As written verywellhealth.comavocados help lower cholesterol and boost heart health.
They are a good source of “healthy” monounsaturated fats. Studies have shown that eating avocados, especially in place of saturated fats such as butter and cheese, reduces the risk of heart disease.
One avocado contains 10 grams of fiber, which can help lower cholesterol and the risk of heart disease. According to clinical nutritionist Judy Simon, the soluble fiber in avocados can form a gel that binds to bile acids and “bad” cholesterol in the small intestine, helping to flush them out of the body.
Too much LDL, or “bad cholesterol,” can build up in the arteries and cause chest pain or heart attacks.
Can avocados help you sleep better?
Study participants who ate an avocado each day experienced improvements in sleep health and duration. “This was a cardiovascular health study, so the benefit of sleep was made more credible because it emerged as an unexpected secondary outcome in a well-designed, randomized controlled trial,” the email said. John Saito, a spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and a pulmonologist at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), said in an email to Verywell.
Avocados are not sleeping pills, but they do contain sleep-promoting nutrients like magnesium, potassium and healthy fats, Saito explained. “Eating regular, balanced meals with a mix of healthy fats, complex carbohydrates and protein will help maintain your circadian rhythm,” Saito said.
Effects of eating avocado daily
A six-month study funded by the Avocado Nutrition Center involved 969 US adults with abdominal obesity who typically ate no more than two avocados per month:
- One group ate an avocado every day, while the other ate two or less per month. The researchers did not ask either group to change anything in their diet.
- The researchers used a modified American Heart Association Life’s Essential 8 score to assess heart health. A higher score indicates better cardiovascular health and reflects factors such as diet, physical activity and quality sleep.
- Eating avocado daily did not improve the overall heart health score, but it did improve nutritional quality, sleep, and blood lipids.
“These data suggest that significant improvements in Life’s Essential 8 score require relatively large improvements in most components of cardiovascular health,” Janhavi Damani, first author of the study, told Verywell in an email. She added that achieving “significant improvements in cardiovascular health” requires gradual and long-term changes in diet and lifestyle.
How to include avocados in a healthy diet
Avocados can be part of a healthy, fiber-rich diet to help support good sleep. However, they are not suitable for everyone, especially people with certain dietary restrictions.
“Eating an avocado daily would not benefit someone who is allergic to avocados or on a low-potassium, low-FODMAP, or very-low-fat diet under the supervision of a healthcare professional,” the email said. in a letter to the publication Verywell said Jamie Mok, a Los Angeles-based registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
She added that other foods, such as walnuts, cherry juice, fatty fish such as salmon, and some herbal teas, may provide similar health benefits, especially for sleep. However, more research is still needed in this area.
If you want to eat more avocados, try adding them to salad dressings, eating them with eggs, baked potatoes, mixed into smoothies or with sandwiches. However, according to Simon, you don’t need to eat them every day or spend more than you can afford.
“I don’t think one product can change everything,” Simon said.
