The latest nutrition trends and regimens are constantly changing and it can be difficult to keep up, but some experts are now adapting their research to determine how to achieve the highest health benefits by eating certain foods, including avocados.
According to Medical News Today, a recent study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association evaluated the effect of eating one avocado a day compared to a regular diet.
cholesterol
Although the researchers did not find a significant difference between the control and intervention groups, they did discover that participants who ate one avocado daily had lower levels of bad cholesterol and improved the quality of their diet.
Avocado nutritional value
Medical News Today quoted nutrition expert Dr. Brian Bauer, who was not involved in the study, how cholesterol levels are related to heart health, as he stated that “convincing evidence from studies paints a picture of cholesterol levels as important for heart health. Elevated levels are an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, including cerebrovascular disease and coronary heart disease.
Dr. Bauer added that research is still ongoing on what factors influence cholesterol levels and how people can adjust their diets to keep their cholesterol at healthy levels and improve their overall diet. For example, he said, eating avocados may help maintain healthy cholesterol levels. Avocado also contains many beneficial vitamins such as vitamin C and K, as well as an adequate amount of fiber.
Avocado benefits
The study in question was a randomized controlled trial that examined the health benefits of eating one avocado per day for six months. The researchers wanted to see if eating an avocado daily helped people reduce visceral obesity in participants with a higher waist circumference, as well as influence several other health outcomes, including cholesterol levels, body weight, body mass index, and overall health.
Avocado (iStock)
The researchers discovered that there were no statistically significant differences between the control and intervention groups, but the exception was in cholesterol levels, as it was found that the levels of total cholesterol and “bad” cholesterol were lower in the intervention group.
Study co-author Dr. Alice H. Liechtenstein pointed out that adding superfoods or healthy foods to the diet does not necessarily translate into significant health benefits, explaining that the results of the study revealed that “just adding healthy food in terms of fat and nutrients, in this case avocados , to the diet did not produce clinical benefits, but there were no negative effects, but the addition was associated with benefit and improvement [في] overall diet quality.
important message
The study findings underscore an important message that focusing on individual foods is not a substitute for maintaining healthy eating patterns as a whole. Regardless of any modest benefit in lowering “bad” cholesterol levels, any trend that encourages consumption of more fruits and vegetables as part of an overall balanced diet is welcome.”
Depression and cancer
For his part, Dr. Bauer noted that eating avocados continuously leads to obtaining a range of health benefits, including improving digestion, reducing the risk of osteoporosis and depression, and protecting against cancer.
Avocados provide a large amount of monounsaturated fatty acids and are rich in several trusted vitamins and minerals. Incorporating them into a varied diet can provide a number of health benefits, including, for example, prevention of the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and mortality in general while promoting healthy skin and hair, increased energy and weight management.
Avocado contents
About half of an avocado, or 100 grams, contains:
• 160 calories
• 14.7 g fat
• 8.5 g carbohydrates
• 6.7 g of fiber
• Less than 1 gram of sugar
potential risks
A person’s overall diet is key to achieving good health and preventing disease. For this reason, it is better to focus on a diet with lots of variety rather than the benefits of individual foods.
There is a small potential danger when eating avocados in moderation. But as with all foods, excessive intake can lead to undesirable results. For example, avocados are high in fat, so adding too much of it to your diet can lead to unintended weight gain, so researchers recommend eating just one avocado a day.
Keep in mind that avocados contain vitamin K, which can affect how blood thinners work, so it’s important for people who take blood thinners, such as warfarin (Coumadin), to keep their vitamin K levels steady. For this reason, it is not a good idea to eat more or less foods, which contain vitamin K, which plays an important role in blood clotting, suddenly or randomly.