Avocado toast, guacamole, avocado poke bowl… if you love avocado, don’t hesitate to include it in your menu. Researchers from the American University Penn State assure that eating this strange product once a day helps to improve the quality of your diet.
The nutritional impact of this South American food was the subject of an article in the Journal Current Developments in Nutrition.
Eat avocado for healthy eating
“Avocado is a nutrient-dense food, containing lots of fiber and other important nutrients. We wanted to see if regular consumption of this food would increase the quality of the diet.”Kristina Peterson, one of the study leaders, explains.
For this, the scientist and his team gathered 1,008 people and divided them into two groups. The first followed his normal diet and had to avoid avocados while the second was told to have exotic foods on his plate once a day. The volunteers had to follow the instructions for 26 weeks.
“We found that participants who ate an avocado daily had significantly increased adherence to nutritional recommendations.”, explains Christina Peterson. That means favoring fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and vegetable oils or protein foods (seafood, white meat, eggs, nuts, beans, etc.) and also avoiding alcoholic beverages, red meat, added sugar, sodium, and saturated fat. limit. “This suggests that strategies such as eating an avocado daily may help people adhere to institutional dietary guidelines and improve the quality of their diet.”
The scientist adds: “We determined that participants were using avocados as a substitute for certain foods high in refined grains and sodium. In our study, we classified avocado as a vegetable and observed an increase in vegetable consumption attributed to avocado consumption. Participants also used avocado to replace some less healthy options.”
Avocado: It helps to follow the nutritional recommendations
“By following people’s dietary guidelines, we can help reduce the risk of developing these chronic diseases and increase healthy life expectancy”, assures Christina Peterson in a press release. She points out that a poor quality diet significantly increases the risk of developing health problems: heart problems, type 2 diabetes, kidney disease, obesity, etc.
“In studies like this, we’re able to determine dietary patterns to improve diet quality.” However, experts recognize that this is not enough to bring about change: “Behavioral strategies are also needed to help people meet nutritional recommendations and reduce their risk of chronic disease.”
