Avocado and health: How do we know what we know?

What does the research landscape on avocado look like?

Beyond memes of millennials and avocado toast, there is a world of research on avocado intake and health. For example, a recent meta-analysis found that avocado consumption could favorably reduce blood lipids in those with high levels. Our question begins further back:

“How do we know what we know?”

This can be answered using the tools of a “Scoping Review”, whose aims are to identify and characterize all of the studies on a given topic. This is akin to a scientific version of a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). With support from the Avocado Nutrition Center We systematically sifted through 10,000+ articles to find those on avocado, extracted information from each study’s design, and visualized them below so anyone can get an “at-a-glance” takeaway of the body of evidence.

You can read the full article published in Frontiers in Nutrition here. As a companion to that article, we made each of the tables and figures interactive, such that you can hover over them or click to learn more about each finding.

Key Takeaways

  • We found 58 articles comprising 45 unique studies (28 interventions, 17 observational studies).
  • Studies were largely conducted in the United States or Latin America and generally included adults, with overweight/obesity, frequently with elevated lipid concentrations. Interventions assessed the impact of diets enriched in monounsaturated fatty acids, diets higher/lower in carbohydrates, or in free-feeding conditions.
  • Larger amounts of avocados were used in interventions than commonly consumed in observational studies (60–300 vs. 0–10 g/d, respectively).
  • Blood lipids, nutrient bioavailability, cardiovascular risk, glycemia, and anthropometric variables were the most common outcomes reported across all studies.

Where should we go from here?

  • Almost everything we know about Avocados and health was generated in the United States, Mexico, and Australia.
    • We need more studies conducted in South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
  • We understand how avocado’s impact the cardiometabolic health of adults, but very little about their nutritional role for children, adolescents, or seniors.
  • Most of the studies were conducted for less than 3 months, or even 1 month!
    • More studies of greater duration would advance our understanding of the long-term impacts of consuming avocado
  • Clinical trials required eating .5-2 avocados/d in controlled conditions, however observational data suggest most people consume 5-10x less than that.
    • Increasing avocado intake even to half/d is a drastic change to make in the diet, what sort of dietary compensations are made? We look forward to emerging research that should answer such questions.

(Avocado icons created by Freepik – Flaticon)

So, what’s next?
We are conducting a meta-analysis on cardiometabolic outcomes (registry here), sign up to our newsletter in the footer below for updates when it’s published.

About the Authors:

Blog post written by Stephen Fleming. Original article written by Stephen A. Fleming, Tristen L. Paul, Rachel A.F. Fleming, Alison K. Ventura, Megan A. McCrory, Corrie M. Whisner, Paul A. Spagnuolo, Louise Dye, Jana Kraft, and Nikki Ford. See full author details in the article.

    Stephen Fleming

    Stephen Fleming

    Stephen found his roots first in psychology (B.S) and later as a neuroscientist (PhD) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His mission is to create tools, teams, and frameworks that enable others to cut through misinformation and data overload to understand the science. He helps researchers at global nutrition organizations take a visual and evidence-based approach to scientific substantiation.

    Tristen Paul

    Tristen Paul

    Tristen, a Traverse Science alumnus, lead much of the project work where she specialized in evidence synthesis techniques such as scoping reviews, evidence mapping, and meta-analysis.