Love Guacamole? Study Finds Incredible Benefit of Avocados to Help You Live Longer!

An apple a day? Well, the same could also be said for avocados, thanks to a new Pennsylvania State University study. According to the researchers, the fruit works wonders for cardiovascular health, especially since it lowers the amount of bad cholesterol in the body.

Avocados are extremely popular with millennials, and they now have scientific data backing up their healthy addiction. Have you seen those articles claiming that this generation excessively consumes the fruit? Turns out that there’s nothing wrong with that after all!

There’s now scientific data backing up the avocado addiction

Good and Bad Cholesterol

If you didn’t already know, cholesterol is categorized into two – high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). The former is the “good” cholesterol, while the latter is the “bad” cholesterol.

When in high concentration, LDL may lead to cardiovascular diseases such as peripheral vascular disease and coronary heart disease, and the cholesterol has also been associated with high blood pressure and diabetes.

Additionally, LDL causes symptoms such as fatigue, angina (chest pains), and shortness of breath. This is because it affects the circulatory system by building up within blood vessel walls in the form of a plaque, narrowing them.

It gets worse if the plaque raptures since a clot forms at that site, effectively blocking blood flow through the vessel. If this blood vessel happens to be the coronary artery, blood flow to the heart is blocked, resulting in a heart attack.

LDL causes heart attacks

On the other hand, increased levels of HDL reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease as good cholesterol works to reduce the accumulation of bad cholesterol in the body. By having an avocado daily, you are greatly helping the good cholesterol achieve this task.

However, it is important to note that the study group used by the Penn State research team was relatively smaller compared to the numbers used in other scientific studies. Going only for those diagnosed as either obese or overweight, the researchers chose 45 individuals for the study.

For 14 days, they had them all stick to a diet considered to be what the average American household consumes. Thereafter, they randomly grouped them into three categories, each with its own diet. The first group would stick to a low-fat plan, the next one a moderate-fat meal plan, and the third on a moderate-fat plan plus the daily avocado.

Results in Just 5 Weeks

After five weeks of follow-ups, the research team discovered that individuals in the third group had lower levels of LDL than they did prior to the study. What’s more, their bad cholesterol levels were lower than that of all other participants in the study.

Professor Kris-Etherton, a nutrition expert who was part of the study, confirmed their findings to Science Daily. Based on them, the professor advises everyone to incorporate avocados into their everyday diet, just as you would green vegetables.

Avocados could potentially save you from cancer

Expounding more into the study’s results, Prof. Kris-Etherton explained that the specific LDL particles that avocados reduce are the oxidized ones, prompting further research into this. Scientists believe that oxidation is the basis of serious medical conditions such as cancer and other heart conditions.

So, could avocados work to prevent cancer? Well, Prof. Kris-Etherton can’t give a definitive yes, but there’s need to study the fruit further.