Avocado Power Yo! For those of you that don't know, avocados are my favorite food. They are the complete, ready to eat, treat! They are calorically and nutritionally dense so 1 single avocado goes a long way in providing you with well needed nutrients. This makes them a perfect raw mono meal. What is a mono meal? A mono meal is a meal that consists of 1 whole food item, generally in bulk amounts to complete calorie and nutrient needs for that meal. Did you know that the body has to digest every single ingredient one at a time during the digestion and absorption of the food you consume? People often cause more harm to their bodies than help due to poorly combine food choices/meals, frequency of meals and overworking of the gastrointestinal tract. Mono meals are a great way to give your digestive tract a break from complicated food combinations. They will digest easier and have a faster transit rate than non-mono meals. If you have met your energy needs by providing the right amount of a single food in your meal than you will achieve satiety and be able to sustain until your next meal. You can learn this by learning the caloric intake of the individual foods you want for your mono meals and then properly adding enough of that food based on it's caloric intake. A common example might be bananas. Let's say 1 banana yields you 90 calories (we know the definition for calories = energy) aka energy. If you are looking for 500 easy to digest and sustainable energy then you would find a way to enjoy 6 bananas for a mono meal and rack yourself up to 540 calories to thrive off of! Another thing I love about mono meals is they allow you to appreciate the food and respect it as a whole, You also get to enjoy it's tastes without others getting in the way and hindering the pure delight of eat bite!
Three of my favorite & funnest ways to eat an avocado rawocado-mono style:
1. Carefully peel the skin and eat it how you would a stone fruit, being careful not to bite into the pit!
2. Cut in half, remove the pit and spoon out the flesh! Do some fruit meditation while you are at it ; )
3. Blend with quality filtered water in a food processor and enjoy a beautiful bowl of avocado-bisque soup!
10 Tips & Tidbits on Avocados:
1. These fruits are known as "alligator pears".
2. Avocados contain 5 grams of plant based protein per average size avocado (6 ounce size).
3. Avocados start to oxidize fast when cut into and exposed to air, always eat right away for optimal nutritional value. If you must store it then leave the pit in the part you did not eat. Store in an air tight container sized to fit your leftover avocado. Sprinkling antioxidant rich lemon on top will also help preserve it.
4.Avocados are a heart healthy source of dietary fat and have been shown to lower heart disease whereas other fats increase the risk and cause it. Avocados are a great fat substitute for those on meat and dairy diets and a palatable pleasure for those who enjoy the flavor of butter, nuts and creamy salty soft foods.
5. There are over 400 varieties of avocados.
6. Growing an avocado tree is a real art, it can take up to 10 years to produce an avocado abundance.
7. Become an Avocado King or Queen (or whatever pronoun in between!)...Your perfect avocado should be firm enough to hold and slightly soft enough to gently squeeze. It is easy to peel. The color of it's peel will depend on it's variety, most range from a blacken color to shades of bright or olive green (on some this indicates an unripe fruit, know how to select ripe avocados when picking them!) to dark purplish shades. The peel should not have sun spots or outer or inner mold. It should never be brown inside and it's peek color when ripe is a semi bright but soft shade of lemon lime. They should never smell or taste funky. You will know the avocado is bad if the taste is off. Once you know the true nutty, creamy, dreamy delicious taste of an avocado you will be hooked and never want to go back to a life without them : ) You will crave them and if eaten properly your body will thank you in return!
8. Always eat organic (you deserve it, so does the earth) but if you cant, avocados are one of the safest non organically grown foods to eat due to their thicker skin that acts as a protective peel.
9. The pit of an avocado is edible! They are rich sources of nutrients, especially copper, potassium and magnesium. A little bit goes a long ways, trust me. It has a very pungent and burnt earth flavor to it and must be ground down before consuming.In order to grind an avocado pit you must have a high speed blender, such as a Vitamix, or a high speed coffee or nut/seed grinder. Do not attempt to bit into the pit, always grind it first and use a small amount at a time. An easy way to use the pit is to toss 1/4 of the pit, or less, into a smoothie.
10. Avocados are one of the easiest dietary fat sources to digest. On average it takes 2-3 hours to digest an avocado.
What are you waiting for yo!? Get your avocado on!
Heart to Heart: Today's Assignment
Pick yourself nice ripe organic avocado and find a way to enjoy it as a rawocado-mono meal : D ENJOY!!!
