Avocado Benefits : Stroke prevention

Avocado Benefits : Stroke prevention
 
Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the three leading causes of death in the United States. Additionally, stroke can cause many years of partial or total incapacitation and tragic crippling. The Associated Press, 15 October, 1987, reported an interview with Dr. Louis Tobian of the University of Minnesota on protection from strokes by fruit and vegetable consumption, in particular, by high potassium intake. Dr. Tobian is quoted as suggesting that bachelors may die earlier than married men because they have less balanced diets, specifically insufficient in potassium. As the best sources of potassium, he included strawberry, banana, citrus juice, potatoes, and milk (avocado is not mentioned).

Smith et a/. (1983) measured potassium in 100 g portions of 10 tropical fruits (including avocado), seven common fruits, nine common vegetables, and eight tropical vegetables. The seven common fruits, including strawberry, banana and orange, ranged from 1/5 to less than half the potassium content of avocado. Similarly, the nine common vegetables ranged from less than 1/4 (summer squash) to less than 2/3 (carrots) the avocado level. The other, lesser used, tropical fruits ranged from 1/2 to just over half the potassium supplied by avocado. Tropical vegetables, which are rare in the United States, ranged upward from 1/5 to about the same potassium richness of avocado.

Prevention magazine for August, 1987, reported the results of a 1 2-year study of stroke entitled "Potassium was the key.", conducted jointly by the Schools of Medicine of the University of California San Diego and Cambridge University in England. A 40% reduction in stroke risk was associated with an average daily increase in potassium consumption of about 400 mg, the amount supplied by less than half an avocado! Moreover, blood pressure, a stroke factor, was linked in the same article to potassium-sodium imbalance, namely to a sodium excess. The avocado has about 52 times as much potassium as sodium. For the touted potassium-rich carrot, the potassium to sodium ratio is less than 7 to 1 according to the brochure by Dr. William Sears cited earlier. Moreover, vegetables high in potassium which include the common potato and winter squash, are commonly eaten cooked. Boiling can remove up to 30% of potassium originally present, according to a researcher cited in the above Prevention article, giving the avocado an additional advantage.

Finally, avocado and olive oils are the two chief foods that are very high in monounsaturated fats, while being comparatively low in both polyunsaturated and saturated fats. An Italian epidemiological survey of 4,903 people (reported in a press release in February, 1990, based on an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association), found that while both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat were associated with lower blood cholesterol as compared with saturated, only monunsaturated fat was also associated with lower blood pressure. The next part of this paper will look at factors contributing to a healthy heart and related to avocado consumption. There is evidence to indicate that eating avocado may reduce the incidence of all three of the major causes of death in the United States.