Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

Heather classifies avocado as a Soluble Fiber food so they are safe in that regard. However - and it's a big however - a Haas avocado gets about 80% of its calories from fat. In fact, in food exchange tables for diabetics and heart-healthy dies, avocado is classified as a fat.

What makes avocados "better" than mayonnaise or margarine, though, is that you can use more avocado than mayonnaise or margarine and get the same amount of fat. For example, 2 Tablespoons of avocado can be substituted for 1 teaspoon of regular butter or margarine. This means you can use more avocado on a sandwich, for example, than you could mayonnaise or butter.

Also remember that regular mayonnaise - and some low-fat mayonnaise - contains egg yolks. Avocados don't. Last but not least, avocados are a natural source of fat and seem pretty well balanced among saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated fats. This doesn't related to IBS directly but does make them a healthy choice for fat.

I've never used avocado or guacamole with tuna or eggs - I use low-fat mayonnaise - but I do eat guacamole as lunch fairly often. I make it using Heather's recipe in the EFI Cookbook and serve it with lots of low-fat corn chips and/or flour tortillas and I do fine with it.

So the rule is to remember avocados are high in fat and make sure you pair them with low-fat foods to get the overall percent of fat down.

HTH.

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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]

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