Avocado might be everyone’s sweetheart because of its delicate texture and delicious taste.
Besides, avocado is very beneficial for health, as it contains many health benefits such as Health Benefits of Avocado for Weight Loss and Health Benefits of Avocado During Pregnancy. Besides, avocado has big contribution to support our beauty. It is proven by the Health Benefits of Avocado for Skin.
However, do you know that avocado fruit is not the only beneficial thing from avocado plant? Well, avocado leaves are also beneficial for health. One of the beneficial points of avocado leaves is the benefits of avocado leaves for cancer.
There are many medication techniques and methods developed for cancer. But we can’t simply ignore the fact that traditional medication involving natural ingredients is helpful to reduce the risk of cancer and even helping in treating cancer. One of the examples is the benefits of avocado leaves for cancer. There are many beneficial points you can pick to convince you that not only the fruit, the leaves are also helpful for us.
The Nutritional Information of Avocado Leaves
Avocado leaves might not be as delicious as the fruit. However, it contains nutritional value which is not less than the fruit. It has excellent nutrition as listed below:
- Protein
- Fiber
- Flavonoids
- Phenols
- Sodium
- Zinc
- Potassium
- Iron
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Manganese
- Phosphorus
The protein and fiber in avocado leaves are claimed to be higher than the fruit or seed. Amazing, isn’t it? And if you wonder about the taste, it might taste a licorice with a little bitter flavor. So, you can mix it up with the other ingredients to spice up the taste when you consume it as medication or prevention to cancer.
The Benefits of Avocado Leaves for Cancer
The consumption of avocado leaves is claimed to be very good in reduce the risk of cancer and prevent further development of cancer. It is because avocado leaves contain excellent beneficial nutrition as mentioned above, which actively fight cancer growth.
Here are some of the benefits of avocado leaves for cancer.
- Cancer preventing agent
Avocado leaves have very important compound for cancer. They are pinene and lemonade, the cancer preventing agents we can get from consuming avocado leaves. The two compounds are able to slower cancer cell development. Besides, it can also effectively act as chemoprotective agent for cancer.Â
- Diuretic property
Avocado leaves have diuretic property. It means that regular consumption of avocado leaves can enhance metabolism and further excrete waste through urine. The proper waste excretion enables our body to quickly remove toxins and the other unwanted material from our unhealthy diets.
As we know, some cancer developed from the unhealthy lifestyle, especially unhealthy diet. So, the proper urinary removal can reduce the risk of the toxins including the free radical to affect our body.
- Inhibit the growth of tumor
Avocado leaves are high in antioxidants. One of the beneficial antioxidants in avocado leaves is phytochemicals. The phytochemicals work very excellent in inhibiting the growth of tumor. This fact is published in an article of Nature Reviews for Cancer and studied by Young Joon Surh.
- Anti-inflammatory property
The growth of cancer never apart from inflammation process. Either elicited by inflammation, or the growth process involve inflammation, cancer patient needs to consume any product or food with anti-inflammatory property.
In this case, avocado leaves worth a try. It can present the benefits of avocado leaves as anti-inflammatory agent.
- Prevent blood clotting
Vitamin K is another important vitamin that is responsible for the prevention of blood clotting. Cancer sometimes related to the process of blood clotting.
It is possible for avocado leaves to prevent blood clotting by activating selected proteins and make them able to bind calcium. Avocado leaves are one of the best sources of vitamin K from plants. Â
The Recommendation to Consume Avocado Leaves
You might not need any further explanation if it comes to the consumption of avocado fruit. But how about the consumption of avocado leaves for cancer? What should we do to consume and get the benefits of avocado leaves for cancer? Well, you can add raw or freshly toasted avocado leaves to salad.
Or else, you can also make the leaves extract as salad dressing. But if you are not that into salad, you can include avocado leaves to your stew or soup. Not only add health benefits to your cooking, adding avocado leaves can also spice up the flavor with its licorice and anise like flavor. It is easier for you to process the leaves into powder. So that, you can add it anywhere on your diet. Such a simple and easy solution for healthy diet.
Besides, one of the best ways to consume avocado leaves is by drink it as tea. Just boil some leaves in a pot of water. If you like, you can drink it plain. Of it is not, you can add some sweetener.
It is better if you use healthy sweetener such as honey or stevia, so that you can get the Health Benefits of Replacing Sugar with Honey and Health Benefits of Stevia Leaf. You can drink avocado leaves tea every day, but make sure that your consumption doesn’t not exceed 1 or 2 glasses a day. However, you should make sure that you wash the leaves properly before consuming it. As we know, avocado plants might be sprayed with fungicide or pesticide. Therefore, we should make sure that the leaves are clean.
Precaution for avocado leaves consumption
The consumption of avocado leaves for its Health Benefits of Avocado Leaves is considered to be safe for health. However, there are many kinds of avocado species. Regarding to this, you should be aware of some avocado species which has toxic leaves.
As an example, a study carried to examine whether avocado leaves have potential toxicity found that  the leaves of Guatemala avocado tend to be toxic if it is consumed orally. The safe avocado leaves species is Mexican avocado leaves.
In addition, it is better for pregnant and breast feeding women to avoid consuming large amount of avocado leaves, except they have got the recommendation from the expert.