Avocado Shakes up Salsa
Do your clients love to eat their tortilla chips with both salsa and guacamole? Here’s a recipe that delivers the best of both worlds: Tropical Salsa Guacamole. Suggest to your clients that they serve it up with baby carrots, sliced bell peppers or squash or zucchini sticks instead of chips, eat it as an entrée side or as is.
The goodness of avocados delivers way beyond taste. Avocados can act as a “nutrient booster” by helping the body to better absorb fat-soluble nutrients, such as alpha- and beta-carotene, from the foods they are eaten with. Take a look at a recent study from the Ohio State University that investigated the effects of eating fresh avocado on the absorption of provitamin A carotenoids (alpha- and beta-carotene).
Title: Avocado consumption enhances human post-prandial provitamin A absorption and conversion from a novel high β-carotene tomato sauce and from carrots.
Process: Participants were randomized to eat 300 g of high β-carotene tomato sauce or 300 g of raw baby carrots with or without avocado. All participants received the same lunch meal, low in carotenoids, provitamin A and fat, 4.5 hours after the test breakfast meal (see more details in study).
Findings: Tomato Sauce
The addition of approximately one whole avocado to the meal:
- More than doubled (2.4 times) β-carotene absorption
- More than quadrupled (4.6 times) the conversion of provitamin A to vitamin A
- Subjects with reduced ability to convert provitamin A experienced greater improvement in the conversion
Findings: Raw Carrots
The addition of approximately one whole avocado to the meal:
- Significantly increased β-carotene absorption (6.6 times)
- More than quadrupled (4.8 times) α-carotene absorption
- Greater increase observed of α-carotene and β-carotene absorption in older participants
- Significantly increased the conversion of provitamin A to vitamin A (12.6 times)
For more information, check out the scientific summary or full study.
