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| Avocado is unusual in the way it attracts opinions: It’s too pricey, too millennial, eating them on toast means you’ll never own a house. My hot take is that they should never, ever be used in a sandwich. What isn’t controversial is that they’re one of the most nutrient-dense things you can put on a plate (but not between bread), and a new study backs that up, as we’ll learn toda |
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Let’s look into it,
Tim Snaith
Newsletter Editor, Healthline
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Written by Tim Snaith
June 18, 2026 • 2 min read |
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| What a daily avocado can do for your health |
| In a 12-week trial, 93 adults who were overweight and already struggling with their blood sugar were asked to swap one daily serving of refined carbs for either an avocado or a calorie-matched starchy food. Then researchers measured how their bodies actually handled blood sugar over the following months. The avocado group showed a small dip in their longer-term blood sugar, but an improvement in insulin sensitivity was not detected. However, most people added the avocado rather than fully swapping it in, which likely softened the result. |
| An avocado is mostly fiber and healthy fats with almost no sugar or starch, so trading it in for a refined carb takes something that spikes blood sugar off the plate and puts something gentler in its place. The avocado eaters also came away eating more fiber, more healthy fats, and more potassium and folate, and they didn’t gain weight despite adding a high-calorie food. |
| As dietitian Michelle Routhenstein puts it, avocado “replaces higher-carb, higher blood sugar-rising foods like white bread, crackers, or sweets with a food that has almost no sugar or starch.” It also packs plenty of fiber and healthy fats, which both slow digestion and smooth out the blood sugar spike after a meal. |
| Other research points the same way, with the usual warnings. One study found women who ate even a quarter of an avocado a day had a lower diabetes risk, though, strangely, the same didn’t hold for men. Another study paired avocado with mango and saw small blood pressure improvements in people at risk. |
| Avocado isn’t medicine, but it is a smart thing to eat to help you feel full with steadier blood sugar. You don’t even have to overhaul your diet, just make room on your plate for something green and delicious, without any guilt. |
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