Avocado and Cardiovascular Health

Abstract

Avocado is a fruit which had a caloric density of 1.7 kcal per gram and a half unit (~70 g) is composed by 114 kcal, 4.6 g of fibers, 345 mg of potassium, 19.5 mg of magnesium, 1.3 mg of vitamin E and 57 mg of phytosterols. Approximately 75% of fiber's avocado contents are considered insoluble and 25% are soluble. The avocado contains lipids that consist of 71% from monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), 13% from polyunsaturated (PUFA) and 16% from saturated fatty acids (SFA). Recent researches have shown that avocado may improve hypercholesterolemia and may be useful in the treatment of hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This way, avocado plays an important role in the cardiovascular health. This review summarizes the potential benefits of avocado consumption in the prevention of cardiovascular risk factors and metabolic diseases.

Second Version of a Mini-Survey to Evaluate Food Intake Quality (Mini-ECCA v.2): Reproducibility and Ability to Identify Dietary Patterns in University Students

“…The Mini-ECCA v.2 thus consists of 14 questions focused on assessing food and beverage (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) intake. The questions are based on a review of relevant literature on the subject, including Mexican [38,39] and international nutritional recommendations [1,35,36,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] (Table 1). For each question, three or four answer choices are given, generally on a Likert scale (see Table S1: Mini-ECCA v.2 survey).…”

“…It is recommended to consume 20-30 g of nuts, seeds and olives [41] due to the decrease in cardiovascular risk factors associated with their daily intake, and particularly in light of the antioxidant properties of this food group which may inhibit or delay atherogenic processes [42,43,58]. No precise avocado intake recommendations have been established, but a minimum intake of half of an avocado per day has been found to be effective in reducing cardiovascular risk [44,45].…”

Bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity from harvest to edible ripeness of avocado cv. Hass (Persea americana) throughout the harvest seasons

“…Recent investigations have shown that avocado may improve hypercholesterolemia and be useful in the treatment of hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus (Tabeshpour et al , ). Weschenfelder et al () reported that avocado consumption seems to be related to cardiometabolic health by preventing traditional risk factors such as dyslipidemia, glycemic control and hypertension. Few studies have discussed the mechanisms through which antioxidants (polyphenols, tocopherols, vitamins, carotenoids), MUFA, fibre and phytosterols exert such beneficial effects (Silva‐Caldas et al , ).…”

Quantitative evaluation of the phenolic profile in fruits of six avocado (Persea americana) cultivars by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-heated electrospray-mass spectrometry

“…[10] The fruit has long been used as a healthy food and recent researches have shown that avocado can improve hypercholesterolemia and be useful in the treatment of hypertension, in type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and dyslipidemia and can play an important role in cardiovascular health. [11,12] Avocado tissues are interesting natural sources of rich-phenolic extracts with high antioxidant and antimicrobial potential. [13] The lipophilic extract of avocado inhibits prostate cancer cell growth, [14] induces apoptosis in human breast cancer cells, [15] and suppresses liver injury.…”