Why Avocados Are a Superfood for Kids: Nutrition, Benefits & Tasty Recipes

Superfoods are nutrient-dense foods that provide many essential nutrients for your child. One such superfood is Avocado. It is a fruit with greenish or yellowish flesh, creamy and smooth texture, and bumpy skin outside.¹ This article will discuss avocado benefits, avocado nutrition, the significance of avocado protein, avocado recipes for kids, and what the benefits of avocado for kids are.

Avocado Nutrition: What Makes It a Superfood?

The excellent nutritional profile of avocado makes it a part of a healthy meal plan. Avocado nutrition includes healthy fats, good fiber content, and micronutrients like vitamin B9 (folate), vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), vitamin K, copper, and other beneficial compounds such as carotenoids- lutein, zeaxanthin, and phytosterols.² It is particularly different that other fruits as it has more fat than natural sugar (carbohydrates), making it one of the highest-fat plant foods and justifying its inclusion in the superfoods list.¹ Avocado nutrition for one-half avocado (70-80g) is given below³:

With this understanding of avocado nutrition, let’s also know avocado benefits for kids-

Benefits of Avocado for Kids

• Protein-rich fruit:

Half of an avocado gives 2.2g protein, higher than most fruits. Protein is essential for muscle growth, immune system and development of your child. Avocado protein will help support your child’s growth and help fight against infections.⁴ Avocado protein is an important protein source for vegetarians and vegans.

• Healthy fats:

One of the important avocado benefits is presence of healthy fats. Avocado has high monounsaturated fats (oleic acid), which play a role in your child’s central nervous system and brain development. Its high fat content also helps in absorption of fat-soluble nutrients such as fat-soluble vitamins, important for health.⁴

• Supports vision and eye health:

 Avocados have high carotenoid content (lutein, zeaxanthin) known for various health benefits, including vision and eye health. Its high fat content enriches absorption of these carotenoids, further supporting its function in eye health.⁴ Carotenoids are precursors of vitamin A are converted to active forms of vitamin A in our body. One study reported that avocado consumption can augment carotenoid conversion to active vitamin A by two to six folds.

• Fiber:

High fiber content of avocado benefits gut health of your child. This supports vitamin and mineral uptake and reduces chances of constipation as it has 60-70% insoluble fiber and rest is soluble fiber.⁴

• Growth:

Impaired gut health has been shown to impact growth and development in children. Avocado, as a good fiber source, helps support gut health and as a result adequate growth of your child. For picky eaters, who do not eat enough vegetables and fruits, this creamy, soft avocado can significantly contribute to fiber intake, benefiting their overall growth.⁴

• Better absorption of nutrients:

Another one among avocado benefits, and worth mentioning is that it has low oxalate and phytate content compared to other fiber sources such as cereals, vegetables, and legumes. Therefore, low chances of binding to these anti-nutrient substances, minimizing loss of nutrients like calcium and other essential minerals and promoting their absorption.⁴

With so many benefits of avocado for kids, you must also know ways to include avocado in your child’s diet- 

How to Include Avocado in Your Child’s Diet

Avocado’s soft creamy texture makes it a no-hassle addition to many foods for kids. Here are some easy ways to include in your child’s diet-

• Swap high fat mayo or cheesy dips with creamy avocado dip (guacamole). All you need to do is mash avocado well, sprinkle salt, pepper, or spices of choice, mix, and voila, guacamole is ready!
• You can include mashed avocado in roti wraps or sandwiches as dressing or on top of crackers, for a healthy and creamy touch.
• Carrot cucumber or celery sticks with avocado dip is another healthy yet delicious snack to avail the benefits of avocados for kids.
• Can be added to smoothies, soups, curries, pasta sauces etc. for a nutritious punch and smooth texture.
• Diced avocado pieces or mashed avocado can be added to salads as a dressing to make these salads for kids both tasty and nutrient dense.

Avocado Recipes for Kids

Here are some easy-to-make avocado recipes for kids-

1. Avocado on Toast:

 Toast a whole wheat or sourdough bread, spread mashed avocado and sprinkle salt, pepper, any favourite flavourings of your child. Easy right?

2. Creamy Avocado Spinach Pasta:

Instead of white sauce made from butter and refined flour, use vegetable-based sauce with avocado. Mix mashed avocado with spinach puree or any vegetable puree to add creaminess, rich flavour, and fiber-packed nutrition.

3. Avocado Deviled Eggs:

Scoop out yolk from boiled egg, mix in mashed avocado and some good flavours. Spoon the filling back into egg whites, enjoy immediately, or some like these avocado twisted eggs chilled.

How to Introduce Avocados to Picky Eaters

Here are some ways to hide in avocados if your child is a picky eater-

• Mix in mashed avocado to roti or paratha dough
• Stir in avocado paste to soups, vegetable purees, and curries for creaminess and smooth texture
• Hide some avocado in baked muffins or pancake batter

Conclusion

This knowledge of avocado nutrition, avocado benefits, importance of avocado protein, explains the benefits of avocado for kids, making it a must-add superfood to your child’s menu. Avocado recipes for kids can be made to introduce this superfood. Often you may not be able to include all healthy foods in your child’s diet due to food preferences, likes, dislikes, or simply your child may not be able to eat enough to get all essential nutrients. Under these situations, nutritional drink like Complan serve as a helpful addition to a balanced diet to meet nutritional needs of your child. Complan has 63% more protein than the other leading malt-based nutritional drink and a total of 34 vital nutrients, supporting your child’s growth.