Transcription
I used to think that avocados were the most amazing superfood that you could possibly eat. I would recommend them, tell my patients to consume these until I found this.
When they arrive at the grocery store, many times they put them into this gas chamber. Then they artificially ripen them with something called ethylene gas. The problem with this is when you do this prematurely, you no longer help develop the natural flavor chemicals because you're creating in this artificial ripening process. You don't develop the phytonutrients. That's why when you buy it, it looks perfect on the outside, but on the inside, it's terrible. Anytime you force something to ripen, it's very unnatural.
Let's talk about avocado oil. I read this research study that they evaluated 22 different samples, looking at all the major brands and evaluating unrefined versus refined avocado oil. They really dove into the oxidation of this oil. I really want you to get this. So, we cut an apple in half. On the left side, I put lemon juice. On the right side, I did not. As you can see, it's a lot darker than the left side. That's oxidation. Oxidation is like the rusting out of something. When it comes to avocado oil, there is a tremendous amount of oxidation occurring. My question is, what the heck's going on? I'm spending a lot of money in this.
Just think about an avocado, right? And compare that to seed oils like corn oil or cottonseed oil. They're very different because the avocado oil doesn't come from the seed of the avocado. It comes from the pulp. You get vitamin E, which is an antioxidant. You get chlorophyll, which also is an antioxidant. Big problem with consuming seed oils or even avocado oil when it's oxidized is it's going to add more inflammatory things to your body. In some of these products, they found other oils in these avocado oils like soy oil or canola oil as a way of diluting it and selling it at a cheaper price. They found 82% of avocado oil is not what it says it really is. And then they do a process called deodorization. They're taking the odor out. You can't taste this oxidation. But does that mean the oxidation's not there? No. It's still there. It's still highly inflammatory.
Question is, how do they get away with it? Well, this is what I found that was actually quite shocking. There is no official US rules on these things. In other words, olive oil has an international definition of what extra virgin means, but not with avocado oil. There's no legal binding definition of the way that they're supposed to process these things. This has opened up the door for a lot of corruption. There's all sorts of scams going on trying to dilute avocado oil with other oils, but on the label, you can't tell the difference. What was really shocking in this research study, which I'm going to put a link down below, there were some products that had zero avocado oil in them. Instead, there was soybean oil, canola oil, despite the labeling of pure.
Don't worry, it gets worse. Country of origin. It's probably grown in California and they just process it there and they ship it to me, right? If it says a product of the US, it can be grown in China, blended in Mexico, but it's bottled in the US. This makes it a product of the US. Unfortunately, the regulations, the enforcement is just not there for avocado oil.
Then we get to the expiration date. There is no law that you have to have an expiration date on these bottles. On this bottle right here, it says best used by and then they give you a date, but it doesn't even mention the word expiration date. And it doesn't even mention when this oil was processed. Makes it very difficult to know how long that material has been sitting in that bottle. But I will point out one thing about avocado oil is you want to get it in the dark bottles in glass, not clear plastic because light can also oxidize the oil.
Next point, guacamole. Many of the guacamole in fast food restaurants don't contain much avocado. They're replaced with green peas, uh, hydrogenated oils, food starches, of course, it's kind of like green goo. And then I also want to mention the point about cosmetics. They say they use a lot of avocado oil or so-called avocado oil. Yet, the first thing on the list is soy oil and the second is palm oil and then mineral oil. And of course, at the very bottom, you see that they've just put this tiny bit of avocado oil creating this illusion that it's all avocado oil when it's really not.
How do we navigate through this? If you're going to buy avocado oil, make sure it's a dark bottle and glass. Make sure it actually has an expiration date. Some companies put that on there. Don't always go for the absolute cheapest brand. If you could also find the harvest date, that would be the best thing to look at because you don't want to buy a product that is like a year old. Also, when you look at the actual oil, it should be slightly tinted green. It shouldn't be clear unless you buy something that's refined cuz we want the chlorophyll in there.
When you buy actual avocados, I recommend that you buy them from California, like the host variety, not the ones in the bag that are really cheap and that are really shiny. Sometimes they put this wax on it to make it look way better than it really is. With me, I'll do the like the gentle thumb press. Obviously, if it's too ripe, you could feel that it just your thumb goes too deep or if it's not ripe enough, it will create no indentation. I would be very weary of buying any guacamole from a fast food restaurant because it has literally less than 5% avocados, if not zero.
All that being said, I want to tell you avocados can be super healthy for you if you get the right kind because they have very healthy fat profiles. They only have 10% of the omega6 oils versus seed oils are like 40 or 50 or more percent. One of the really cool things I like about avocados is the amount of potassium they have. Because in one medium avocado, you can get 5, 6, 7, 8 up to 900 mg of potassium from one avocado. And on top of that, avocados are loaded with magnesium, which is another very powerful electrolyte. The absolute best thing for you to learn right now is what potassium actually does for your body. If you have not seen this video, you need to watch it right now. I put it right here.