by New research shows that daily avocado consumption can lead to better adherence to dietary guidelines, which may reduce the risk of chronic diseases. The study highlights the importance of simple dietary changes, such as incorporating nutrient-rich avocados, in improving overall diet quality.
Eating avocado daily may improve the overall quality of the diet, according to a team led by researchers in Penn State’s Department of Nutritional Sciences. Poor diet quality is a risk factor for many diseases, including heart disease, and many American adults have poor diet quality and do not meet the key dietary recommendations provided by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
This study was led by Kristina Petersen, associate professor of nutritional sciences, and Penny Kris-Etherton, retired Evan Pugh University Professor of Nutritional Sciences, and was recently published in the journal Current Developments in Nutrition. The researchers examined the impact of a food-based intervention – one avocado per day – on the overall quality of the diet.
Nutritional Value of Avocados
“Avocados are a nutrient dense food, containing lots of fiber and other important nutrients. We wanted to see if regular intake of this food would lead to an increase in diet quality,” said Petersen. “Previous observational research suggests that avocado consumers have a higher diet quality than non-consumers. Therefore, we developed this study to determine if there is a causal link between avocado consumption and overall diet quality.”
Petersen said, because only 2% of American adults are regular avocado consumers, the researchers wanted to determine whether including avocados in a person’s daily diet could significantly improve the quality of their diet.
Researchers conducted telephone interviews with participants before the study began and at several points throughout to find out what their dietary intake had been over the previous 24 hours and assessed their diets using from the Healthy Eating Index to determine how well they followed the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. . Adherence to guidelines was used as a measure of overall diet quality.
Results and Implications of the Study
There were 1,008 participants in the study who were divided into two groups. One group followed their normal diet and limited their avocado intake during the 26-week study, while the other group incorporated one avocado per day into their diet.
“We found that the participants who had an avocado a day significantly increased their adherence to dietary guidelines,” said Petersen. “This suggests that strategies, such as eating one avocado a day, can help people follow dietary guidelines and improve the quality of their diets.”
Although researchers said they were not surprised to see that eating avocados daily improved diet quality, they did not predict how the participants were able to achieve it.
“We found that participants were using avocados as a substitute for some foods that are higher in refined grains and sodium,” Petersen said. “In our study, we classified avocados as a vegetable and we saw an increase in vegetable consumption due to the avocado intake, but also participants used the avocados to replace some unhealthy choices.”
Health Implications and Further Research
According to Petersen, a poor quality diet greatly increases the risk of conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, kidney disease, and many other preventable diseases.
“By improving people’s adherence to dietary guidelines, we can help reduce the risk of developing these chronic conditions and extend healthy life expectancy,” said Petersen.
Petersen has also conducted similar studies investigating the impact of food-based interventions, including the relationship between pistachios and diet quality, but said more research is needed to determine what other food-based strategies are most effective. can be used to improve people’s adherence to dietary guidelines.
“In studies like this one, we are able to determine food-based ways to improve diet quality, but behavioral strategies are also needed to help people adhere to dietary guidelines and reduce the risk of chronic disease,” Petersen said.
Reference: “One Avocado a Day as Part of the Normal Diet Improves Diet Quality: Exploratory Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial” by Kristina S Petersen, Sydney Smith, Alice H Lichtenstein, Nirupa R Mattan, Zhaoping Li, Joan Sabate, Sujatha Rajaram, Gina Segovia-Siapco, David M Reboussin and Penny M Kris-Etherton, 11 January 2024, Current Developments in Nutrition.
DOI: 10.1016/j.cdnut.2024.102079
Other contributors to the study include Sydney Smith and David M. Reboussin, Wake Forest University School of Medicine; Alice H. Lichtenstein and Nirupa R. Mattan, Tufts University; Zhaoping Li, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles; and Joan Sabate, Sujatha Rajaram and Gina Segovia-Siapco, Loma Linda University.
This study was supported by the Avocado Nutrition Center. The funder had no influence on data analysis, data interpretation or writing of the published study.
