By Hugo Francisco de SouzaNov 5 2023Reviewed by Benedette Cuffari, M.Sc. In a recent study published in The Journal of Nutrition, researchers investigate the associations between avocado consumption and diabetes risk.
Living with T2D increases an individual's risk of several comorbidities, including overweight and obesity, heart and cardiovascular disease, sleep disruptions, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and cancer. Comorbidities often arise from poor glycemic control and occur together, severely affecting individual quality of life and daily functioning.
Previous work by the current research group revealed that avocado-glycemic interactions were sensitive to participant-specific metabolic health, suggesting that dietary results may vary significantly from person to person. Avocados are rich in fiber and monounsaturated fatty acids , which allude to the fruit's benefits in aiding glucose homeostasis, thereby managing T2D.
The study population was derived from the ongoing Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis , which comprised 6,814 adults aged 45-84 years recruited between 2000 and 2002 from six locations across the United States. Inclusion criteria included a lack of cardiovascular disease at recruitment-measured baseline and self-reported ancestry . Participants were followed up at 18-month intervals since recruitment, with the most recent follow-up conducted in 2018.
Fasting serum samples collected during baseline assessment were used for untargeted metabolomic profile generation using a standard proton nuclear magnetic resonance analyzer. Obtained spectra and their chemical shifts were baseline-corrected and calibrated to standard glucose signals. Study findings Modest associations were observed between participant-reported avocado consumption and fasting insulin; however, these associations were not statistically significant when controlling for participant body mass index . Three metabolomic spectral features strongly and significantly correlated with reduced fasting glucose and insulin rates. Since these features were highly intra-correlated, they were combined into a single avocado biomarker.