(27-01-11) Avocado fat boosts good cholesterol (HDL)

by David Gutierrez, staff writer

(NaturalNews) The types of fat found in avocados and in olive oil boost levels
of HDL ("good") cholesterol without raising levels of LDL ("bad") cholesterol,
according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Toronto
and St. Michael's Hospital in Ontario, Canada, and published in the Canadian
Medical Association Journal.

In fact, a special vegetarian diet with a dose of those special fats also
reduced LDL levels as effectively as statin drugs.

Researchers placed 24 adults with moderately high cholesterol on a standard
cholesterol-lowering diet (low in saturated fat) for one month. For the
following month, participants were placed on a cholesterol-lowering vegetarian
diet. Half were assigned to a vegetarian diet in which 13 percent of their
carbohydrate calories were replaced by calories from monounsaturated fats.

At the end of the first month, both groups had reduced their LDL levels by
roughly 20 percent, and at the end of the second month both had reduced them by
35 percent. In the monounsaturated oil group only, HDL levels had also
increased by12 percent, and levels of the inflammation marker C-reactive
protein had decreased.

"HDL cholesterol .... protects against free radical damage and has been proven
to contribute to better control of the elevated blood triglyceride levels that
are so common in diabetes," writes Michael T. Murray in his book Beat Diabetes
Naturally.

"Some of these effects may be related to the ability of monounsaturated ...
oil to improve insulin sensitivity. This effect has been seen not only in
diabetics, but also in volunteers without diabetes."

Researcher David Jenkins said that the monounsaturated fat-heavy vegetarian
diet "did exactly the thing you want," calling it promising for people "who
want to give diet a serious try before resorting to medication."

To learn more about how to fight disease with a healthy diet, read the free
NaturalNews.com report Nutrition Can Save America! at
http://www.naturalnews.com/report_N....

Sources for this story include: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/....

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