1. Eating one avocado daily for six months has been proven to help improve cholesterol levels Scientists have observed a slight reduction in harmful cholesterol levels through eating an avocado each day for this duration.
Daily avocado consumption was not associated with weight gain and led to a minor reduction in LDL cholesterol levels.
Researchers conducted a 6-month study involving over 1,000 obese or overweight individuals; half were told to consume an avocado daily; the other half continued their normal diet but were instructed to limit the consumption of avocados to less than two per month.
Before and at the completion of this research study, abdominal fat and its surrounding organs were precisely measured with an MRI machine.
Although one avocado per day did not lead to clinically-significant improvements in abdominal fat and other cardiometabolic risk factors, eating 1 avocado each day did not lead to body weight gain and overall and LDL-cholesterol were both slightly reduced.
Researchers found that daily avocado consumption reduced total cholesterol by 2.9 mg/dL and LDL cholesterol by 2.5 mg/dL.
Another study demonstrated that regularly eating one avocado was associated with lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in obese and overweight individuals, particularly small, dense LDL particles and oxidized LDL cholesterol oxidized LDL particles – two forms of bad cholesterol which should both be addressed.
Researchers discovered that when participants included one avocado daily in their diets, there were significantly fewer small and dense LDL cholesterol particles – particularly harmful in contributing to arterial plaque buildup – compared with before starting this new regime.
The study discovered that avocados helped lower oxidized LDL cholesterol particles. Just like how oxygen damages food – such as an apple turning brown after being cut – it can damage human bodies as well. Oxidation is especially dangerous to the heart.
Researchers recruited 45 obese or overweight participants for this study, all adhering to an initial two-week “warm-up” diet designed to mimic an average diet and ensure equal nutritional baseline conditions when beginning.
Individuals then completed 5 weeks of 3 different diet interventions that had been randomly ordered: low-fat intervention diet, moderate-fat intervention diet and one with 1 avocado every day – this last diet also contained healthy fats to reflect avocado’s monounsaturated fatty acids content.
Once individuals had followed an avocado diet for five weeks, their oxidized LDL cholesterol levels had significantly decreased compared to either prior to starting or following low and moderate fat diets; they also showed higher lutein levels following this type of eating plan.
