Could an avocado a day improve your health?
BOSTON - Avocados are rich in healthy fats, fiber, and phytochemicals, although high in calories, but eating one a day could improve someone's diet quality.
Researchers at Penn State University looked at more than 1,000 participants with abdominal obesity and found that those who ate one avocado a day for 26 weeks improved their diet quality, but did not experience a significant improvement in risk factors for cardiometabolic disease such as belly fat volume, BMI, insulin levels, or cholesterol.
The study authors question whether six months is long enough to detect a difference or whether the participants' diets were so poor at baseline that making this modest change was not enough to improve cardiometabolic health.
Registered dietitians say instead of just adding one nutritious food to your diet, replace unhealthy foods with a wide variety of nutrient-rich foods such as fruits (like avocados,) vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds. Of note, the study received funding from the Avocado Nutrition Center.