Yes, yes, we’re an alkaline diet and water website but we are a lot more than that. We are the originators of the New Alkaline Diet, and that diet includes fats – whether they are acids or not. And our equal fave (the other one is coco oil) is avocado.
Avocados are very high in fat, but new research from Penn State claims they don’t necessarily have a negative impact on your cholesterol levels. The study finds that an avocado per day may lower bad cholesterol, which in turn can benefit your heart health.
Penn State scientists asked 45 overweight but healthy adults to try three types of diets, all designed to lower bad LDL cholesterol. One diet included 24 percent fat. The other two diets both included 34 percent fat. Of these two, the first included one Hass avocado and the second included a comparable amount of high oleic acid oils such as olive oil.
Participants followed the 3 diets for 5 weeks, with a 2 week break between diets.
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- The diet with the least fat reduced ‘bad’ cholesterol by 7.4 mg/dL.
- The diet with moderate fat and no avocados lowered bad cholesterol by 8.3 mg/dL.
- The diet with moderate fat that included a Hass avocado lowered bad cholesterol the most, by 13.5 mg/dL.
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Now.. just note… some of the funding for the study came from The Hass Avocado Board. The study is in the January 7 edition of the Journal of the American Heart Association.
A controlled study isn’t the same as what people might eat in everyday life. “This was a controlled feeding study, but that is not the real world — so it is more of a proof-of-concept investigation,” said researcher Penny M. Kris-Etherton in a press statement. So, if you load up your avocado meal with other unhealthy ingredients (such as chips), you may not get the same benefits.
However, avocados are high in many nutrients. A cup of sliced avocado has 234 calories, 24 percent of the daily recommended vitamin C, 20 percent vitamin B6, and 10 percent magnesium.
Just to spur you on, here’s a link to 10 delicious radical avocado recipes!