Women who have one avocado daily could redistribute where the fat in their body is stored, by reducing the accumulation of visceral fat, which is stored near organs and is much more difficult to lose than subcutaneous fat. Today, there is a consensus that eating nutrient-rich whole foods could modify fat distribution, and so, researchers posited that avocados, a food high in dietary fiber and monounsaturated fatty acids, could have a role in metabolic health, noting prior research which suggests that avocado consumers on the whole have lower abdominal fat concentrations than non-consumers.
 
In the present study, which appears in the Journal of Nutrition and conducted by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and collaborators and funded by the Hass Avocado Board, 105 overweight or obese adults participated in a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial for 12 weeks, during which time they were given one calorically-equivalent meal with nearly identical ingredients that either did or did not contain an avocado. Women, but not men, who received an avocado as part of their daily meal had a reduction in visceral abdominal fat.
 
“The goal wasn’t weight loss; we were interested in understanding what eating an avocado does to the way individuals store their body fat,” lead investigator Naiman Khan, professor of kinesiology and community health, said. “In the abdomen, there are two kinds of fat: fat that accumulates right underneath the skin, called subcutaneous fat, and fat that accumulates deeper in the abdomen, known as visceral fat, that surrounds the internal organs. Individuals with a higher proportion of that deeper visceral fat tend to be at a higher risk of developing diabetes. So we were interested in determining whether the ratio of subcutaneous to visceral fat changed with avocado consumption.”
 
Both at baseline and at the end of the study period, researchers measured participants’ abdominal fat and their glucose tolerance, which is a measure of metabolism and a possible marker of diabetes/diabetes risk. Beyond a reduction of visceral fat, it was also observed that women who had one avocado daily saw a reduction in the visceral-subcutaneous fat ratio, indicating that there was a redistribution of fat away from the organs. Fat distribution in males did not change, nor were there any significant changes to glucose tolerance among any of the participants.
 
“While the daily consumption of avocados did not change glucose tolerance, what we learned is that a dietary pattern that includes an avocado every day impacted the way individuals store body fat in a beneficial manner for their health, but the benefits were primarily in females,” Khan said. “It’s important to demonstrate that dietary interventions can modulate fat distribution. Learning that the benefits were only evident in females tells us a little bit about the potential for sex playing a role in dietary intervention responses.”