- Researchers conducted a trial where overweight participants ate one avocado a day, along with their regular diet.
- Those eating the avocado-supplemented diet had lower glycemic load after the six-month study than those who did not change their diet at all.
- Other research is being done to see if eating one avocado a day can "keep the doctor away."
If you’ve ever heard the mantra, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” we’ve got news for you. A new study published in May in the Current Developments in Nutrition journal showed eating one avocado a day can help manage blood sugar levels.
The findings were based on 961 overweight adults who were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group continued eating their regular diet, but also ate one large avocado every day for six months. The other group did not change anything about their diet, except they were told to avoid avocados and eat no more than two of them a month.
Participants in the first group were given recipe ideas for avocados, but they “did not receive any other nutritional guidance or counseling,” according to the study.
The results
After the six month trial, the glycemic load (GL) “in the avocado-supplemented diet group was lower by 13.7 points,” per the study. Glycemic load measures “how quickly (food) makes glucose enter the bloodstream and how much glucose per serving it can deliver,” according to Harvard Health.
Other interesting findings from the study were that the diets of the avocado group “had significantly higher energy intake, fiber (both soluble and insoluble), vitamin E, total fat, MUFA (monounsaturated fatty acids), β-cryptoxanthin, lutein and zeaxanthin intakes than the habitual diet group.”
The researchers also found the avocado-eating group had “significantly lower protein, specifically animal protein, and lower carbohydrate intake as a percentage of energy” than the control group.
“In conclusion, the daily addition of avocado to the habitual diet produced a clinically relevant decrease in the dietary GL, without requiring broader dietary changes or restrictive interventions,” the study said.
The researchers noted that nuts and extra virgin olive oil have similar abilities to lower glycemic load to the avocados.
Further avocado research
A similar study is being conducted by researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. WAFB Ch. 9 reported that this research is looking at how one avocado a day can manage blood sugar in people with Type 2 diabetes. The researchers provide participants with three meticulously crafted meals and one avocado every day for 10 weeks.
The study is ongoing, and the researchers have not made any conclusions yet. They are waiting to see if one avocado a day can keep the doctor away.