Avocados change belly fat distribution in women, controlled study finds


Date:
September 7, 2021
Source:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Summary:
An avocado a day could help redistribute belly fat in women toward
a healthier profile, according to a new study. One hundred and five
adults with overweight and obesity participated in a randomized
controlled trial that provided one meal a day for 12 weeks. Women
who consumed avocado as part of their daily meal had a reduction
in deeper visceral abdominal fat.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
An avocado a day could help redistribute belly fat in women toward
a healthier profile, according to a new study from the University of
Illinois Urbana- Champaign and collaborators.


==========================================================================
One hundred and five adults with overweight and obesity participated
in a randomized controlled trial that provided one meal a day for 12
weeks. Women who consumed avocado as part of their daily meal had a
reduction in deeper visceral abdominal fat.

Led by Naiman Khan, an Illinois professor of kinesiology and community
health, the researchers published their study, funded by the Hass Avocado Board, in the Journal of Nutrition.

"The goal wasn't weight loss; we were interested in understanding what
eating an avocado does to the way individuals store their body fat. The location of fat in the body plays an important role in health," Khan 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," he said.

The participants were divided into two groups. One group received meals
that incorporated a fresh avocado, while the other group received a meal
that had nearly identical ingredients and similar calories but did not
contain avocado.



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At the beginning and end of the 12 weeks, the researchers measured participants' abdominal fat and their glucose tolerance, a measure of metabolism and a marker of diabetes.

Female participants who consumed an avocado a day as part of their
meal had a reduction in visceral abdominal fat -- the hard-to-target
fat associated with higher risk -- and experienced a reduction in the
ratio of visceral fat to subcutaneous fat, indicating a redistribution
of fat away from the organs.

However, fat distribution in males did not change, and neither males
nor females had improvements in glucose tolerance.

"While 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." The researchers said they
hope to conduct a follow-up study that would provide participants with
all their daily meals and look at additional markers of gut health and
physical health to get a more complete picture of the metabolic effects
of avocado consumption and determine whether the difference remains
between the two sexes.

"Our research not only sheds a valuable light on benefits of daily avocado consumption on the different types of fat distribution across genders, it provides us with a foundation to conduct further work to understand the
full impact avocados have on body fat and health," said study coauthor
Richard Mackenzie, a professor of human metabolism at the University of Roehampton in London.

"By taking our research further, we will be able to gain a clearer picture
into which types of people would benefit most from incorporating avocados
into their diets and deliver valuable data for health care advisers
to provide patients with guidance on how to reduce fat storage and the potential dangers of diabetes," Mackenzie said.

Researchers at the University of Florida and Eastern Illinois University
also collaborated on this work.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
University_of_Illinois_at_Urbana-Champaign. Original written by Liz
Ahlberg Touchstone. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Naiman A Khan, Caitlyn G Edwards, Sharon V Thompson, Bridget
A Hannon,
Sarah K Burke, Anne D M Walk, Richard W A Mackenzie, Ginger E
Reeser, Barbara H Fiese, Nicholas A Burd, Hannah D Holscher. Avocado
Consumption, Abdominal Adiposity, and Oral Glucose Tolerance Among
Persons with Overweight and Obesity. The Journal of Nutrition,
2021; 151 (9): 2513 DOI: 10.1093/jn/nxab187 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210907110702.htm

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