This creamy flavour-filled fruit is a powerhouse of nutrients. It helps fight cancer, keeps your heart healthy and can also delay aging.

Avocado and its nutrients:

Avocados are getting popular as your neighbourhood fruits vendor too has begun to stock them. This creamy, delicious fruit contain many essential nutrients such as folic acid, potassium, fibre, vitamin E, B-vitamins. In addition this fruit is known as a nutrient-booster as it aids better nutrient absorption.

Health benefits of avocados:

Protection against oral cancer: Research suggests that certain compounds in avocados manage to seek out pre-cancerous and cancerous oral cancer cells and destroy them, without causing any harm to healthy cells.

Keeps breast cancer away: Avocado also helps prevent breast cancer. Like olive oil, this fruit is high in oleic acid, which according to many studies is known to prevent breast cancer.

Protects against prostate cancer: Avocado also inhibits the growth of prostate cancer.

For a healthy heart: Studies show that people who eat foods rich in folate have lesser chances of developing health diseases. A cup of avocado meet b23% of the recommended value of folate, so make it a part of your daily diet to keep heart diseases at bay. Additionally, avocado contains good amounts of vitamin E, monounsaturated fats and glutathione, which are good for you heart.

Prevents stroke: This fruit contents high amounts of folic acid, which as per various studies is known to help prevent strokes.

Lowers cholesterol: This fruit is high in a compound called beta-sitosterol, which studies say can lower cholesterol. Another compound, oleic acid is also known to help in lowering cholesterol.

Nutrient-booster: Avocados help greatly enhance your body’s ability to absorb the health-promoting carotenoids (organic pigments like lycopene and beta carotene) from vegetables. So add some slices of this yummy fruit to your salad and reap its benefits.

Source of vitamin E and antioxidants: Avocados are rich in vitamin E and an antioxidant called glutathione, both these help protect the body against damage from free radicals.

For healthy eyes: Avocados have more of the carotenoid lutein in comparison to any other popular fruit. This compound is known to protect eyes from muscular degeneration and cataracts, both age-related eye diseases.

BDST: 0940 HRS, MAR- 19, 2016
Edited by:  Sharmina Islam, Lifestyle Editor