Stop Nasty Cholesterols: Eat An Avocado Daily

Avocados are one of the most nutritious foods you can eat. Now it seems daily consumption of one might help us redress the imbalance in cholesterol levels especially  in the obese and overweight.

Research by Professor Penny Kris-Etherton’s team at Pennsylvania State University showed that consumption of an avocado as part of a moderate fat, cholesterol lowering diet compared to a  similar diet without eating an avocado,  provided additional LDL (low-density lipoproteins) lowering effects. This helps reduce one of the risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). It seems the daily consumption of the avocado helped replace the saturated fatty acids with the unsaturated versions which are considered more healthy and less of a risk factor in CVD.

The study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association was a proof of concept study rather than a controlled feeding study but nonetheless demonstrated some valuable evidence. The objective was to examine some critical cardiovascular risk factors such as various cholesterol levels associated with a typical American but fat-laden diet . It was conducted with 45 healthy but overweight adults aged between 21 and 70.  Three different diets were evaluated. One diet was composed of 24% fat (the lower fat diet) with two being 34% fat (moderate fat diets). The low fat diet was made up of various fruits, chicken or turkey, whole grains, some red meat and low-fat dairy products. The two moderate-fat diets differed in one version having a Hass avocado included whilst the other replaced this with olive oil to match the fatty acid content.  All the diets had similar protein contents.

The results showed that the group eating the avocado produced a better reduction in both total and LDL cholesterol  than the other two diets. The diet with avocado decreased the LDL cholesterol level by 13.5mg/dL, but by only 8.3 mg.dL with the moderate-fat diet and by 7.4 mg/dL with the low-fat diet.

Further studies are needed using a larger subject sample and more diverse group of people to understand how high-density lipoproteins which are considered good cholesterol are influenced by daily consumption of one avocado. Indeed, is more than one being consumed better for you ? What active components in avocado are there ?

Reference

Wang, L., Bordi, P.L., Fleming, J.A., Hill, A.M., Kris-Etherton, P.M. (2015) Effect of a Moderate Fat Diet with and without Avocados on Lipoprotein Particle Number, Size and Subclasses in Overweight and Obese Adults: A Randomised, Controlled Trial. J Am Heart Assoc. 2015; 4: e001355 originally published January 7, 2015 doi: 10.1161/JAHA.114.001355  http://jaha.ahajournals.org/content/4/1/e001355.abstract Accessed 9th January 2015 11 a.m. GMT