Avocado for Your Heart

And not just for heart health in general; how about preventing heart attacks? That’s the exciting conclusion of a new study. Let’s see how many avocados you need to eat every week to reduce your heart attack risk significantly.

The long study involved more than 100,000 healthy men and women (i.e., free of cancer, heart disease, and stroke at the start of the study) who completed dietary questionnaires every four years to assess their avocado intake (among other foods). After 30 years, researchers tabulated stroke incidence and compared it to dietary intake of avocado.

Now here’s that exciting study conclusion we were talking about: Eating at least two servings of avocado (one serving = half an avocado or half a cup of avocado) per week reduced the risk of suffering a heart attack by 21 percent vs. rarely or never eating avocados. Published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the study also determined that eating half a serving of avocado (one-fourth avocado or one-fourth of a cup) per day instead of an equivalent amount of eggs, yogurt, cheese, margarine, butter, or processed meats reduced heart attack risk by 16-22 percent.

The moral to the story: Avocado is great for your heart! Two reasons, according to WebMD: First, although avocados contain a significant amount of fat (approximately 30 grams for half a medium-sized avocado), the vast majority is a monounsaturated fatty acid that reduces heart inflammation. Second, avocados contain a plant cholesterol that helps lower our cholesterol levels. Talk to your doctor for more information about heart health.