Avocadoes or alligator pears are one of the most popular fruits. This delicious fruit is healthy and a power house of essential nutrients.
Multiple tasty dishes use avocadoes as their main ingredient. But are avocadoes low carb? Is avocado keto approved?
Yes, with less than 2 grams of net carbs and near about 15 grams of fats avocadoes are considered among keto allowed fruits. Let’s check the ketogenic avocado facts.
Avocado Net Carbs
Avocado is one of the best fruit for low carb diet because of its low net carbs and nutrition values. A 100 gram sized avocado contains 8.53 grams of total carbs and 6.7 grams of dietary fiber.
After omitting the dietary fiber, the net carbs of avocado becomes 1.83 grams. This tiny amount of net carbs is perfect for the standard keto diet with 30 grams net carbs per day limit.
Is Avocado Good For Keto Diet?
Keto friendly avocado contains a very little amount of net carbs. These little net carbs help to stay in ketosis, which makes avocado good for the keto diet.
Moreover, avocado is a great source of useful nutrients. The macronutrients and micronutrients of avocado provide several health benefits.
The major health benefits of avocadoes are:
Rich source of dietary fiber
Ketogenic avocado is a rich source of dietary fiber. Because of this avocado is considered a top-rated high fiber food with low carb.
Adequate consumption of high dietary fiber provides several health benefits. According to studies, dietary fiber is able to prevent gallbladder disorders especially gallstones (1).
Moreover, foods rich in dietary fiber aids in weight loss in overweight or obese people with a calorie-restricted diet (2).
Also, a high intake of dietary fiber may have benefits over type 2 diabetes, like reduction of fasting blood glucose concentration and maintaining HBa1C percentage (3).
Furthermore, dietary intake of fiber-rich avocado may act as a natural laxative and prevent constipation on keto. It’s because dietary fiber increases the stool bulk.
Skin benefits from avocado consumption
Avocado is a good source of essential vitamins like vitamin A, E, B2, and C. It also contains essential minerals like zinc, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, and copper.
Avocado benefits for skin are directly related to these micronutrients. All of these micronutrients provide several skin benefits. These are (4, 5, 6, 7)
- Wrinkle reduction
- Prevention of UV damage
- Skin wound healing
- Maintaining skin hydration
- Reduction of skin allergy and dark spot
Prevention of cancer
Low carb avocado contains vitamin C, A, and E. All of these trios have anti-cancer properties. These are:
- Vitamin E may prevent skin cancers (8)
- High vitamin A intake may lower the development of ovarian cancer (9)
- Vitamin C may have advantages over breast cancer cells (10)
Avocado benefits for liver
Avocadoes are one of the best fruits for the liver. According to studies avocadoes can be beneficial for hypolipidemic activity in the liver through the adiponectin elements (11).
Moreover, avocadoes are a great source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. Studies have shown that both insoluble fiber and fiber from fruits have benefits over obese patients suffering from fatty liver disease (12).
A higher insoluble fiber consumption can improve
- Fatty liver index (FLI)
- Hepatic steatosis index (HIS)
- NAFLD liver fat score
Moreover, fiber consumed from fruits may improve gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT).
Avocado benefits for diabetes
Keto-friendly avocado is beneficial for diabetes control.
Avocado contains a low glycemic index or GI value of 15. A low GI diet is useful for glycemic control in prediabetes and diabetes (13).
On the other hand, the low carb and high fiber combination of avocadoes also aid in diabetes control. Dietary fiber is able to prevent type2 diabetes and reduction of fasting blood glucose concentration.
Furthermore, low carb avocadoes are one of the common fruit for a carb-restricted diet. Low carb foods may be able to reduce body weight and improve glycemic control, in patients with type 2 diabetes (14).
Because of these factors, avocado is a great ketogenic anti-diabetic fruit.
Avocado health benefits potassium
The daily requirement of potassium for males and females of the 19 to 50 age group is 3400 mg and 2600 mg (the NASEM standard (15)).
A high amount of potassium makes avocadoes among the top keto foods rich in potassium. A 100 gram sized avocado provides 14.2 percent and 18.6 percent DV value of 19 to 50 years of men and women(nonpregnant and breastfeeding women) respectively.
Potassium is one of the essential macromineral required for the maintenance of the body. A high potassium diet may be able to (16)
- Lower blood pressure
- Reduce cardiovascular disease mortality
- Decrease the risk of renal disease
- Lower urinary calcium excretion
- Decrease the risk of osteoporosis
- Prevent the development of diabetes
- Manage hypercalciuria and kidney stones
- Reduce the risk of ischaemic heart disease & heart failure
Is Avocado Bad For Keto Diet?
The high nutrient value makes avocado good for the keto diet. However, excess consumption may cause nutrition imbalance.
The most common side-effect of avocado may occur because of its high dietary fiber component. High consumption of dietary fiber can cause bloating (17).
Another side effect that may arise from surplus avocado consumption is a change in urine color. Nutrient imbalance is the main reason behind these urine colors.
There are a total of 9 no of avocado urine color observed after excess consumption. These are red, yellow, cloudy, green, orange, purple, oily-yellow, brown, and black.
Avocado Nutrition Value
Low carb avocados have a rich nutrition profile. The nutrition value of 100-gram avocado is given below (18).
- Calorie: 160
- Fat: 14.7 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Carbs: 8.53 g
- Fiber: 6.7 g
- Sugar: 0.66 g
Is Avocado Oil Keto?
Avocado oil is prepared by the extraction of oil from avocado pulps. But is avocado oil low carb? Is it keto?
Well, the zero total carb, net carb, and high fat formula make avocado oil perfectly keto approved. This edible oil contains 100 grams of fat, 0 grams of dietary fiber, and 0 grams of total carbs (19).
Is Avocado Toast Keto?
Avocado toast is prepared using keto bread and low carb avocado. Keto bread is prepared with low carb flours like either almond flour or coconut flour.
As all of the ingredients of avocado toast are low in carbs, avocado toast is ok for the keto diet.
Is Fried Avocado Keto?
Proper frying does not impact the total carbs amount. That’s why fried avocado is low carb and keto friendly like raw avocado.
Normally, fried avocado recipes are prepared using egg, garlic powder, and lemon juice. All of these ingredients are low carb and perfect for a standard ketogenic diet.
How To Store Avocado
Unripe avocados can last 4-5 days at normal room temperature. It usually takes 2-3 days to ripe. However, the lifespan of unripe avocadoes can be extended to another 2-3 days by storing them in a freezer.
To store avocadoes in the freezer, put them in a container and place them in the freezer. Alternatively, you can wrap avocadoes with a paper towel and place them in the vegetable box of the refrigerator.
How To Eat Avocado
Avocadoes are eaten by cutting them into two pieces and omitting the seed. Normally avocadoes are eaten raw.
Several healthy dishes are prepared with avocadoes. These dishes are delicious and low in carbs, which makes them a perfect choice for keto.
Some popular avocado dishes are:
- Avocado, tomato, carrot fruit mix
- Low carb avocado juice
- Avocado cake
- Keto friendly avocado, spinach salad with garlic salt
