Nothing like some smooth savory mesocarp goodness. Figured I would throw a little science your way.
I think there was a pimp or a rap star turned chef who coined the phrase for the namesake of this savory side dish, “Green for the money, and gold for the honey.” Well, actually it’s green for the avocados and gold for the nutritional yeast, but either way it’ll grab your attention and have you asking for more. Plus it’s simple, easy, and quick to make!
As always, fun food nutrition facts on avocados and nutritional yeast at the end of the recipe that should inspire you to make this healthy recipe if your taste buds aren’t already asking you to. Find more to make under the “Recipes!” category at right.
Ingredients: exact amounts depend on quantity made
3 – 5 ripe avocados (soft to the touch, yields to gentle pressure)
coconut oil
nutritional yeast (a.k.a. “Hippie Dust” or brewer’s yeast, found in bulk at your food store)
sea salt
honey or maple syrup
*optional: fresh garlic, large soft medjool dates
Process:
warm a 3 -4 tablespoons of coconut oil in a small pot on low heat, until the oil has become liquid
add a pinch or two of sea salt to the oil (more if you’re a salt lover)
add a couple tablespoons of honey and or maple syrup (more or less depending on your sweet tooth) you can omit the sweetener completely if you’re trying to avoid that sort of thing
this is the time to add in the fresh pressed or finely minced garlic and the chopped medjool dates if you choose to add them.
turn the heat off, let it sit for a moment, and while you do…
slice, pit, and scoop avocado out of skin, cut it up into medium sized cubes
place avocado in mixing bowl and dust with a couple tablespoons nutritional yeast
use a rubber spatula to scrape contents of coconut oil pot into the bowl with the avocados
using the spatula mix well, but mix gently, you want there to be some chunks of avocado left
Uses:
Many will find this Green Gold tasty enough to eat on its own, however, it goes very well with:
fried eggs
any sort of toast or tortilla
as a dip for carrots, chips, or other crunchable munchables
on baked or steamed sweet potatoes or yams
with your favorite pinto or black beans
with slices of tomato and cucumber
as a mayonaise substitute on your next sandwich or hamburger
with a burrito
tasty with some finely chopped fresh kale or other salad greens
on rice, quinoa, or millet
if you omit the garlic it goes well with a sliced banana or fresh figs
Wide-Ranging Anti-Inflammatory Benefits
The ability of avocado to help prevent unwanted inflammation is absolutely unquestionable in the world of health research. The term “anti-inflammatory” is a term that truly applies to this delicious food. Avocado’s anti-inflammatory nutrients fall into five basic categories:
- phytosterols, including beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol, and campesterol
- carotenoid antioxidants, including lutein, neoxanthin, neochrome, chrysanthemaxanthin, beta-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin, violaxanthin , beta-carotene and alpha-carotene
- other (non-carotenoid) antioxidants, including the flavonoids epicatechin and epigallocatechin 3-0-gallate, vitamins C and E, and the minerals manganese, selenium, and zinc
- omega-3 fatty acids, in the form of alpha-linolenic acid (approximately 160 milligrams per cup of sliced avocado)
- polyhydroxylated fatty alcohols (PSA)s
Arthritis—including both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis—are health problems that have received special research attention with respect to dietary intake of avocado. All categories of anti-inflammatory nutrients listed above are likely to be involved in avocado’s ability to help prevent osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. One especially interesting prevention mechanism, however, appear to involve avocado’s phytosterols (stigmasterol, campesterol, and beta-sitosterol) and the prevention of too much pro-inflammatory PGE2 (prostaglandin E2) synthesis by the connective tissue.
Optimized Absorption of Carotenoids
No single category of nutrients in avocado is more impressive than carotenoids. Here’s a list that summarizes key carotenoid antioxidants provided by avocado:
- alpha-carotene
- beta-carotene
- beta-cryptoxanthin
- chrysanthemaxanthin
- lutein
- neochrome
- neoxanthin
- violaxanthin
- zeaxanthin
Optimal absorption of these fat-soluble phytonutrients requires just the right amount and combination of dietary fats—and that is exactly the combination that is provided by avocado! Included within avocado are generous amounts of oleic acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid that makes it easier for the digestive tract to form transport molecules (chylomicrons) that can carry carotenoids up into the body. This great match between avocado’s fat content and its carotenoids also extends to the relationship between avocado and other foods. Consider, for example, a simple salad composed of romaine lettuce, spinach, and carrots. This simple salad is rich in carotenoids, and when we eat it, we definitely get important carotenoid benefits. But recent research has shown that if one cup of avocado (150 grams) is added to this salad, absorption of carotenoids will be increased by 200-400%! This improvement in carotenoid absorption has also been shown in the case of salsa made with and without avocado. (That’s even more reason, we think, to try our recipe for 15-Minute Halibut with Avocado Salsa!)
Supports Cardiovascular Health
Avocado’s support for heart and blood vessels might be surprising to some people who think about avocado as too high in fat for heart health. From a research standpoint, however, many metabolic aspects of heart health – including levels of inflammatory risk factors, levels of oxidative risk factors, and blood fat levels (including level of total cholesterol) – are improved by avocado. In addition, we know that heart health is improved by intake of oleic acid (the primary fatty acid in avocado) and by intake of omega-3 fatty acids (provided by avocado in the form of alpha-linolenic acid and in the amount of 160 milligrams per cup). Since elevated levels of homocysteine form a key risk factor for heart disease, and since B vitamins are very important for healthy regulation of homocysteine levels, avocado’s significant amounts of vitamin B-6 and folic acid provide another channel of heart support.
Research on avocado and heart disease remains in the preliminary stage, with studies mostly limited to lab studies on cells or animals fed avocado extracts. But we fully expect to see large-scale human studies confirming the heart health benefits of this unique food.
Promotes Blood Sugar Regulation
One of the most fascinating areas of avocado research—and one that may turn out to be the most unique for health support—involves carbohydrates and blood sugar regulation. Avocado is relatively low-carb food, with about 19% of its calories coming from carbs. It’s also a low-sugar food, containing less than 2 grams of total sugar per cup, and falls very low on the glycemic index. At the same time, one cup of avocado provides about 7-8 grams of dietary fiber, making it an important dietary source of this blood sugar-regulating nutrient. Given this overall carb profile, we would not expect avocado to be a problematic food for blood sugar unless it was eaten in excessive amounts (many cups per serving).
Within its relatively small carb content, however, avocado boasts some of the most unusual carb components in any food. When it is still on the tree, avocado contains about 60% of its carbs in the form of 7-carbon sugars. In sizable amounts, 7-carbon sugars (like mannoheptulose, the primary carb in unripened avocado) are rarely seen in foods. Because of their rare status, food scientists have been especially interested in the 7-carbon sugars (mannoheptulose, sedoheptulose, and related sugar alcohols like perseitol) found in avocado. The 7-carbon sugars like mannoheptulase may help regulate the way that blood sugar (glucose) is metabolized by blocking activity of an enzyme called hexokinase and changing the level of activity through a metabolic pathway called glycolysis. Research in this area is still a long way from determining potential health benefits for humans from dietary intake of these 7-carbon sugars. But it’s an exciting area of potential health benefit for avocado, especially since this food is already recognized as low glycemic index.
One final interesting observation comes from this research on avocado and its carbs: after five days of ripening (post-harvest, beginning with removal of the avocado from the tree), the carb profile of avocado changes significantly. The 7-carbon sugars change from being the predominant form of carbs in avocado (60%) to being an important but minority component (between 40-50% of total carbs). With ripening, the 5-carbon sugars—especially sucrose—become the predominant carbs. While it’s too early in the research process to draw health-oriented conclusions from this information, these findings may be encouraging us to consider degree of avocado ripeness as an important factor in its health benefits. We already know to stay away from an extremely overripe avocado that has become overly soft and has developed dark sunken spots on its skin. Perhaps off in the future, we’ll be able to zero in on exact amounts of avocado ripeness that offers different types of unique health benefits, including carb-related benefits.
Anti-Cancer Benefits
The ability of avocado to help prevent the occurrence of cancers in the mouth, skin, and prostate gland has been studied in a preliminary way by health researchers, mostly through the use of lab studies on cancer cells or lab studies involving animals and their consumption of avocado extracts. But even though this anti-cancer research has been limited with respect to humans and diet, we believe that the preliminary results are impressive. The anti-cancer properties of avocado are definitely related to its unusual mix of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant nutrients. That relationship is to be expected since cancer risk factors almost always include excessive inflammation (related to lack of anti-inflammatory nutrients) and oxidative stress (related to lack of antioxidants). But here is where the avocado story gets especially interesting. In healthy cells, avocado works to improve inflammatory and oxidative stress levels. But in cancer cells, avocado works to increase oxidative stress and shift the cancer cells over into a programmed cell death cycle (apoptosis), lessening the cancer cell numbers. In other words, avocado appears to selectively push cancer cells “over the brink” in terms of oxidative stress and increase their likelihood of dying, while at the same time actively supporting the health of non-cancerous cells by increasing their supply antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients. We look forward to large-scale studies in this area involving humans and dietary consumption of avocado.
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