A study at the University of Illinois College of Agriculture, consumer and environmental sciences has revealed that including avocado in your daily diet can help improve gut health.
Avocados are a healthy food that is rich in dietary fibre and monounsaturated fat which impacts the microbes in the gastrointestinal system or ‘gut’.
Sharon Thompson, a graduate student in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at U of I and lead author on the paper, published in the Journal of Nutrition said, “We know eating avocados helps you feel full and reduces blood cholesterol concentration, but we did not know how it influences the gut microbes, and the metabolites the microbes produce.”
The researchers found that people who ate avocado every day as part of a meal had a greater abundance of gut microbes that break down fibre and produce metabolites that support gut health. They also had greater microbial diversity compared to people who did not receive the avocado meals, says the study.