Avocados, avocado oil and cellulite: facts and myths
Avocados and cellulite | In summary
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?
Avocados for cellulite: frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Avocado benefits for skin tightening
How many calories in avocado on toast?
Can you drink avocado oil straight?
Do avocados cause inflammation?
How much avocado is too much?
Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment with London’s cellulite experts
The Cellulite School™: Get advanced training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening
Avocados and cellulite | In summary
Avocados and avocado oil are notable for their high content of monounsaturated fats, especially oleic acid, which are regarded as healthier than saturated fats or excessive omega-6 oils. Whole avocados also provide fibre, while avocado oil is nearly 100% fat, around 70% of which is oleic acid. These fats are considered neutral and safe in reasonable quantities, but any type of fat, when consumed in excess, results in fat accumulation, obesity and cellulite. This risk increases when fats are eaten alongside carbohydrates and compounded by inactivity. Cellulite itself is not just cosmetic but involves chronic, low-grade inflammation in the skin’s deeper layers.
Moderate avocado consumption is beneficial, particularly when used to replace less nutritious foods such as muffins, fatty cheese or bacon. Avocados are filling, fibre-rich and a healthier snack choice, but they do not actively reduce cellulite. Avocado oil can also be useful as an alternative to butter or margarine, but it is easier to overuse, adding excess calories. Frying with avocado oil is especially damaging, as frying in any oil is strongly linked with poor health outcomes and worsening cellulite.
Claims that avocados or avocado oil can remove cellulite, whether consumed in large amounts or applied directly to the skin, are unfounded. Topical application only softens and hydrates the skin surface, without affecting the hypodermal fat where cellulite develops.
When compared with avocado oil, extra virgin olive oil offers greater health benefits, particularly due to its high polyphenol content, more appealing taste and lower cost. Both oils can play a positive role in a balanced diet if they replace unhealthy fats, but excessive consumption undermines these benefits. The key message is moderation: overindulging in any fat, regardless of origin, compromises both health and appearance.
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 are matters for separate articles.)
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 whether the fat consumed was originally healthy or not. 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 (albeit less than the stomach), 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 oil/fat 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, i.e. cellulite.
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 or - God forbid! -margarine. 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 on the stomach area and some of it on the thighs/butt, 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 (think wild salmon, sardines etc).
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, i.e. empty calories) 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, crisps, 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.
Then 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, 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 needed, 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.
That 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.
Avocados for cellulite: frequently asked questions (FAQs)
We hope all is clear now regarding avocados and cellulite.
Below are some straight, quick answers to the most common questions related to this subject, to clarify finer points and add more detail.
Avocado benefits for skin tightening
There are no such specific benefits. As described abive, avocados are a great food but they have no special nutrients that can help with skin tightening, either when applied topically or when eaten.
How many calories in avocado on toast?
As mentioned above, one slice of toast (75 calories) with half an avocado on top (165 calories) has about 240 calories.
Can you drink avocado oil straight?
Sure, just like olive oil, you can drink it straight but there is no specific nutritional benefit. In fact, pouring extra virgin avocado oil on some salad or other healthy food will provide more health benefits than straight avocado oil.
Do avocados cause inflammation?
Absolutely not. Avocados are neither pro-inflammatory nor anti-inflammatory. They are a nice neutral food which can replace unhealthy snacks, which themselves can cause inflammation.
How much avocado is too much?
Avocados are a nice neutral food with high (healthy) fat and fibre content and can be eaten in decent quantities.
On the other hand, obsession is never a good thing and no food is good if eaten in excess, so we can say that up to 2 avocados a day (~600 calories, 45 grams of fat) make sense. More than that will probably contribute too much fat/calories, unless you are very active and need a high amount of calories from your food.
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