Researchers have recently reported that eating one avocado every day for six months resulted in a slight reduction of harmful cholesterol levels.1
An avocado every day did not lead to weight gain and instead led to a small reduction in LDL cholesterol levels.
Researchers conducted a 6-month study involving over 1,000 obese or overweight individuals; half were instructed to consume one avocado daily while the other half were instructed to follow their normal diet with no more than two avocados consumed per month.
Before and at the conclusion of the study, abdominal fat and surrounding organ fat were accurately measured using MRI technology.
Although eating an avocado each day didn’t lead to significant improvement in abdominal fat and other cardiometabolic risk factors, neither body weight gained nor total and LDL cholesterol were reduced significantly as a result of regular avocado consumption.
Studies also revealed that eating avocados daily could reduce total cholesterol by 2.9 mg/dL and LDL cholesterol by 2.5 mg/dL.
An additional study found that eating one avocado per day was associated with lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in obese and overweight individuals, particularly small, dense LDL particles and oxidized LDL levels – two forms of bad cholesterol which must be addressed simultaneously for proper health.
Researchers found that when participants consumed one avocado daily in their diets, there were significantly fewer small and dense LDL cholesterol particles – particularly harmful in contributing to arterial plaque build-up – compared with before they began the diet.
The study showed that avocados helped decrease oxidized LDL cholesterol particles. Oxidation is dangerous to both the human body and food sources alike; just like an apple turns brown after it has been cut by oxygen, so too is human body oxidation harmful.
Researchers recruited 45 obese or overweight individuals for this research project. All individuals complied with a two-week “warm-up” diet similar to an average diet before beginning, so that everyone would start out on equal nutritional ground.
Each individual completed five weeks of three randomly ordered intervention diets: low-fat intervention diet, moderate-fat intervention diet and one that included 1 avocado per day. Furthermore, the latter two diets contained additional healthy fats to match those found in avocados’ monounsaturated fatty acids.
After following an avocado diet for 5 weeks, participants saw reduced oxidized LDL cholesterol levels compared with pre-study or after completing low and moderate-fat diets, as well as higher lutein levels than with either of them.
