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Once You Learn This You Will Never Throw Out the Avocado Pit Again

  • June 22, 2018

Avocados are a great food that’s both healthy and tasty. But did you know that the pit — which most everyone throws away with the peel — is a rich source of health advantages too? Healthy Holistic Living offers seven reasons not to throw the pits away. From curbing your appetite to offering polyphenols and free radicals that tone your skin and may even help prevent Alzheimer’s, to anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antioxidant benefits, the pits are worth saving and using. Just place the pit in a bag and pound it into pieces with a hammer or mallet, then grind the pieces into a fine powder, which you can use as a garnish or addition to your smoothies or other recipes.

When it comes to nutrition, avocados are in a class by themselves because of the unusually large number of benefits they offer — more than 20 at last count. Loaded with fiber, one avocado contains 36 percent of the daily requirement of vitamin K, 30 percent of the folate, and 20 percent each of the daily requirements of pantothenic acid (vitamin B5, needed to break down carbohydrates), vitamin B6, vitamin C and potassium — more than twice the potassium of a banana.

Avocadoes are also one of the few fruits that will provide you with the “good” fats necessary for a well-balanced diet, especially if you’re ketogenically. The fats in avocados are monounsturated so your body can easily burn them for energy. This type of fat also helps your body absorb fat-soluble vitamins from other foods. And the fun thing about this is if you don’t grind up the pit, you can always plant it instead, and grow your own avocado plant.

If you don't get any other concept about how avocados can literally change your health, this might move you: The high fat content in avocados is a good thing — it's not "bad" fat. And while some people remain concerned that eating high-fat foods like avocados may adversely affect their cholesterol levels, the opposite is actually true — in fact, one study showed that people who eat avocados have higher levels of beneficial HDL cholesterol than those who do not.

Eating avocados may also lower triglyceride levels compared to eating high-carb diets or diets without avocado.