Avocados are a total superfood.
Loaded with important nutrients, they provide numerous health benefits and they taste pretty good too. Thanks to a study, we now know how good they are for your heart.
Eating one avocado a day as part of a heart healthy, cholesterol-lowering moderate-fat diet can help improve bad cholesterol levels in overweight and obese individuals, according to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers put 45 healthy but overweight or obese patients between the ages of 21 and 70 on three different cholesterol-lowering diets. One was a lower fat diet without avocado, and two moderate-fat diets – one with avocado and one without.
All 3 diets lowered cholesterol levels, but the results from the avocado diet were the most striking, with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol dropping by 13.5 milligrams per decilitre. The other moderate-fat diet resulted in a decrease of just 8.3 milligrams per deciliter, and the low-fat diet saw a drop of 7.4 milligrams per deciliter.
Senior study author and Chair of the American Heart Association’s Nutrition Committee, Penny M. Kris-Etherton added that this was a controlled feeding study, and not the real-world. "It is a proof-of-concept investigation,” she said. It’s good enough for us though. Guacamole anyone?
