How Many Avocados You Should Really Eat

Avocado is a berry shaped fruit typically cultivated in tropical seasons. The center of an avocado has one large seed called a stone or pit. This green skinned fruit is famous for its various uses in different recipes, especially salads, sandwich spreads, soups and shakes.

Avocados, as a fruit, have a higher fat content compared to other fruits, and are usually recommended by nutritionists to those people who are unable to consume their daily recommended intake of fat from other sources. Avocados are also a rich source of mono-saturated fats, making them excellent for consumption by heart patients.

Avocado is a berry shaped fruit typically cultivated in tropical seasons

The Nutritional Makeup of Avocados

One large sized avocado contains nearly 20 grams of mono-saturated fats. With such a large amount of fat content, it’s obvious that this fruit is high in calories. One large-sized avocado has about 322 calories in it. According to nutritionists, consuming too many avocados should not be an option for those people who want to maintain a healthy weight, as even though they are rich in healthy nutrients and vitamins, but consuming them in abundance can lead to obesity, weight gain and/or deficiency of other important nutrients required by the body. A balanced diet is essential to maintaining a healthy weight.

Other than weight gain, there are various reasons which discourage the consumption of avocados in large amounts. According to research, avocados have the potential to cause deficiency of other vitamins and minerals in your body.

For example, they are not a healthy source for vitamins A and B, iron and calcium. Since the fat content in avocados causes the feeling of fullness in the consumer, you may not be able to consume other food sources that are rich in essential vitamins and mineral that your body requires.

Avocados are rich in dietary fiber as well. One large-sized avocado has about 7 grams of dietary fiber in it. Because of this high amount of dietary fiber, avocados are regarded as a good source of complex carbohydrates. Although total carbohydrate content of avocados is very low, with only 9 grams of carbs in large-sized one of about 200 grams, avocados are still a great source of dietary fiber for people who suffer from acute constipation.

That is because the dietary fiber in avocados is in insoluble form and can be passed through the body without digestion. However, a word of caution: consuming a lot of avocados is not good for people suffering from diarrhea, irreversible bowel syndromes or other gastro-intestinal problems.

One large sized avocado contains nearly 20 grams of mono-saturated fats

Why You Should Avoid Eating Too Many Avocados

Consuming avocados in large amounts can also lead to a few types of allergies. Although this effect is not reported that commonly, but, according to a journal publishing studies on asthma and allergies, consuming avocados in large quantities has the potential to cause some serious coughing problems and also a stuffed nasal passage. In case if such effects are experienced by people after they consume only a few avocados, then the amount of consumption should be cut to check if the symptoms disappear.

Despite these side effects of consuming too many avocados, this fruit cannot be left out entirely from an effective diet plan considering its richness of mono-saturated fats, dietary fiber and vitamin C. This fruit is not sweet in taste but its subtle flavor makes it an important part of various food recipes. Avocados, if consumed in a moderate amount, can bring good health benefits especially if you are following a keto diet plan.

Keto diet followers need to maintain a state of ketosis, and eating avocados in large quantities can help them achieve that goal. Also, because of its high fat content, avocados are used as a substitute to high fat meat in different vegetable cuisines.

This fruit cannot be left out entirely from an effective diet plan considering its richness of mono-saturated fats, dietary fiber and vitamin C.

The Right Quantity You Need To Consume

In order to avoid the side effects of consuming avocados in large amounts, you should consume this fruit in moderate quantities only. But what is that healthy quantity of consumption? According to spokespersons of the Avocados Commission of California, the healthy serving size of avocados is 1/3 portion of medium sized fruit if you want to consume it on daily basis.

This means that consuming small sized avocados on a daily basis will also not cause harm to the body unless you are allergic to this fruit. The healthy quantity to consume also depends on your level of activity.

Consuming small sized avocado daily will fulfill almost 15% of your calorie requirement and 25% of fat requirement, if you consume a diet of around 1500 calories. You may gain weight if you are fulfilling a large portion of your calorie needs by consuming avocados and also consume other nuts along with it because too much fat can increase the fat ratio in your body and could lead you towards obesity.