It’s a food you might not be eating every day. But new research shows it may be the easiest thing you can ever do to get your cholesterol levels under control.

The Savory Secret to Lower Cholesterol

In All Health Watch, Cholesterol, Diet and Nutrition, Featured Article, Heart and Cardiovascular

We told you how a 60-year-old medical myth about fat is putting your health in danger. The truth is eating the right fats reduces your risk for a major heart event by up to 30%.1

And the mainstream is finally catching on…

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania looked at the diets of overweight and obese subjects. They ate either a low or moderate fat diet. The goal was to determine how dietary fats influence LDL cholesterol.

After 15 weeks, the subjects on a low-fat diet saw an 8.3 mg/dL decrease in LDL. The medium-fat diet subjects saw a 7.4 mg/dL drop. Not really a significant difference. However they did find that adding one ingredient by itself—one of the best fat sources you can eat—was enough to almost double the cholesterol-lowering benefit of the moderate-fat diet.

It might be one of the last foods your doctor would ever call “heart-healthy.” But adding this weird green fruit helped lower subjects’ LDL by 13.5 mg/dL.

Eating just one a day could be the easiest thing you can do to lower your cholesterol—and take control of your health…

We’re talking about avocados.

Health Watch readers already know we love them. They lower inflammation and help you lose weight. Eating avocados may even help you prevent cancer. They’re rich in antioxidants like vitamin E. This alone gives them the power to fight oxidative stress. But even more important, each avocado is about 70% monounsaturated fatty acids (MFAs).

Research shows eating a diet high in MFAs can help lower your LDL by 20% in one week. And in that same week, your “good” cholesterol—HDL—can increase by as much as 11%.2 It’s not surprising that eating one every day for 15 weeks led to lower LDL. In fact, we’re confident the results could’ve been even more impressive…

Subjects weren’t eating enough fats.

The group eating a “moderate fat” diet only got 35% of their daily calories from fats. This is the number the National Institutes of Health recommends you get every day. Yet this number is only about half of what experts say you should aim for.3 You won’t get the optimal health benefits of a high-fat diet if you’re eating less than 60 grams a day. It might sound crazy at first… But studies show men who ate the most ghee (a butter alternative) lowered their risk for heart disease by 23%.4

Adding avocados to your diet can help lower your cholesterol. It’s just one of the fat sources you should be eating more of. And you don’t even have to buy them organic. They’re one of the safest conventionally-grown foods you can eat. You can also try adding avocado oil to the foods you already eat—like salads and smoothies—for extra antioxidant power.

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References:
1http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23432189?dopt=Abstract&access_num=23432189&link_type=ME
2http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8987188%20/
3http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/18/pasta-not-bacon-makes-you-fat-but-how.aspx
4http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9212571