January 1, Eating This Fruit Can Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease

A new study finds that eating at least two servings of avocado every week can lower your risk of cardiovascular disease.

“Our study provides further evidence that the intake of plant-sourced unsaturated fats can improve diet quality and is an important component in cardiovascular disease prevention,” said Lorena S. Pacheco, the study’s lead author.

“These are particularly notable findings since the consumption of avocados has risen steeply in the U.S. in the last 20 years, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

Pacheco, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and her fellow researchers examined more than 30 years of data on 68,780 women and more than 41,700 men. The individuals had participated in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and were free of cancer, heart disease, and stroke at the start of the study, with evaluations every four years.

Researchers found that participants who ate two or more servings of avocado each week were at 16% lower risk than those who rarely consumed the fruit to develop cardiovascular disease, and 21% lower risk of coronary heart disease.  

One serving of avocado is about one cup of avocado.

“Although no one food is the solution to routinely eating a healthy diet, this study is evidence that avocados have possible health benefits. This is promising because it is a food item that is popular, accessible, desirable and easy to include in meals eaten by many Americans at home and in restaurants,” the American Heart Association’s Council on Epidemiology and Prevention said in a statement. 

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Eating two servings of this fruit weekly can reduce risk of heart disease