Did you know that a diet rich in potassium can help offset some of the harmful effects of sodium on blood pressure? Fresh avocados are a delicious and craveable way to help people meet this goal as they contain 250 mg of potassium per 50 g serving. Share this Meal in a Hass Avocado Half recipe with your clients to bring more potassium and unsaturated fats into their diets.
Here’s a spotlight on a HAB-funded study conducted at UCLA looking at the effects of avocados on vascular reactivity.
Title: Hass Avocado Modulates Postprandial Vascular Reactivity and Postprandial Inflammatory Responses to a Hamburger Meal in Healthy Volunteers
Overview: Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) investigated the effects, on 11 healthy men, of adding one-half of a fresh medium Hass avocado to a hamburger on peripheral arterial blood flow (the movement of blood to different parts of the body) and inflammation compared to a burger without avocado.
More research is needed to determine whether fresh avocado plays a role in maintaining or improving blood flow. While these are initial findings from a single study, they provide promising clues and a basis for future research to determine whether avocados can play a role in the areas of vascular health and heart health.
Key Findings:
- After eating a burger with one-half of a fresh avocado, the after-meal effects of inflammation and narrowing blood vessels were curbed in relation to eating the plain burger.
- A 70% increase of Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a protein that is a measure of inflammation, was observed four hours after the plain burger was eaten but little effect was observed on IL-6 (~ 40% increase) when fresh avocado was eaten with the burger.
- Additionally, despite the extra calories and monounsaturated fat added from the avocado, there was no increase in triglyceride levels beyond what was observed after eating the plain burger.
For more information, download the scientific summary or view the full study.
