Research Complexity Opens Door To More Study

By Jim Prevor, Editor-in-Chief, Produce Business

This is a very important study. Not because it impacts the whole industry, but because it reminds us how complex the whole area of dietary research is. This research is making an interesting point: that a calorie is not necessarily just a calorie. Or put another way, although seemingly it should be easy to gain or lose weight by consuming more or fewer calories over a person’s stasis level, some calories consumed may be more important than others.

It is easy to dismiss as charlatans the various weight-loss “experts” who claim to have found that certain combinations of food, or avoiding certain foods, can alter the mathematical facts about weight gain and weight loss — and, indeed, many of these folks are charlatans. Yet, this study poses a more interesting question. In a sense, the study asks whether human beings eating real food can somehow alter their behaviors based on what they eat. So, in this case, a calorie of avocado has been found to increase satiety, which would be expected to lead to less snacking and thus lower calorie intake.

Obviously, these tests always need to be repeated and conducted by many researchers under varying circumstances before they can be said to become part of settled wisdom. This study was done only on 26 healthy overweight adults. So we know nothing about children or people who are not overweight, and 26 people just raise questions; it can’t provide definitive answers.

Still, it wasn’t all that long ago that the National Cancer Institute was resisting the use of avocados as part of the 5-A-Day program. Oddly enough, at the time, avocados and coconuts were seen as the evil high-fat heavy produce items, whereas today avocados are filled with so-called “good fat,” and coconut water is the health drink of choice.

The truth is that we know very little about nutrition. The United Fresh Produce Association recently issued a statement praising the government’s decision to increase fresh fruit and vegetable availability under the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program. At the same time, it chastised the USDA for not including white potatoes in the program. Nutritionally, the government has taken the position that white potatoes are akin to rice or pasta — the starch component of a meal — and there is no reason to support white potatoes over rice or pasta.

Now the truth is there is a lot of politics in all this. Whatever the nutritional argument, the decision is made easier for the USDA by the fact that grain and rice interests would object to any policy that favors white potatoes over rice or pasta. It is also true that United’s advocacy is not particularly based on any research that proves children fed white potatoes rather than, say, rice, have fewer illnesses or lived longer, happier lives, but rather on United’s imperative to represent the whole produce industry. One for all, and all for one.

This avocado study throws another variable into the mix — one which may not always rebound to the benefit of the produce industry. This study ultimately asks the impact of consumption of particular items on the propensity to consume other items, an area almost totally devoid of research. So even if it is true that adding avocado to meals will increase satiety, and even if we can show this would reduce snacking, and (as a consequence) people will consume fewer calories — thus gaining less weight, be less likely to be obese  and essentially living longer or healthier lives — it still wouldn’t prove that avocado is the optimum or only way to achieve this effect.

Perhaps peanut butter could do this. Or an olive tapenade. Or smashed bananas. Or bacon. Line-caught salmon? Or thinly sliced USDA Prime Grade New York strip? We just don’t know.

One wonders if the willingness by government and industry to promote 100 percent juice products as part of the Fruits & Veggies, More Matters initiative makes sense when considered in light of this study. After all, 8 ounces of Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice has 110 calories. An 8.9-ounce orange has 89 calories. Which is likely to provide greater satiety?

A hat tip goes to the Hass Avocado Board for supporting such research and to the researchers at Loma Linda University for exploring the matter. Let us all remember that when it comes to nutrition, what we don’t know can definitely hurt us. So the primary industry initiative should be supporting research to get a greater understanding.