 It is less likely to have a high blood sugar with avocado toast. Oh, that one's good. Here is a super quick six-ingredient recipe. Today we are talking about the health benefits of avocados for people with diabetes. Hi, I'm Dr. Ahmed Ergin. I'm an endocrinologist and a certified diabetes educator who specializes in hormones, weight loss, and diabetes. I practice in Florida but help people with diabetes all over the world via this YouTube channel. Hey, did you know that avocados are really popular nowadays? Three million new photos of avocado toasts are uploaded to the Instagram every day. But how did this humble fruit originally named after testicles get from Mexican forests to a tattoo on Miley Cyrus' arm? Well, it is for a good reason. This creamy fruit is packed with vitamins and heart-healthy fats. It is actually a large berry containing a single large seed. The fats in avocado is the good kind of fats that benefits the type 2 diabetic patients. But we'll talk more about on that in detail later in this video. But if you have type 2 or type 1 diabetes, adding avocado to your diabetic diet may help control your blood sugar, lose some weight, lower the insulin resistance, even lower the cholesterol. Keep watching to learn more about the benefits of avocados for people living with diabetes. At the end of this video, I will give you a quick tip. It's a minimalist recipe and you will fall in love with avocados again. The first benefit is that it won't cause spikes in your blood sugar at all. Avocados are super low in carbs. One avocado fruit is around 12 grams of carbs and hence the 9 grams is like fiber. So your net carb comes down to only 3 grams. Considering the total recommended fiber intake is anywhere between 20 to 30 grams depending on your age and gender, having only one avocado puts you at your goal almost the health way. So avocado has around 20 grams of healthy mono and polyunsaturated fats and a very little saturated fat. Because of high fiber and high healthy fat content, not only avocados won't spike your blood sugar, but it will actually lower the blood sugar spike that may happen with other carbs. For example, it is less likely to have a high blood sugar with avocado toast than another simple buttered toast. Number two, it may help with weight loss and improve insulin sensitivity. Why? Because of its high fiber content and the fat content, avocado will keep you full longer and will help with weight loss. Even 5% weight loss can make a dramatic change in your blood sugars by improving your insulin sensitivity. In one study, after adding half an avocado to their launches, the participants had actually 26% increase in meal satisfaction and 40% decrease in their desire to eat more. Of course, when you feel full longer after meals, you are less likely to snack and you will consume less extra calories. The healthy fat in avocados is called mono unsaturated fats, mostly, can also help your body use insulin more effectively, which in turn help you lose the weight and control diabetes easier. Almost 14 years ago, researchers found that a weight loss diet high in mono unsaturated fats improved insulin sensitivity compared to other types of diets. Avocados can work like cholesterol lowering machines. Consuming excessive amount of saturated fat, which as you all know now, mostly found in animal fats and any amount of trans fat in that regard raises your bad cholesterol. Now, trans fats are, at the same time, they lower your HDL, which is the healthy cholesterol levels. So high LDL and low HDL cholesterol level is a recipe for a perfect storm for heart disease in people with or even without diabetes. The good fats, which are mono unsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats, raise your good cholesterol, which is your HDL. The good cholesterol in your blood helps clear out the bad cholesterol, which reduces, in turn, the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Makes sense, right? You may remember the other sources of healthy fats. So did you watch my videos? Yeah, I'm sure you did. What are they? Nuts, elements, the cashews, the peanuts. What else? The olive oil, the flaxseed oil, the sesame oil, even the pumpkin seeds. On the flip side, though, avocado has around 250 to 300 calories per fruit. So although avocados have good kind of fat, these calories can still add up and can lead to weight gain if you eat more than one avocado a day. So if you're trying to lose weight, it is important that you practice moderation and portion control. Instead of adding avocado to your current diet, I would suggest using avocado as a substitution for foods that are high in saturated fats like cheese and butter. For example, you can mesh up an avocado and spread it on the toast instead of using butter. And here's a couple quick tips for you. Avocados take several days to ripen, right? So most avocados you'll find at the grocery store will not be ripe yet. Typically, people will buy an avocado a few days before they plan to eat. An unripe avocado will have a solid green color, a few shades darker than a cucumber. When an avocado is ripe, it turns a deeper, almost like a black shade of green. I would say turn avocado around in your hand before you bite, check for any bruises, if it is at any mushy spots, because overripe is not good either. If it is feeling too squishy, it might be overripe. So an unripe avocado feels hard like an apple and the vice versa for the too ripe of an avocado. If it is unripe, just leave it on the kitchen for a few days and once you're able to squeeze it, then you'll be able to determine the ripeness. Before I give you the recipe, here are some tips on how to use avocados. Slice them up, put them on a sandwich. That's easy, right? You can cube it and put it on a salad, that's also very doable. You can mash them up with the lime juice and spices and use as a dip. Oh well, that one's good. Smear it on a toast for the breakfast, which is my favorite breakfast. So cut it up and put it on an omelette, try putting avocado on your morning toast, bagel, instead of butter and cream, all this good stuff. What you'll be doing here is you're substituting the bad fats with good fiber-rich fat. You can bake with avocado instead of butter and oil and avocado can be substituted one-to-one for butter. Finally, here's my recipe. Here is a super quick six-ingredient recipe. Instead of the traditional mayo-based salads, I'm gonna give you a chicken avocado salad. It will give you all this creamy flavor and texture and healthy fats that you will get from avocado. So it's like a gocamoli, but it's super quick to make. So here are the ingredients. Avocado, choose some ripe ones, lime juice, shredded chicken. You have a few options for the chicken. You can use like rotisserie chicken, grilled chicken, instant pot chicken breast, or whatever, just get the chicken, okay? Red onion, white onion doesn't matter, whatever you like, is okay. Cilantro or parsley, I'm not a big fan of cilantro, I'll go with the parsley. Depending on your taste, whatever, and jalapenos, these are optional totally. I mean, if you don't like the hot food, just stay away from that one. Okay, in a bowl, mix them together, the avocado and lime juice, season with salt and pepper to your taste, and then add your shredded chicken, your chopped red onion, your cilantro or parsley, and diced jalapenos, if you do have them. To a bowl and stir everything together, and there you go. You have a wonderful, great salad. Bon appetit guys. So thank you for watching, we will see in the next video before you go, subscribe, share, and like guys, talk to you later. Hey guys, I hope you're enjoying this channel so far, and I hope you subscribed already. If you didn't do it, and if you did, watch this video right there, I think that will help you too.