The benefits of eating avocados

Filled with health-promoting vitamins, minerals and fatty acids, you can't go wrong adding avocados to your diet. Creamy, yummy and versatile, avocados may help control blood sugar levels.

• Avocados are rich in sterols, compounds shown to lower cholesterol.
• They're also packed with vitamins and minerals, including vitamin E, magnesium, vitamin C, folate and zinc.
• Gram for gram (or ounce for ounce), they provide more potassium than bananas!

• Unlike virtually all other fruits (yes, avocados are fruits), these rich, creamy treats are loaded with fat—a whopping 25 to 30 grams (about one ounce) each.
• Since fat has no impact on blood sugar, avocados are great additions to a low-glycemic-load (GL) diet if you eat them in moderation.

But, you may wonder, what about all that fat?

• There is a saving grace: most of it is monounsaturated fat, the same heart-healthy kind found in olive oil. Research suggests that diets rich in this type of fat may help keep blood sugar in check.
• Add some avocado to a sandwich or anything else with bread or carbs, and the fat will slow digestion of the meal, thus making it easier on your blood sugar.

It's not saturated fat...

• Unlike the saturated fats in butter and meat, monounsaturated fat won't increase insulin resistance; insulin resistance is a condition that makes blood sugar control more difficult. In fact, the good fat in avocados (as well as olive oil and nuts) may actually reverse insulin resistance, helping your body steady its blood sugar levels.
• Avocados also contain more soluble fibre (which stabilizes blood sugar and lowers cholesterol) and protein than any other fruit.
• Of course, with fat come calories, so you don't want to start eating avocados with total abandon — though you probably wouldn't anyway, since a little avocado goes a long way.

To choose just the right avocado, try this: hold the avocado in your hand and press it gently, then roll it to the other side and press again. If it gives just a bit but the pressure doesn't leave a permanent dent (an indication that it's too ripe), it's ready to eat.

• Guacamole is the classic avocado dish. Add some curry for an Indian flair; hot bean sauce or oriental chili paste for an Asian influence; or basil, sun-dried tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and pine nuts for a taste of Italy.
• Mash some avocado and use as a spread on sandwiches (made with whole-grain bread, of course), bagels or English muffins to lower the GL of your breakfast or lunch.
• Add chunks of avocado to a side salad to lower the GL of the meal. Adding it to salads also increases your body's ability to absorb the good-for-you carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, in salad greens.

• Instead of cheese in your sandwich, add a slice of avocado. You'll swap good fats for bad ones.
• Instead of cheese as a snack, have a slice of ripe avocado drizzled with lemon juice.