Avocado in a meal and post-meal health markers
What it found
In overweight and obese adults, meals with half or a whole avocado led to lower blood sugar and insulin peaks and better blood vessel widening after eating, compared with a meal without avocado.
The study lasted 6 hours after each meal.
What they found
Studies in people
Blood sugar and insulin
After meals with half or whole avocado, blood sugar and insulin peaks over 6 hours were lower than after the meal without avocado. Peak glucose was 7 mmol/L with avocado meals versus 8.1 mmol/L without. There was no difference between half and whole avocado.
Blood vessel function
Blood vessel widening (flow-mediated dilation) increased more after both avocado meals than after the meal without avocado, at 1 hour 20 minutes and 3 hours 20 minutes after eating.
Blood fats and particles
After the whole avocado meal, there were lower levels of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins and higher levels of larger HDL particles compared with the meal without avocado. Small LDL particles were higher after the whole avocado meal.
Inflammation and oxidative stress
Markers of inflammation (interleukin-6, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1) and oxidized LDL were not different between meals. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha tended to be lower after the whole avocado meal.
Race and ethnicity
Race/ethnicity affected some lipoprotein particle responses. For example, Asian participants had different changes in large HDL and small LDL particles after the avocado meal compared with other groups.
What the authors conclude
“Incorporating fresh Hass avocados in meals can help people achieve dietary recommendations to eat more fruits and vegetables and simple substitution strategies with avocados for carbohydrates can add to the nutrient diversity of the diet and potentially have important cardio-metabolic benefits worthy of investigating further.”
Also in their conclusions
- They conclude that replacing carbohydrate energy with avocados rich in monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, fiber, and bioactive compounds improved glycemic and vascular markers after a meal in middle-aged, overweight or obese adults.
- They say that incorporating fresh Hass avocados in meals can help people meet dietary recommendations to eat more fruits and vegetables and that simple substitution strategies with avocados for carbohydrates can add nutrient diversity and potentially have important cardio-metabolic benefits worthy of further investigation.
How it was done
The authors wanted to see if replacing some carbohydrate in a meal with avocado, which is rich in monounsaturated fats and fiber, would improve blood sugar, blood vessel function, and other markers of heart and metabolic health after eating.
They studied 31 overweight or obese middle-aged men and women who ate three energy-matched breakfast meals on separate days: one with no avocado, one with 68 g (half) avocado, and one with 136 g (whole) avocado. Blood samples and blood vessel measurements were taken over 6 hours after each meal.
What it can’t tell you
- This was a single-meal study, so it cannot show what happens with long-term avocado consumption.
- The study was in overweight or obese middle-aged adults, so results may not apply to other groups.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by the Hass Avocado Board (from the PubMed record).
- Conflicts
- Britt Burton-Freeman is a member of Avocado Nutrition Science Advisory.
- Authors work at
- Institute for Food Safety and Health, USA
The paper
- Title
- Avocado Fruit on Postprandial Markers of Cardio-Metabolic Risk: A Randomized Controlled Dose Response Trial in Overweight and Obese Men and Women
- Type
- Randomised controlled trial
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Park E, Edirisinghe I, Burton-Freeman B (2018). Avocado Fruit on Postprandial Markers of Cardio-Metabolic Risk: A Randomized Controlled Dose Response Trial in Overweight and Obese Men and Women. Nutrients. doi:10.3390/nu10091287Free full textPubMed 30213052DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error