New Study: How Much Daily Avocado Consumption Reduces "good" and "bad" cholesterol

A new study has found that eating avocados daily for six months does not reduce belly and liver fat or waist circumference in overweight and obese people, but it may help lower “bad” cholesterol levels.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania also found that those who ate avocados ate better during the study period.

Recall that previous studies have found an association between avocado consumption and a decrease in body weight, BMI index and waist circumference. The new study is the largest by number of participants and the most extensive by time on the health effects of avocados.

Christina Petersen, assistant professor of nutrition at Texas Tech University, said, “The study found that daily avocado consumption improved participants’ overall dietary quality by eight points on a 100-point scale.” “These results show that eating one avocado a day can significantly improve the overall quality of the diet,” Petersen said. “This is important because we know that a high quality diet is associated with a lower risk of a number of diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes. and some types of cancer.

The study was carried out in collaboration with the University of Πανεπιστήμιο Loma Linda, το Πανεπιστήμιο Tufts και το UCLA (Πανεπιστήμιο της Καλιφόρνιας), writes pronews.gr.

The six-month study followed more than 1,000 overweight and obese people, half of whom were instructed to eat one avocado each day, while the other half continued their regular diet and limited their intake of avocados to less than two per month.

Abdominal fat and fat around other organs were measured using MRI before and after the study.

“Although daily consumption of avocados did not lead clinically significant reduction in abdominal fat and other cardiometabolic risk factors, it did not lead to weight gain,” says Joan Sabate, professor at Loma Linda University School of Public Health.

“This is good because consuming extra calories from avocados does not affect body weight or abdominal fat and slightly lowers total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol,” the expert emphasizes.

The researchers also found that daily consumption of avocados reduced total cholesterol levels by 2.9 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) and LDL, or bad cholesterol, by 2.5 mg/dL.

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