What Eating Avocado Toast Does To Your Body, According to Science
This popular meal or snack can be made at home or ordered at a restaurant. Your basic avocado toast is made with crusty or toasted bread topped with the buttery flavor of mashed, ripe avocado and sprinkled with salt and pepper.
There are many variations to this beloved breakfast—I love mine drizzled with a balsamic glaze, my daughter prefers hers topped with sliced strawberries, and my son insists on his topped with an over-easy egg. No matter what your preference—the basic stays the same: bread, avocado, and salt.
If you love avocado toast so much that you eat it regularly, read on to learn exactly what it's doing to your body. And for more on how to eat healthy, don't miss 7 Healthiest Foods to Eat Right Now.
You'll feel satisfied.
Avocados are a fruit that is categorized as a fat. Most of the fat found in avocados is "good" monounsaturated fats. Because fat takes the body longer to digest, it makes you feel more satisfied after eating it. Pair your avocado with 100% whole grain bread and you'll be pairing your good fat with filling fiber to keep you even more satisfied.
It can help reduce the risk of a heart attack.
Replacing artery-clogging saturated fat with the "good" monounsaturated fat found in avocados is recommended by the American Heart Association. In addition, the 2020-2025 dietary guidelines for Americans recommends replacing saturated fat in your diet with unsaturated fat like in avocados which are associated with a reduced risk of heart attack or stroke. For more, see 20 Common Fatty Foods That Won't Make You Fat.
May help reduce the risk of macular degeneration.
Avocados are brimming with nutrients, including two carotenoids called lutein and zeaxanthin. Both of these phytonutrients (natural plant compounds) give fruits and vegetables their deep green, yellow, and orange colors. Both lutein and zeaxanthin have been found in high concentrations in the macula, the area of the retina in the eye that gives you sharpness in your eyesight so you can read. Research has shown that eating foods high in lutein and zeaxanthin – like avocados in avocado toast – can slow the progress of macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss as we get older.
Helps your body transport certain vitamins.
When you eat avocado toast, the fat from the avocado gets digested and absorbed into the body. One of the tasks of fat is to help absorb vitamins A, D, E, and K. These vitamins are known as fat-soluble vitamins as they need fat in order to be absorbed by the body.
May lead to weight gain.
Avocado toast can certainly keep you feeling satisfied with the fiber and healthy fat it provides, but if you go overboard on portions it can lead to weight gain. One-third of a medium avocado provides 80 calories. If you mash half an avocado on each of two slices of whole-grain bread, you'll be ingesting about 500 calories. If avocado toast is your latest obsession – hey, it does happen – and eat three or four slices a day you can be just overdoing the calories. You don't need 750 or 1,000 calories from avocado toast alone, which can certainly pack on the pounds if you're eating three or four slices of the green toast regularly. Make sure you're eating avocado toast in moderation to reap all the healthy benefits! And to improve your health in even more ways this morning, check out We Just Discovered The Easiest Healthy Hack for Breakfast.
