Sayer Ji – There are still folks out there who believe that the ‘high fat’ content of avocados make them a liability for heart health, but the research on avocados simply doesn’t support this lipid-phobic view. Take for example a recent study that looked at what happened when avocado was added to a heart-stopping American favorite, the hamburger meal.[i]

Researchers at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition took eleven healthy subjects, and on two different occasions, fed them either 250 gram hamburger patty alone (containing 436 calories and 25 grams of fat) or together with 68 grams of avocado flesh (an additional 114 calories and 11 grams of  fat for a total of 550 calories and 36 grams of fat).

The researchers then measured the degree of vasoconstriction following hamburger ingestion 2 hours later in test subjects given a hamburger meal either with our without avocado. The hamburger meal resulted in significant vasoconstriction, whereas the avocado+hamburger meal saw no change at all. Continue reading →