Can Eating One Avocado a Day Help Improve Health?

Avocados are often touted as a superfood due to their rich content of healthy fat and fiber. Recently, researchers conducted a study called the Habitual Diet and Avocado Trial (HAT) to investigate whether eating one avocado a day can lead to improvements in health outcomes for overweight or obese adults with a large waist.

The Study Design

Over 1,000 adults with a waist size of at least 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men participated in the HAT study. Researchers randomly divided the participants into two groups. One group had to eat one avocado a day, while the other group could eat no more than two avocados per month. During the six-month study, the avocado group was supplied with fresh avocados and given instructions on how to ripen and prepare them.

The Study Findings

At the end of the six-month period, the researchers found that participants who ate one avocado a day did not experience a reduction in waist size or belly fat compared to the control group. However, they did experience other health benefits, such as a modest decrease in total cholesterol and LDL “bad” cholesterol. Additionally, participants in the avocado group did not gain weight during the study, and their diet quality improved by eight points on a 100-point scale.

According to Penny M. Kris-Etherton, PhD, one of the researchers and a professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State University, “Incorporating an avocado per day in this study did not cause weight gain and also caused a slight decrease in LDL cholesterol, which are all important findings for better health.” Similarly, study researcher Joan Sabaté, MD, a professor at Loma Linda University School of Public Health, said that “consuming one avocado a day did not result in body weight gain, and it slightly decreases total and LDL cholesterol.”

The researchers noted that while an avocado a day can be a beneficial addition to a well-balanced diet, it is important to consider the diet as a whole. They stressed that a change in dietary patterns, rather than a single food or nutrient, may be necessary to achieve clinically significant improvements in belly fat and other risk factors for heart attack, stroke, and diabetes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the HAT study found that eating one avocado a day did not lead to a reduction in waist size or belly fat, but it did lead to improvements in diet quality and a modest decrease in cholesterol. While an avocado a day can be a healthy addition to a well-balanced diet, it is important to remember that dietary patterns as a whole, rather than individual foods, may be necessary to achieve significant improvements in health outcomes.