Avocado Toast, Anyone?

Since 2016, avocados have been near the top of the list of the hottest food trends. While they've been most commonly used to make guacamole, this creamy fruit is now being used as a sandwich spread and salad topper, a substitute for butter in baked goods, an ingredient in smoothies and ice cream, and the trendiest use of all—avocado toast. But did you know that eating avocados may also improve your gut health?

Avocados are a great source for soothing soluble fibre - ⅓ of a medium avocado provides 3 grams of dietary fibre, so if you eat a serving of avocado at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you’ll boost your daily fibre intake by 9 grams! Soluble fibre helps support the growth of a healthy microbiota while being easy on sensitive digestive tracts. The flesh of avocados also contains anti-microbial peptides called defensins, which may help fight off bacterial infection. Now new research out of the University of Illinois found that avocado consumption resulted in an increased abundance and diversity of microbes in our gut!

Specifically, avocado lovers had increased fecal acetate levels (the most prevalent microbial fermentation product), enriched levels of bacteria that are capable of fibre fermentation and increased concentrations of microbially derived metabolites in their fecal samples. So, what does all this mean? While already considered a nutrient-dense food that provides important micronutrients, this research provides strong evidence that avocados could also be considered a gut-healthy food!

Other past research has shown a link between regular avocado consumption and satiety as well as reduced blood cholesterol, but much less was known about how avocados may influence the gut microbes, which break down fibre until now!

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Photo by Jasmine Li

1. Nagarajan, Neeraja, et al. "The Role of Fiber Supplementation in the Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis." European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology 27.9 (2015): 1002-1010.

2. Simpson, H. L., and B. J. Campbell. "Review Article: Dietary Fibre–microbiota Interactions." Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics 42.2 (2015): 158-179.

3. Guzmán-Rodríguez, Jaquelina Julia, et al. "Antibacterial Activity of Defensin PaDef from Avocado Fruit (Persea americana var. drymifolia) Expressed in Endothelial Cells Against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus." BioMed Research International 2013 (2013).

4. Sharon V Thompson, Melisa A Bailey, Andrew M Taylor, Jennifer L Kaczmarek, Annemarie R Mysonhimer, Caitlyn G Edwards, Ginger E Reeser, Nicholas A Burd, Naiman A Khan, Hannah D Holscher. “Avocado Consumption Alters Gastrointestinal Bacteria Abundance and Microbial Metabolite Concentrations among Adults with Overweight or Obesity: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” The Journal of Nutrition, 2020 nxaa219, https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxaa219

5. Zhu, Lanjun; Huang, Yancui; Edirisinghe, Indika; Park, Eunyoung; Burton-Freeman, Britt. 2019. "Using the Avocado to Test the Satiety Effects of a Fat-Fiber Combination in Place of Carbohydrate Energy in a Breakfast Meal in Overweight and Obese Men and Women: A Randomized Clinical Trial" Nutrients 11, no. 5: 952. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11050952