Avocados are one of the most talked about superfoods these days. This fruit (yes, avocado is a fruit) has gained worldwide cult status. This rich, creamy fruit has become especially popular among fitness enthusiasts and health conscious people not only for its butter, smooth taste but also for its many incredible health benefits.Also read – World Chocolate Day 2022: Acne and Pimples? Include a chocolate face mask in your beauty regimen today – watch the video
According to a new study, eating an avocado every day for six months has no effect on abdominal fat, liver fat or waist in people who are overweight or obese. However, it did lead to a slight decrease in unhealthy cholesterol levels. Also read – Sex and cardiac arrest: Experts say sexual activity has nothing to do with heart disease
In a randomized trial, a team including researchers from Penn State also found that participants who ate avocados had a good quality diet during the study period. Also read – You should do 5 yoga asanas this monsoon to boost your immune system
While earlier, small studies had found a link between eating avocados and low body weight, BMI and waist circumference, this was by far the largest, most comprehensive study on the health effects of avocados, involving a large number of participants and its length. Study period.
“While avocados have no effect on belly fat or weight gain, studies still provide evidence that avocados can be a beneficial addition to a well-balanced diet,” said Penny Chris-Etherton, Evan Pug University professor of nutritional science at Penn State. . “Incorporating avocado daily into this study did not lead to weight gain and a slight decrease in LDL cholesterol, which are all important findings for good health.”
Christina Petersen, an assistant professor of nutritional science at Texas Tech University, said the study also found that eating avocados every day improved participants’ overall food quality by eight points on a 100-point scale.
“Adherence to dietary guidelines for Americans is generally weak in the U.S., and our findings suggest that eating avocados every day can significantly increase the quality of the entire diet,” Petersen said. “This is important because we know that high dietary quality is associated with a lower risk of many diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.”
The research – recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association – was conducted in conjunction with Loma Linda University, Tufts University and UCLA with the coordinating support of Wake Forest University.
For the study, researchers conducted a six-month experiment in which more than 1,000 participants experienced overweight or obesity, half of whom were instructed to eat avocados daily while the other half continued their normal diet and were told to limit their avocado consumption to a minimum. Was. Than twice a month. Fat in and around the abdomen was accurately measured using MRI before and after the study.
“While one avocado a day has not been clinically significantly improved in abdominal fat and other cardiometabolic risk factors, eating one avocado a day does not increase body weight,” said John Sabet, a professor at Loma Linda University School of Public Health. “This is positive because eating extra calories from avocados has no effect on body weight or belly fat, and it does lower total and LDL-cholesterol slightly.”
They also found that daily avocados reduced total cholesterol by 2.9 mg per deciliter (mg / dL) and LDL cholesterol by 2.5 mg / dL.
The researchers said they would continue to analyze the study data in the future. For example, participants were not instructed on how to eat their avocado every day, and future research could investigate whether there was a difference in results based on how participants included avocado in their diet and how participants ate avocado. .
(Inputs by ANI)
