Avocados, avocado oil and cellulite

Avocados, avocado oil and cellulite: facts and myths

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• Avocados and avocado oil “are good fats”, so they must be good for cellulite, right?

• Avocado oil, avocados and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA)

• Too much fat, even “healthy fat”, is unhealthy

• Cellulite is never healthy

• Do avocados cause cellulite?

• Moderation is the key

• Do avocados reduce cellulite?

• Avocado on toast: hipster does not equal slimming or healthy

• What is better for health and cellulite, avocado or olive oil?

• What about avocado oil vs olive oil?

• Having avocado or avocado oil on the day that you receive a cellulite treatment

• Rubbing avocados or avocado oil on skin for cellulite removal? Seriously?

• Check our professional consultancy for a masterclass in radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening

Avocados and avocado oil are “good fats”, so they must be good for cellulite, right?

A lot of people think that since avocado oil is healthy (indeed), they can consume large amounts without getting any weight gain or cellulite (very wrong).

(The same applies to olive oil and also the other unjustifiably overhyped oil of recent years, coconut oil, which is a matter for a whole separate article.)

But is all this hype justified? Let’s see how good or avocados and avocado oil are for your figure, and especially for cellulite, which is the subject of this blog.

Avocado oil, avocados and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA)

Avocados are fruits rich in fat and in fibre - they contain about 15% fat, with 10% being oleic acid, a monounsaturated, omega-9 fatty acid.

Avocado oil, being a fatty extract of the avocados, contains 100% fat, of which about 70% is monounsaturated oleic acid.

Monounsaturated fat is a neutral fat that, from a health point of view, can be consumed in high quantities without the negative aspects which too much omega-6 fat can have on your health (disruption of omega-3/omega-6 balance, pro-inflammatory action) or the negative effects of artery clogging, insulin resistance-inducing saturated fats.

Too much fat, even “healthy fat”, is unhealthy

On the other hand, any fat consumed in high quantities will always result to the accumulation of fat in the body, unless it is oxidised for energy via exercise or via lots of everyday movement.

Now there is no such thing as healthy obesity (this myth has been found to be wrong). Excess fat accumulation is detrimental for both health and appearance, regardless if the fat consumed was originally healthy. Obesity is obesity is obesity.

By the time the body becomes overweight or obese, we are moving into compromised health territory, especially if the fat gets accumulated in the stomach area: deep stomach fat (visceral fat) is well-known to cause inflammation and be a risk factor of heart disease.

If the fat gets accumulated into the thigh/buttock area, then we still have an inflammation problem, as well as an aesthetic problem, manifesting as big thighs and cellulite.

Cellulite is never healthy

The same applies to cellulite: there is no such thing as healthy cellulite. Chronic, low grade inflammation is an integral aspect of cellulite.

If excess healthy fat consumption leads to hypodermal fat accumulation (i.e. cellulite), it doesn’t matter if the original fat consumed was healthy or not. The accumulated hypodermal fat (i.e. fat in the deep layer of the skin) will make the skin on the thighs and buttocks look bumpy (what we call cellulite).

Luckily, one cannot consume too many avocados, so from a practical point of view, avocados are generally fine.

Avocado oil on the other hand, can be consumed in high quantities and can also be used for frying. And frying is never good for cellulite or whole body health, regardless of what oil is used for frying - even sauté frying.

Do avocados cause cellulite?

Excessive avocado oil - or any other fat/oil for that matter - will also make the hypodermal skin of the thighs and buttocks quite unhealthy. This is because the accumulation of excess fat inside the skin hypodermis leads to inflammation, water retention and fibrosis

Cellulite is not just an aesthetic condition, it is an indication of localised low-grade, chronic inflammation and an unhealthy state of the skin.

So we can say that healthy fatty acid consumption (including avocado omega-9 fatty acid consumption) is healthy, as long as it does not lead to excessive fat accumulation in the body. And that usually happens with the combination of carbs with fat.

Excessive fat consumption, especially when mixed with carbs, as in avocado on toast or avocado oil on toast or carbs fried in avocado oil, will always lead to fat accumulation and cellulite, especially when combined with inactivity.

A much better option is avocado/avocado oil with salad or avocado/avocado oil with tuna etc.

Moderation is the key

So the key here is moderation.

Whole avocados are great, especially so when they replace horrible muffins as a snack, fatty cheese in a salad or horrid bacon on toast.

And some avocado oil is great, especially when it replaces butter. But consuming too much avocado oil is not great.

For example, excessive olive oil consumption (another healthy omega-9 rich oil) is one of the reasons for obesity in Mediterranean countries like Greece, where people almost drink olive oil.

Yes, it’s good for the heart to begin with, but 50 pounds of extra weight later, some of it in the stomach area and some of it in the thigh/buttock area, is neither healthy nor good for your appearance anymore, even if the fat stored in the thighs is olive oil / avocado oil fat.

Do avocados reduce cellulite?

Now, can avocados reduce cellulite? Is avocado an anti-cellulite food, as some people suggest, perhaps if consumed in small quantities?

Nope. Cellulite-wise, avocado is a nice neutral food, if consumed in normal quantities.

But it is not an anti-cellulite food. For that you have to look at much less calories, much more fibre and much higher polyphenol / phytochemical content (think berries, broccoli etc). Or some protein with highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFAs), as in wild salmon or sardines.

And, of course, avocado oil is not an anti-cellulite food either.

Avocado on toast: hipster does not equal slimming or healthy

So to all those instagrammers who post avocado on toast three times a day as an example of healthy food, I have to say: since when carbs and fat combined - and not much in the way of salad or lean protein - is healthy or slimming?

• Wild salmon and broccoli is healthy and slimming

• Berries (and very few) nuts are healthy and slimming

• Avocado, tomatoes and walnuts are healthy and slimming

But more fat and carbs - on top of all the fat and carbs everyone already consumes - are not healthy and slimming. Perhaps avocado on toast is tasty and neutral, sure, but not health-improving or slimming. Let’s get real.

What is better for health and cellulite, avocados or olive oil?

Avocado fruits may contain 6.6 times less fat than olive oil, but then we also tend to consume 6.6 times more avocado than olive oil in a single sitting.

For example:

• One avocado contains 30g of fat and 330 calories

• Two tablespoons of olive oil contain 30g of fat and 270 calories

Let’s have a look at a couple of practical examples:

• Avocado vs lettuce and olive oil: One avocado has 13g of fibre, but then no one consumes olive oil straight from the bottle, you normally pour it on salad (one head of romaine lettuce also contains 13g of fibre).

• Avocado on toast vs cherry tomatoes and olive oil on toast: One slice of toast (75 calories) with half an avocado on top (165 calories) has about 240 calories. On the other hand, one slice of toast (75 calories) with one tablespoon of olive oil (135 calories) and some cherry tomatoes on top has about 220 calories.

Finally, high quality, extra virgin olive oil (the only olive oil worth consuming) has a very high content of polyphenols (especially olive varieties such as koroneiki, cornicabra, picual and hojiblanca), which avocado doesn’t.

I am not discussing avocado oil much here, as refined avocado oil is pointless (pure omega-9 fat and nothing else) and whole unrefined avocado oil has a quite strong taste, which few people like.

So, in summary, I would say that both avocados and olive oil are good as long as they replace unhealthy foods (muffins, biscuits, butter, trans fats, fatty cheese, horrible fried bacon on toast etc).

And both they can be “bad” if consumed in high quantities and without exercise, walking or other daily movement to burn off the excess calories.

Of course, there is also the environmental dimension: avocados are typically flown from thousands of miles away (at least in Europe) while olive oil is more compact and is flown from places within Europe. Of course, if you live in South Africa or other avocado producing countries, things may be different.

What about avocado oil vs olive oil?

Refined avocado / olive oils are quite similar: just omega-9 fats and not much else.

On the other hand, extra virgin olive oil is definitely healthier than extra virgin avocado oil though, as it contains far more polyphenols, as mentioned above.

And, of course, extra virgin avocado oil is much more expensive than extra virgin olive oil.

When it comes to cooking, refined avocado oil is supposed to be better for frying than refined olive oil, which is not true (long discussion here, good topic for another article).

However, the most important thing is that frying is the absolutely worst type of cooking and an important cause of cellulite.

So the tiny differences between the two oils in terms of frying are not so important. What is important is to fry very rarely - at least if you care about heart disease prevention or cellulite prevention.

And no, frying with a high smoke point oil or fat, of ANY kind, does NOT make frying “healthy”.

All in all, I would have both types of extra virgin oil, but perhaps I would use olive oil more due to the antioxidants and taste. But there is no huge difference here.

having avocado or avocado oil on the day that you receive a cellulite treatment

One thing is certain, if you do undergo any cellulite procedure do not have anything containing carbs, sugars, alcohol or fat, including healthy fat, such as avocado oil or olive oil) on the day of the treatment. You can have still have veg, lean protein and berry fruits and a single avocado on treatment day is absolutely fine.

This is to trick the body that it undergoes starvation and in this way maximise the release of fat from fat cells, that a good cellulite treatment should stimulate (not many cellulite treatments do that, but that’s another story…).

Rubbing avocados or avocado oil on skin for cellulite removal? Seriously?

There is one more thing on this subject: some people on the internet suggest that you apply avocados or avocado oil on your skin, sometimes with ground coffee beans, to reduce cellulite.

This is so ridiculous I am not even going to waste time to analyse. Those oils will make your epidermis (the surface of your skin) soft, like any other oil, and the ground coffee beans will exfoliate it, like anything abrasive.

Which is great - the surface of your skin will be softer and more hydrated.

But that’s all: absolutely nothing will happen to your hypodermis (the deep layer of your skin, where cellulite is found) or to cellulite itself.

Enough said.

Check our professional consultancy for a masterclass in radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening

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