http://jaha.ahajournals.org/content/4/1/e001355
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE1502/S00008/an-avocado-a-day-keeps-the-doctor-away.htm

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An avocado a day keeps the doctor away

One of the United States’ leading nutrition experts says everyone should eat an avocado a day after proving the super fruit can reduce bad cholesterol which causes heart disease.

New research, published last month by the Journal of the American Heart Association, studied the effect avocados had on cardiovascular risk factors by replacing saturated fatty acids from an average American diet with unsaturated fatty acids from avocados.

They concluded the good fats found in avocados can help lower bad cholesterol levels, particularly for people who are overweight and obese.

The research has been lauded by Australian health coach and ‘I Quit Sugar’ guru, Sarah Wilson, who on her blog * says the news is a great reason to celebrate.
“Just as we’ve long suspected, a diet that includes an abundance of these creamy green treats is now proven to help stave off bad cholesterol,” she says.

In the US study, 45 healthy but overweight or obese patients between the ages of 21 and 70 were put on three different cholesterol-lowering diets for five weeks.
One group ate a lower fat diet without avocado, one consumed a moderate-fat diet without avocado, while the last group had a moderate-fat diet plus one avocado every day.

Dr Penny M. Kris-Etherton, senior study author, chair of the American Heart Association’s Nutrition Committee and Distinguished Professor of Nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, says the subsequent blood results were clear.
Those who ate a moderate-fat diet plus an avocado every day had lower bad cholesterol levels than those on a similar diet without the avocado or those on the lower-fat diet.

“We need to focus on getting people to eat a heart-healthy diet that includes avocados and other nutrient-rich food sources of better fats,” Dr Kris-Etherton concluded. (http://newsroom.heart.org/news/an-avocado-a-day-may-help-keep-bad-cholesterol-at-bay).

“Avocados can also be eaten with salads, vegetables, sandwiches, lean protein foods (like chicken or fish) or even whole.”

New Zealand Avocado CEO Jen Scoular welcomed the new research findings, saying Kiwis can easily take advantage of the health advice because we grow an abundance of avocados here in New Zealand.

“New Zealand produces some of the finest avocados in the world, and we’re used to seeing them on our supermarket shelves.”

Kiwis love experimenting with avocados in the kitchen, using them to make simple snacks like avocado on toast, delicious summer salads, smoothies and desserts, and people are more confident about cooking with them than ever before.

“Avocados are getting a lot of positive media coverage these days which is wonderful. Consumers are learning more about their nutritional benefits and are really getting the hang of choosing and using avocados.”

Scoular says it’s easy to incorporate avocados into your daily diet. “They’re amazing anytime, and you can enjoy them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Avocado oil is a healthy and tasty replacement for canola or vegetable oils when cooking. Or try swapping mayonnaise for avocado next time you make a sandwich or salad,” she suggests.

Avocados are cholesterol free so they’re a perfect wholefood and great for maintaining a healthy heart.

Avocado also help your body to absorb more of the nutrients from other foods when eaten together, which is why it’s regarded as one of the most nutritionally complete foods in the world.

Publication date: 2/10/2015

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Great news Jongkyu and while I know we have ‘officially’ finished the blogs we should nevertheless get this up on our web site.
The link below no longer works but the article can be found at the following link: http://newsroom.heart.org/news/an-avocado-a-day-may-help-keep-bad-cholesterol-at-bay

For now I would suggest we could just translate the ‘take-out’ as follows and then refer to the link.
“Study Highlights
• Individuals on a moderate-fat diet who ate an avocado every day had lower bad cholesterol than those on a similar diet without an avocado a day or on a lower-fat diet.”
Follow the link below to read more.

Bevan you may have a better line on this and have better references so keen to check with you first. Ultimately we should look at getting access to the study and getting it translated although, to be fair, with its focus on overweight or obese it is not quite as relevant to Korea. Nevertheless the messages will still resonate.

Were it in the midst of our season I would push to get it into mainstream media in some form as well but at this stage I don’t think we have the luxury of this.

On this Bevan I would be keen to talk with the California Avocado Council and see if we could not get them to do some promotion during our off-season. Frankly they will be benefiting greatly from our work during our season and it would be great to see that momentum maintained so Avocado’s are still top-of-mind when it get to our season. I meant to raise this with you over Skype the other day but forgot.
Keen in the first instance to get your views on this and if you are open to the idea, what a good approach might be.

We talked about the exact same thing with buttercup squash as a mean of maintaining momentum. The idea there was that each industry had its own campaign during the season but that there was an effective joint fund that covered generic messages that ran year-long. At this stage of the market development cycle such an approach would significantly benefit both parties.