Juice: Replenishing with Avocados

When my husband, Paul, and I were exploring Ethiopia in October of 2022, our experience was spiritually transformational, culturally reaffirming, and culinarily reviving. One VERY important part of our lives is the consumption of nutrient dense and high quality foods. Therefore, imagine our pleasant surprise when we learned that a fresh juice blend of mango, papaya, and avocado was readily available as a daily drink option throughout our trip!

Avocados have a rich and creamy texture that leaves one feeling revived and full! Within Western culture, while there is a good general understanding of the value of avocados being a superfood, there is also sound reasoning from a Chinese nutritional perspective on the importance of this fruit - yes, avocado is a fruit :)

According to ChineseNutrition.org; "In terms of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Avocado is known for its ability to tonify blood and yin."

Okay, so what does that mean?

To clarify, according to Artemesia Healing Arts; "Tonify is another way to say supplement, support, or nourish. Blood loss can be obvious, like from an injury, surgery, or giving birth, or more subtle, like from menstruation, or simply having a constitution that tends to blood deficiency. Blood deficiency is a little different than the Western diagnosis of anemia, though they share some similarities. Blood deficient people tend to be tired, spacey, and have thin hair and/or nails, though signs may be more subtle than these."

Now that we have an base understanding of what it means to tonifying blood, let's briefly discuss the Yin & Yang theory, and what it means to tonify yin.

According to Tanya Keam Wellness; "In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang describe how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. Many tangible dualities (such as light and dark, fire and water, expanding and contracting) are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality symbolized by yin and yang.

Yin represents the energy that is responsible for moistening and cooling bodily functions. When this energy is depleted your body begins to show signs of “heating up”. This is not a true heat such as a fever, but rather a lack of the moistening and cooling functions that are necessary to maintain a healthy balance."

Whew! That might have been a lot to process.

Succinctly, avocados are special in their ability to supplement or support the blood supply in your body and the moistening and cooling functions in your body.

Thank you for making the time to read, learn and heal. As a gift of inspiration, below is a video of our pilgrimage to Ethiopia. #JourneyToTheCenterOfWe

Key Words: Avocados, Healing with Whole Foods, Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM, Food as Medicine, Juice, Ethiopia, International Pilgrimage, and Black Travel