Avocados a super food?

Posted on Sun, 27 Jan 13

Enjoying avocados regularly might be a good way to increase your nutrient intake, improve your blood cholesterol and reduce your body weight.

A recent study found that regular avocado eaters tend to get more good fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats), dietary fiber, vitamins E, K, magnesium, and potassium in their diet. Although this may not only be from avocados as they also had significantly higher intakes of vegetables; ate more fruit, had better overall diet quality and lower intakes of added sugars than people who do not eat avocado.

Eating avocados was also associated with lower body weight, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference and higher good HDL cholesterol. Further, the risk for metabolic syndrome was 50% lower.

Now, this study was limited by the fact that all these observations are associations and so cannot prove that avocados are responsible for the effects. However avocados are packed full of healthy fats (which are associated with weight loss, not gain) vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and fiber so may be at least in part responsible. And they have been shown to reduce cholesterol and improve nutrient absorption from foods like salsa.

In any case, enjoying avocados as part of a healthy diet appears to be a delicious idea.

Reference:

Fulgoni VL 3rd, Dreher M, Davenport AJ. Avocado consumption is associated with better diet quality and nutrient intake, and lower metabolic syndrome risk in US  adults: Results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001--2008. Nutr J. 2013 Jan 2;12(1):1. [Epub ahead of print]