How to Do the Avocado Diet

Heart Healthy Avocado Diet

Known by some as the alligator pear, the avocado has been shunned by dieters for all the wrong reasons. Even as it is true that the avocado is a fruit that contains more than 30 grams of fat and is rightfully considered laden with calories, it was recently vindicated. It came to light that the fat contained within the fruit was the good kind of fat that is associated with lowering cholesterol levels and not of the bad, artery-clogging variety! This is encouraging those following a heart-healthy diet to build an entire dietary regimen around this fruit. Follow these easy breakfast and dinner suggestions, and you will learn how to do the avocado diet yourself.

Things You'll Need

• For Breakfast:
• Toaster
• Knife
• Cutting board
• Spoon
• Small bowl
• Potato masher
• Whole wheat bread
• Small avocado (mashed)
• Lean turkey lunchmeat
• Tomato (sliced)
• Lettuce leaf
• Melon (cubed)
• For Dinner:
• Salad bowl
• Pot and water
• Microwave
• Small avocado (thinly sliced)
• Large carrot (thinly sliced)
• Fresh spinach
• Fresh kale
• Hardboiled egg (sliced)
• Walnut pieces
• Poached fish

Instructions

The Avocado Diet for Breakfast

1. Collect the ingredients you need for this breakfast dish. You need slices of whole wheat bread, a small avocado, a couple of slices of lean turkey lunchmeat, a sliced tomato, a lettuce leaf, and some cubed melon. Augment this breakfast with a tall glass of low-fat or non-fat soymilk, or rice milk.

2. Toast the whole wheat bread slices in your toaster. When the bread is finished, set them aside.

3. Cut open the avocado and scoop out the meat with the spoon. Discard the seed and the outer shell.

4. Place the avocado meat into the bowl. Use the potato masher to gently mash the avocado until it is creamy. It is not necessary to add salt since the lunchmeat is usually salty, but this is up to you.

5. Wash and slice the tomato.

6. Spread the mashed avocado onto the bread slices, and top with the lettuce leaf, lunch meat and sliced tomato.

7. Cut a couple of slices of melon into cubes, and serve them alongside the sandwich. This is a satisfying sandwich, and by using avocado spread instead of butter or mayonnaise, you are not only saving calories and reducing the saturated fats that you usually consume in the morning, but you also increase your intake of phytonutrients, minerals and vitamins.

The Avocado Diet for Dinner

1. Assemble the ingredients for this dinner. You need a small avocado (thinly sliced), a large carrot (thinly sliced), some fresh spinach and fresh kale, a hardboiled egg (sliced) and some walnut pieces. A salmon fillet or other piece of grilled or poached fish rounds out the repast. Since this dinner is rich in protein and fat, it will be a satisfying meal that prevents the late-night munchies.

2. Take your knife and carefully cut a small avocado in half on your cutting board. Spoon out the meat of the avocado, and remove the seed. Discard the seed and skin. Thinly slice the avocado. Place the slices in a bowl.

3. Wash and thinly slice a large carrot. You might find that it is easier to purchase pre-sliced, ready-to-eat carrots. Even as they are more expensive, they do cut down on the preparation time of your dinner salad. Place the sliced carrot in the bowl with the avocado slices.

4. Boil an egg in your pot for about 12 minutes. Rinse it under cold water and remove the shell. After it has a chance to cool, cut it into thin slices and add it to the bowl with the avocado and carrot.

5. Wash and rinse your fresh spinach and kale leaves. Since spinach is notorious for containing a lot of sand, make sure you wash it a couple of times to remove all of the debris completely. To make life a bit easier, you could opt for prewashed and prepackaged spinach, which can be found at your supermarket. Pat dry the spinach and the kale leaves, rip them into bite-sized pieces, and place them in the bowl.

6. Toss in the walnut pieces, and round out the salad with an olive oil spray or vinaigrette of your choosing. This salad is filling, and because of the avocado’s fat content, your body will absorb all of the fat soluble vitamins contained in the individual ingredients, namely vitamins A, D, E and K.

7. Poach a fillet of fish in the microwave, and serve it alongside the salad.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember that the ultimate goal of the avocado diet is not to lose weight, but to replace food choices that are high in saturated fats with avocado derived substitutes that still deliver fat but do so with the unsaturated kind.

• Avocados come in different sizes. For the avocado diet, it is suggested that you use a small avocado. However, if you find only large ones, cut one in half and wrap up the unused portion for storage in the refrigerator. Squeeze on a bit of lemon juice, and it will not turn brown.

• Vary your lean meat and salad ingredients for your dinner. The same holds true for your bread toppings. The one constant is the presence of the avocado.

• Do not overdo your intake of avocados. They are healthy, but still contain a substantial amount of fat that—even though it is the good kind—piles on the calories.

Resources

• Learn everything there is to know about avocados from California’s Avocado.org website.
• Search through a large selection of avocado recipes at AvocadoCentral.com.
• Learn how to make an avocado lime pie at AvocadoRecipes.net.
• Learn to cut an avocado from WikiHow.com.
• Check out the American Heart Association’s endorsement of avocados.