you absorb fat-soluble antioxidants and carotenoids, but keep your daily caloric load in mind before upending a bottle over your greens. I recommend sparing use of fatty salad dressing, but more liberal ingestion of avocados, which come with lots of vitamins, minerals and monounsaturated fats. Since the fat is part of the fruit, overdosing on the fat in this form is less likely.