Raspberry Avocado Mousse

Raspberry Avocado Mousse

Serves 2

1. In a blender, purée the avocado cubes, remaining raspberries, almond or coconut milk, honey, orange juice, and optional beet root powder, until smooth.
2. Divide between two dessert dishes or glasses and garnish with three raspberries each, followed by shaved chocolate and optional mint and/or orange peel.
3. Serve, as your dessert finale.

This recipe is more than beautiful and romantic. It’s an anti-cancer powerhouse! Raspberries are protective against cancer, according to multiple research studies demonstrating how the polyphenols in berries–especially flavonoids and anthocyanins–have both an anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effect. Reported benefits of these phytochemicals include reduced inflammation, inhibition of the growth of blood vessels that can feed tumors, protection from DNA damage, and a reduction in the proliferation rates of malignant cells, even causing lesions to regress. That’s a lot of power in those beautiful berries! But this mousse does even more. The creamy base comes from avocado, which also has anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer potential, especially from the oleic acid they contain. Research shows this unsaturated fatty acid acts against colon and liver cancer. On top of all that goodness, beetroot contains betalains that disrupt the formation of cancer cells, and acai berries contain polyphenols that are toxic to colon cancer cells and have an anti-tumor effect against esophageal, urethreal, and colon cancer, as well as melanoma. Dark chocolate is another well-studied antioxidant food (hooray!) because it’s a rich source of flavonoids that counteract both inflammation and oxidative stress, and even the optional shaved orange peel in this recipe is full of citrus flavonoids that have a demonstrated cancer cell formation effect, and may also block metastasis by inhibiting cancer cell mobility in the circulatory system. (I try to add citrus peel as often as I can.) Meanwhile, this recipe is low in sugar (just a bit of honey) and high in the most healthful kinds of fats.

All this just to say that dessert can taste and look decadent while actually assisting your body’s immune system to fight on your behalf. Enjoy every luscious bite!

SOURCES:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5187535/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1018364718315714
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6515411/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19838930/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4163462/