Vegalicious

(image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)

Yesterday was another “I am not so hungry” day.  I finished the smoothie I made, and about a head of cauliflower 🙂 (made Cauli Poppers), the rest was little munchies of small things here and there.

Today is a whole new day and it is time to experiment! For a while now I have known that the avocado pit (seed) is edible.  I have been planning to give it a try, but always ended up being too lazy to do it. I was also concerned about damaging my blender’s blade. I don’t know why, since I have the king of all blenders–Vitamix 5200. So silly! Anyhow… I finally did it, and it was great.  From my reading I found that the pit is a bit bitter, so I used 1/2 of it in a green smoothie.  I could not taste it at all! Simply a normal delicious green smoothie it was :).

Avocado Pit Benefits

I am not going to try to recreate the wheel here and tell you about seed’s benefits on my own, so I will quote Victoria Boutenko word for word, since she knows what she is talking about :).

• The total antioxidant capacity and phenolic content of edible portions and seeds of avocado, jackfruit, longan, mango and tamarind were studied. … The seeds showed a much higher antioxidant activity … than the edible portions. The contribution of all the fruit seed fractions to the total antioxidant activity … was always more than 70%. Source 
• Avocado seed contains relatively low amounts of calcium and magnesium, somewhat higher amounts of phosphorus, and high amounts of potassium.” Source

• The seed of the avocado contains tannins, and these make it bitter or “puckery” to the taste. And some of the tannins can be mildly toxic, though an individual would have to eat a lot to see any effects, unless that individual had a food allergy. Source
• Dr. Tom Wu: When I eat the avocado I always eat the seed. It is packed with very good nutrients… It’s also the highest in soluble fiber. This soluble fiber binds to the fat and excess cholesterol. Then we can lower cholesterol and improve heart function naturally. We can improve the blood circulation by pulling out all the fatty deposits in our circulatory system with the soluble fiber of the avocado seed. Soluble fiber is very difficult to get in our diet. Oatmeal has some, but it cannot compare with the avocado seed. Any heart disease patient must eat the avocado including the seed. Source

Another source states following benefits:

Avocado Seed are great for inflammation of the GI tract and diarrhea too! In fact in South America Avocado Seeds are used for dysentery and other GI tract problems. Avocado Seeds has lots of phenolic compounds that help to prevent gastric ulcers, and prevent bacterial and viral diseases.

Avocado Seed contains a flavonol that prevents tumor growth… in fact studies with rats with cancer given Avocado Seed powder looks promising.

Avocado Seeds boost your immune system and keep you from coming down with debilitating diseases. Keeping your immune system high, because antioxidants keep free radicals at bay… and slows the aging process. Avocado Seeds seems to have a good anti-inflammatory ability and thus helps with arthritis and other joint diseases.

Cracking the Pit

I have read about a couple of options. One is drying pits first, then smashing in a bag with a heavy object to powder. Another is blending it while it is still wet. That is what I did. I have a super heavy knife (image above), so I whacked it, and it easily split. I then chopped it into smaller pieces and threw in my Vitamix, along with other ingredients.

Avocado Pit Green Smoothie Recipe

Enjoy!