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avocado study shines light on how we store body fat

researchers found female subjects experienced a decrease in the hard-to-target visceral abdominal fat surrounding their organs.

by dave yasvinski
published sep 07, 2021
last updated oct 05, 2023
read time 3 minute read
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read time 3 minute read
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avocados and abdominal fat study
participants were provided one daily meal containing nearly the same ingredients and calories, save for the addition of an avocado to the intervention group. getty
an avocado a day could keep the belly bulge away, according to a new study that says the trendy fruit redistributes body fat in a healthier way for women. the research, which was funded by the hass avocado board and published in the journal of nutrition, found that adding an avocado to the daily menu reduces the deep visceral fat encompassing the body’s internal organs. increasing avocado intake did not produce the same result in male participants. “the goal wasn’t weight loss; we were interested in understanding what eating an avocado does to the way individuals store their body fat,” said naiman khan, lead researcher of the study and a professor at the university of illinois urbana-champaign. “the location of fat in the body plays an important role in health.
“in the abdomen, there are two kinds of fat: fat that accumulates right underneath the skin, called subcutaneous fat, and fat that accumulates deeper in the abdomen, known as visceral fat, that surrounds the internal organs. individuals with a higher proportion of that deeper visceral fat tend to be at a higher risk of developing diabetes. we were interested in determining whether the ratio of subcutaneous to visceral fat changed with avocado consumption.”

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to explore this issue, researchers divided 105 overweight and obese adults into two groups. both were provided one daily meal containing nearly the same ingredients and calories, save for the addition of an avocado to the intervention group. before and after the start of the 12-week period of observation, researchers measured the abdominal fat (an indicator of metabolism) and glucose tolerance (a marker of diabetes) of participants.
they found that female subjects who ate an avocado a day experienced a decrease in the hard-to-target visceral abdominal fat surrounding their organs and a healthy reduction in the ratio of visceral to subcutaneous fat. fat distribution remained unchanged in male participants, however, and neither gender experienced a greater ability to process glucose.
“while daily consumption of avocados did not change glucose tolerance, what we learned is that a dietary pattern that includes an avocado every day impacted the way individuals store body fat in a beneficial manner for their health but the benefits were primarily in females,” khan said. “it’s important to demonstrate that dietary interventions can modulate fat distribution. learning that the benefits were only evident in females tells us a little bit about the potential for sex playing a role in dietary intervention responses.”

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the team said it hopes to dig deeper into avocados by conducting a more in-depth study that provides all meals to participants, searches for additional indicators of gut and physical health and isolates the effects of the fruit on the metabolism of men and women. “our research not only sheds a valuable light on benefits of daily avocado consumption on the different types of fat distribution across genders, it provides us with a foundation to conduct further work to understand the full impact avocados have on body fat and health,” said richard mackenzie, study coauthor of the study and a professor of human metabolism at the university of roehampton in london.
“by taking our research further, we will be able to gain a clearer picture into which types of people would benefit most from incorporating avocados into their diets and deliver valuable data for health care advisers to provide patients with guidance on how to reduce fat storage and the potential dangers of diabetes.”
dave yasvinski is a writer with healthing.ca
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