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New research suggests that eating this fruit every day may provide a number of health benefits, including improved sleep and nutritional quality.
“We knew from previous studies that avocado consumption is associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease,” Janhavi J. Damani, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Penn State who was involved in the study, told Healio.
The study, which was recently presented at the Nutrition 2024 conference in Chicago, builds on earlier research into the health benefits of avocados, suggesting that avocados may “improve cardiovascular risk factors by reducing total and LDL cholesterol without negatively affecting body weight,” according to Damani.
For the study, the team of researchers analyzed the Habitual Eating and Avocado Trial (HAT), which included more than 1,000 participants who were randomly assigned to either eat one avocado per day for six months or follow their usual diet but eat less than two avocados per month.
In their analysis, the team of Dr. Damani of Healio said they assessed the effects of daily avocado consumption on heart health in people with abdominal obesity.
The team evaluated a sample of 969 people in the HAT study using the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) cardiovascular health guidelines, which include diet quality, blood sugar levels, blood pressure, BMI, blood lipid levels, physical activity, and sleep quality.
The results showed that those who maintained their previous habits and avoided avocados experienced worse cardiovascular health, while this trend was not observed in those who ate avocados, Damani told Healio.
Although there were no significant differences in LE8 scores between the groups, those who consumed avocados daily experienced improvements in sleep quality, diet quality, and blood lipid (e.g., cholesterol) scores.
“There is growing evidence that modifying healthy dietary patterns, rather than simply including individual foods, is needed to achieve clinically relevant improvements in cardiovascular risk factors,” Damani said.
The study, funded by the Hass Avocado Commission, may spur further research into the “complex relationship” between certain foods and cardiovascular health.
In the meantime, Damani recommends that health professionals focus more on improving nutritional quality through beneficial changes in overall dietary patterns.
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