Can Eating Avocado Improve Your Health? Here are 12 Ways

3. Lowers Cholesterol

You may be asking yourself what it means that avocado contains the "good kind of fat." Avocados are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, which raise HDL cholesterol levels and lower LDL. In a 1996 study in the Archives of Medical Research, 15 healthy and 30 hypercholesterolemic subjects were given an avocado-enriched diet. The hypercholesterolemic subjects experienced a 17 percent decrease in serum total cholesterol, a 22 percent reduction in LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, and an 11 percent increase in HDL cholesterol. Another study compared subjects on an avocado-rich diet to subjects on a restricted saturated-fat diet, and both groups experienced similar reductions in cholesterol and lipoprotein levels.