Today we take a detour onto Health News Lane.
Over time we all see a lot of news stories about all sorts of medical “studies,” though many, if not most of them are not peer reviewed and really don’t amount to much. And on my end, amid the wide range of such issues, the one I personally pay the most attention to is lowering my cholesterol. So, when I see a headline about a new study on the topic, I read it hopefully but with a skeptical eye since most tend not to have much gravitas behind them. Or are about something that particularly interests me. Last week, I saw such a headline. And it was very substantive. And for something that interests me. It’s not only study reported in Journal of the American Heart Association, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association – but the study is comprised of 30 years of research. Even more impressive, this is a 30-year study! Once which followed over 110,000 men and women. So – that covers the gravitas check-list. (Side note: I don’t know if the study was released last week. It looks like it may have been published a few months ago. But for some reason it started to get a lot of coverage last week.) And making the study even better, it related to a food that I actually like, but have been avoiding as much as possible because what the study found is the very opposite of what I, and probably most people, have always assumed. What the study found is that eating two or more servings of avocado a week was lowered the risk of cardiovascular disease. And further, if you substitute avocado for certain foods like butter, cheese or processed meats, that also showed a lower risk of “cardiovascular disease events,” Two weekly servings of avocado is just one avocado a week. (A serving is considered half an avocado). During the study, people who ate this one avocado weekly had a 16 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 21 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease. And no, I’m not quite sure what the difference is between “cardiovascular disease” and “coronary heart disease.” But they do, which is what counts. (Perhaps is the difference between the arteries and specifically the heart, but that’s just a total guess.) I don’t mention this for anyone to start eating more avocados (other than me…), but just because I find the result utterly fascinating and, as I said, the opposite of what I’ve assumed. I’ve known that avocados were high in fat – and I knew that some tropical fats (which I soft of figured avocados might be), like coconuts and palm oil, were high in saturated fats and bad for you. But it turns out that avocados contain dietary fiber, unsaturated fats – and especially monounsaturated fat (which are the healthier fats) and “other favorable components that have been associated with good cardiovascular health,” according to an article from Science Daily. For those interested in ready more, you can read about it here. As for me – waiter, can you please make that order of guacamole a double.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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