1 avocado a week reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease by 22%

According to the American Heart Association, adding avocados to a healthy diet may help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, including the body’s cholesterol, which may be very good news, because according to the United States Department of Agriculture, in Avocado intake among the U.S. population has nearly tripled over the past 20 years, to about 2.6 billion pounds per year.

Avocados are high in dietary fiber, potassium, magnesium, folic acid, vitamin C, and vitamin K.

They are also known to be a healthy food source of unsaturated fatty acids and an excellent substitute for certain fatty foods, such as butter. , cheese or processed meat. 

Recently, in a research report published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers from abroad found that ingesting avocados may be beneficial to body health.

In the article, researchers found that people who ate at least one avocado a week had a 16 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 21 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease than those who never or rarely ate it; Substituting half a daily serving of margarine, butter, eggs, cheese, yogurt, or processed meats (such as bacon) with the same level of avocado may be directly associated with a 16%-22% lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

In a 2015 study published in the same journal, researchers found that consuming one avocado a day as part of a moderately fatty diet may reduce levels of bad cholesterol (LDL).

Image source: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.121.024014

Researcher Mayra L. Estrella said that although avocados are not a complete solution to improving the body’s heart health, research shows that adding it to people’s daily diet may have great health benefits. 

However, all in moderation, because avocados are not calorie-free, a medium-sized avocado has about 240 calories and 24 grams of fat, but it is a source of healthy fats that can replace the harmful saturated fatty acids in the general diet, of course, If you’re consuming avocados in guacamole or other dips, you also need to be careful not to consume too many chips.

Research on avocados is consistent with the American Heart Association’s guidance to follow the Mediterranean diet, which is a diet that focuses on vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, fish, and other healthy foods as well as plant-based fats such as olives oil, rapeseed oil, sesame oil and other non-tropical vegetable oils). 

There are many recipes on the American Heart Association website about using avocados to promote heart health.

Original source:

Lorena S. Pacheco, Yanping Li, Eric B. Rimm, et al. Avocado Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in US Adults, Journal of the American Heart Association (2022) doi:10.1161/JAHA.121.024014