AVOCADOS
I have a sweater with an avocado motif, and I’ve seen lots of clothes, stationary and other ephemera carrying avocado images. The avocado has become a food icon as well as a common menu ingredient. Do they live up to the hype? And what can they offer people with diabetes and those at risk?
It turns out avocados offer quite a lot nutritionally, and they have proven themselves in the culinary stakes as well. While avocado is not sweet and often (but not always) consumed in a savoury form, it is botanically a fruit. Avocado has mild, fresh, nutty, slightly grassy flavours and silky texture that tastes good on its own or combined with other foods. Its soft texture makes it a healthy alternative to butter on bread or toast, a perfect first food for babies and good for older folks with poor teeth or swallowing difficulties. It gets the thumbs up in every popular diet you can think of including plant-based, ‘clean’, paleo and keto. Avocados have something for everyone.
Avocados are unusual in the world of fruits and vegetables (alongside olives) in that they contain fat. Fortunately, it is of the healthy monounsaturated variety (again, like olives). Avocados are a nutrient dense whole plant food that provide folate, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamins E & K, potassium and polyphenols. While avocados contain very little available carbohydrate, they have dietary fibre that supports gut health. The benefit they bring for diabetes is helping glycemic control. Avocados can reduce the glycemic response of carbohydrate-rich foods eaten with them, primarily due to their healthy fats and dietary fibre (1). Avocado has the potential to slow down the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream. These effects have also been observed with olive oil and peanut butter (2,3).
Avocados have well known heart-health benefits, and this is important for people with diabetes and pre-diabetes who are at higher risk. Eating avocado regularly helps manage high cholesterol levels, probably due to their combination of good fats, fibre and polyphenols. And avocados fit nicely into a heart-friendly, plant-rich eating pattern such as the Mediterranean diet. Scientific studies have shown eating avocados regularly is not associated with weight gain, and that’s a plus for many people (4).
You may be familiar with the classic, Mexican avocado dip guacamole which is delicious on almost anything, but especially tacos, nachos, quesadillas or enchiladas. In Australia the avocado, whose name we commonly shorten to ‘avo’, has found its natural home atop toast, often with eggs for weekend breakfast or brunch. While having originated in Mexico, avocado is now a global traveller crossing cuisine barriers. I’ve enjoyed avo on pizza, in a Vietnamese ice cream (Kem Bo), in Japanese sushi-rolls and with sashimi (avocado should not be confused with the similarly coloured wasabi paste or tears will ensue). Then there is avocado added to Middle Eastern Fattoush salad, prawn (shrimp) salad, South American ceviche, or Cajun chicken. Did you know the healthy fats in avocado help you better absorb vitamins and phytonutrients from the foods you eat with them? The many health benefits of avocados have earned their place in all types of salads, wraps and sauces. They add beautiful colour and texture to shakes and smoothies. And have you experienced the decadent and indulgent avocado chocolate mousse? One of the few chocolate desserts you could confidently serve at a cardiology convention!
Further information on avocados and diabetes can be found here.
Disclosure: Nicole provides nutrition consultancy service to Australian avocado growers through a Hort Innovation funded education project.
Image from Hort Innovation Avocado Fund (Australia), Avocado Nutrition and Health, p.8. Available from https://www.australianavocados.com.au/health-professional Used with permission.
Read more:
- Bell and colleagues. Algorithms to Improve the Prediction of Postprandial Insulinaemia in Response to Common Foods. Nutrients. 2016.
- Bozzetto and colleagues. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Reduces Glycemic Response to a High-Glycemic Index Meal in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Diabetes care, 2016.
- Lilly and colleagues. The Effect of Added Peanut Butter on the Glycemic Response to a High-Glycemic Index Meal: A Pilot Study. J Am Coll Nutr. 2018.
- James-Martin, and colleagues. Avocado Consumption and Cardiometabolic Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2024.
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