Suffering from diabetes? Avocados to the rescue!
Avocados are known to be delicious, but what one may not know is that it could help in delaying or preventing diabetes. For the first time, researchers, led by Professor Paul Spagnuolo, have shown how a compound found only in avocados can inhibit cellular processes that normally lead to diabetes.
In safety testing in humans, the team also found that the substance was absorbed into the blood with no adverse effects on the kidney, liver or muscle. The study was published in the journal, Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.
About one in four persons is obese, a chronic condition that is a leading cause of type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance in diabetic patients means their bodies are unable to properly remove glucose from the blood. Those complications can arise when mitochondria, or the energy powerhouses in the body’s cells, are unable to burn fatty acids completely.
Normally, fatty acid oxidation allows the body to burn fats. Obesity or diabetes hinders that process, leading to incomplete oxidation.
The team fed mice high fat food for eight weeks to induce obesity and insulin resistance. For the next five weeks, they added AvoB to the diet of half the mice. The treated mice weighed significantly less than those in the control group, showing slower weight gain. More importantly, the treated mice showed greater insulin sensitivity, meaning that their bodies were able to absorb and burn blood glucose and to improve their response to insulin. In a human clinical study, AvoB given as a dietary supplements to participants eating a typical western diet was absorbed safely into their blood without affecting the kidney, liver or skeletal muscle.
Having demonstrated its safety in humans, researchers plan to conduct clinical trials to test AvoB’s efficacy in treating metabolic ailments in people.