Avocado oil is filled with healthy fats and nutrients that work to improve your heart, eye, and skin health when you consume it.
Avocados are all the rage. This fruit has soared in popularity over the last decade, becoming even more popular in the United States due to the delicious avocado toast trend.
While many people love avocados blended in smoothies, sliced on top of salads, and mashed into guacamole, they might not know about the benefits of avocado oil.
There are so many kinds of oil to choose from, like olive, canola, sunflower, grapeseed, and coconut oil. It makes sense that you might not think of avocado oil first when you’re filling your pantry.
We know avocados have benefits like being filled with healthy fats, but does avocado oil have similar benefits? Should you be using avocado oil more than some of these other oils?
We are here to clear some things up about avocado oil and its many yummy benefits 🥑
What Is Avocado Oil?
This healthy oil is made by pressing the avocado fruit itself and gathering the liquid that comes out. It comes in two main categories: refined and unrefined.
The unrefined version is often preferred because it is cold-pressed and retains more nutrients and flavor than the refined version, but they’re both awesome options for your next dish.
Nutritional Information
Avocado oil is known as a good source of vitamin E, oleic acid, lutein, and monounsaturated fats. If you are considering swapping out your extra virgin olive oil for avocado, give it a try. You’ll still benefit from plenty of nutrients while also experiencing a new flavor.
What Are the Health Benefits of Avocado Oil?
Avocado oil is considered a healthy cooking oil, especially due to its high levels of vitamin E and monounsaturated fats. You can use it as a replacement for other cooking oils and butters, and it will add a level of flavor that’s different from the rest.
The oleic acid in avocado oil helps it to have a longer-lasting shelf-life and it has a high smoke point. A higher smoke point means it’s less likely to break down and lose nutrients as it becomes hotter. This makes avocado oil great for high-heat cooking and sautéing at high temperatures. As good as it is to use in a stir-fry, avocado oil can also be drizzled as a salad dressing or added to pasta for a bit of bold flavoring.
Still, avocado oil isn’t just delicious — it has a few health-based benefits you might want to know, too.
Helps Lower Cholesterol and Blood Pressure
Using avocado oil could be good for people looking to monitor and lower their cholesterol and blood sugar. Avocado oil is a good source of monounsaturated fat, which has been linked to reducing LDL (bad) cholesterol and increasing HDL (good) cholesterol.
Avocado oil is also high in oleic acid, which has been said to help lower blood pressure.
High cholesterol and blood pressure are two of the main risk factors for heart disease and stroke. When you have both, your risk is even higher.
Luckily, you can work to lower your cholesterol levels and blood pressure through various options, including choosing healthier foods and exercising more.
Avocado oil has unsaturated fatty acids linked with improving heart health by lowering triglycerides and LDL cholesterol levels while not impacting HDL cholesterol. By impacting these levels, it effectively lowers the level of risk for cardiovascular issues.
Helps Improve Eye Health
Avocado oil is a great source of a carotenoid and antioxidant called lutein. Lutein is mainly found in your eyes and helps to improve their functioning.
Lutein works against age-related macular diseases that can lead to vision impairment and even blindness. Unfortunately, lutein is not produced by your body on its own, so your body relies on the foods you eat to get lutein.
If you aren't eating meals that are rich with lutein, it could potentially impact your vision capabilities later in life. Fortunately, refined avocado oil (as well as avocados) is loaded with lutein, making it one of the best ingredients to consume for your eye health.
Helps Increase the Absorption of Nutrients
For your body to absorb fat-soluble vitamins, they need to be consumed alongside a healthy fat. These nutrients include vitamins A, D, E, and K and carotenoids like beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin.
These nutrients are essential to your health and cannot provide the benefits your body needs without the help of healthy fats. This is great news for those who use or are looking to use avocado oil more.
As mentioned above, avocado oil is packed with healthy fats that your body needs to absorb these specific nutrients. By adding avocado oil to your salads, dinners, and marinades, you are working towards helping those nutrients absorb into your body and make you feel good.
Rich With Antioxidants
Avocado oil helps reverse inflammation related to cardiovascular risk because of its hearty helping of antioxidants. A meal filled with antioxidants can help fight off free radicals in your body and keep you from getting sick.
Free radicals are unstable compounds that damage your cells over time and can lead to heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer.
Antioxidants work to neutralize free radicals so they can’t do any harm to your body. Avocado oil is rich with antioxidants, like carotenoids, plant sterols, and tocopherols.
While you can get antioxidants from many different plant-based sources, avocado oil is an easy way to incorporate antioxidants into your weekly menus.
Helps Improve Skin Health
By now, we know just how impactful avocado oil can be, thanks to its nutrients and fatty acids. Avocado oil can also help to improve skin health because of the high levels of vitamin A and E that it contains. Both vitamin A and E are linked to the health of the skin membrane, so they work to improve the quality of your skin.
Your skin might feel noticeably better after using avocado oil, and not just because of vitamin A and E. Antioxidants, lutein, and fatty acids also help improve your skin health, making this a helpful ingredient to include in any meal.
Are There Any Risks With Avocado Oil?
Avocado oil doesn’t come with many risks, especially if you are someone who can consume avocados. The only real risk to using avocado oil would be if you are allergic to it.
This might be something that you already know if you have reactions to avocados when you consume them. In this case, it’s best to avoid avocado oil and stick to other healthy oil options.
Add Avocado Oil to Your Thistle Meals
Avocado oil is an easy ingredient to incorporate into your weekly recipes. You often use oil anyways to sauteé your veggies and create sauces. It’s usually the first thing onto a pan (with garlic, of course), making oils a common household must-have. Just swap your go-to olive oil for avocado, and experience a ton of new and delicious benefits.
We know that many of our Thistle recipes call for a little drizzle of oil, so don’t be afraid to use avocado oil. You don’t have to use it for every dish, but there are some out there where it completely makes the meal.
If you aren’t familiar with Thistle and our services, you can sign-up today and gain access to farm-fresh ingredients and meals delivered right to your doorstep.
Adding simple ingredients like avocado oil paves the way for you to begin using healthier ingredients in your everyday life. Thistle can help provide inspiration in the way we know best: through foods we love and are proud to serve 🌱
Sources:
Dietary Sources Of Lutein And Zeaxanthin Carotenoids And Their Role In Eye Health | NCBI
Biochemistry, Fat Soluble Vitamins | StatPearls | NCBI Bookshelf
Free Radicals, Reactive Oxygen Species, Oxidative Stress And Its Classification | NCBI
Avocado oil is filled with healthy fats and nutrients that work to improve your heart, eye, and skin health when you consume it.
Avocados are all the rage. This fruit has soared in popularity over the last decade, becoming even more popular in the United States due to the delicious avocado toast trend.
While many people love avocados blended in smoothies, sliced on top of salads, and mashed into guacamole, they might not know about the benefits of avocado oil.
There are so many kinds of oil to choose from, like olive, canola, sunflower, grapeseed, and coconut oil. It makes sense that you might not think of avocado oil first when you’re filling your pantry.
We know avocados have benefits like being filled with healthy fats, but does avocado oil have similar benefits? Should you be using avocado oil more than some of these other oils?
We are here to clear some things up about avocado oil and its many yummy benefits 🥑
What Is Avocado Oil?
This healthy oil is made by pressing the avocado fruit itself and gathering the liquid that comes out. It comes in two main categories: refined and unrefined.
The unrefined version is often preferred because it is cold-pressed and retains more nutrients and flavor than the refined version, but they’re both awesome options for your next dish.
Nutritional Information
Avocado oil is known as a good source of vitamin E, oleic acid, lutein, and monounsaturated fats. If you are considering swapping out your extra virgin olive oil for avocado, give it a try. You’ll still benefit from plenty of nutrients while also experiencing a new flavor.
What Are the Health Benefits of Avocado Oil?
Avocado oil is considered a healthy cooking oil, especially due to its high levels of vitamin E and monounsaturated fats. You can use it as a replacement for other cooking oils and butters, and it will add a level of flavor that’s different from the rest.
The oleic acid in avocado oil helps it to have a longer-lasting shelf-life and it has a high smoke point. A higher smoke point means it’s less likely to break down and lose nutrients as it becomes hotter. This makes avocado oil great for high-heat cooking and sautéing at high temperatures. As good as it is to use in a stir-fry, avocado oil can also be drizzled as a salad dressing or added to pasta for a bit of bold flavoring.
Still, avocado oil isn’t just delicious — it has a few health-based benefits you might want to know, too.
Helps Lower Cholesterol and Blood Pressure
Using avocado oil could be good for people looking to monitor and lower their cholesterol and blood sugar. Avocado oil is a good source of monounsaturated fat, which has been linked to reducing LDL (bad) cholesterol and increasing HDL (good) cholesterol.
Avocado oil is also high in oleic acid, which has been said to help lower blood pressure.
High cholesterol and blood pressure are two of the main risk factors for heart disease and stroke. When you have both, your risk is even higher.
Luckily, you can work to lower your cholesterol levels and blood pressure through various options, including choosing healthier foods and exercising more.
Avocado oil has unsaturated fatty acids linked with improving heart health by lowering triglycerides and LDL cholesterol levels while not impacting HDL cholesterol. By impacting these levels, it effectively lowers the level of risk for cardiovascular issues.
Helps Improve Eye Health
Avocado oil is a great source of a carotenoid and antioxidant called lutein. Lutein is mainly found in your eyes and helps to improve their functioning.
Lutein works against age-related macular diseases that can lead to vision impairment and even blindness. Unfortunately, lutein is not produced by your body on its own, so your body relies on the foods you eat to get lutein.
If you aren't eating meals that are rich with lutein, it could potentially impact your vision capabilities later in life. Fortunately, refined avocado oil (as well as avocados) is loaded with lutein, making it one of the best ingredients to consume for your eye health.
Helps Increase the Absorption of Nutrients
For your body to absorb fat-soluble vitamins, they need to be consumed alongside a healthy fat. These nutrients include vitamins A, D, E, and K and carotenoids like beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin.
These nutrients are essential to your health and cannot provide the benefits your body needs without the help of healthy fats. This is great news for those who use or are looking to use avocado oil more.
As mentioned above, avocado oil is packed with healthy fats that your body needs to absorb these specific nutrients. By adding avocado oil to your salads, dinners, and marinades, you are working towards helping those nutrients absorb into your body and make you feel good.
Rich With Antioxidants
Avocado oil helps reverse inflammation related to cardiovascular risk because of its hearty helping of antioxidants. A meal filled with antioxidants can help fight off free radicals in your body and keep you from getting sick.
Free radicals are unstable compounds that damage your cells over time and can lead to heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer.
Antioxidants work to neutralize free radicals so they can’t do any harm to your body. Avocado oil is rich with antioxidants, like carotenoids, plant sterols, and tocopherols.
While you can get antioxidants from many different plant-based sources, avocado oil is an easy way to incorporate antioxidants into your weekly menus.
Helps Improve Skin Health
By now, we know just how impactful avocado oil can be, thanks to its nutrients and fatty acids. Avocado oil can also help to improve skin health because of the high levels of vitamin A and E that it contains. Both vitamin A and E are linked to the health of the skin membrane, so they work to improve the quality of your skin.
Your skin might feel noticeably better after using avocado oil, and not just because of vitamin A and E. Antioxidants, lutein, and fatty acids also help improve your skin health, making this a helpful ingredient to include in any meal.
Are There Any Risks With Avocado Oil?
Avocado oil doesn’t come with many risks, especially if you are someone who can consume avocados. The only real risk to using avocado oil would be if you are allergic to it.
This might be something that you already know if you have reactions to avocados when you consume them. In this case, it’s best to avoid avocado oil and stick to other healthy oil options.
Add Avocado Oil to Your Thistle Meals
Avocado oil is an easy ingredient to incorporate into your weekly recipes. You often use oil anyways to sauteé your veggies and create sauces. It’s usually the first thing onto a pan (with garlic, of course), making oils a common household must-have. Just swap your go-to olive oil for avocado, and experience a ton of new and delicious benefits.
We know that many of our Thistle recipes call for a little drizzle of oil, so don’t be afraid to use avocado oil. You don’t have to use it for every dish, but there are some out there where it completely makes the meal.
If you aren’t familiar with Thistle and our services, you can sign-up today and gain access to farm-fresh ingredients and meals delivered right to your doorstep.
Adding simple ingredients like avocado oil paves the way for you to begin using healthier ingredients in your everyday life. Thistle can help provide inspiration in the way we know best: through foods we love and are proud to serve 🌱
Sources:
Dietary Sources Of Lutein And Zeaxanthin Carotenoids And Their Role In Eye Health | NCBI
Biochemistry, Fat Soluble Vitamins | StatPearls | NCBI Bookshelf
Free Radicals, Reactive Oxygen Species, Oxidative Stress And Its Classification | NCBI
