Identifying usual food choices with avocados in a clinical trial cohort of overweight and obese adults in Australia

Vivienne X Guan; Elizabeth P Neale; Yasmine C Probst

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0279567

Identifying usual food choices with avocados in a clinical trial cohort of overweight and obese adults in Australia

PLoS One. 2023 Jan 26;18(1):e0279567. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279567. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Vivienne X Guan^{1

2}, Elizabeth P Neale^{1

2}, Yasmine C Probst^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Medical, Indigenous and Health Sciences, Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
² Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.

Abstract

Background: Consumption of avocados has been suggested to be beneficial for weight control, however, limited research is available about the related food choices. Understanding the food choices associated with avocados at meal occasions may further aid behavioural strategies to lose weight. The present study used a systematic approach to develop an avocado-specific food database, with the aim to explore food choices related to avocados at meal occasions as reported by overweight and obese volunteers in weight loss clinical trials.

Methods: The avocado-specific database was based on AUSNUT 2011-13 food composition database structure and was developed via a systematic approach, which determined the avocado content of Australian foods and beverages. Baseline usual food intake data was retrospectively pooled from four food-based clinical trials (n = 758). The Apriori algorithm of association rules, a two-step descriptive method was used to identify food choices associated with avocados at different meal occasions using a nested hierarchical food group classification system.

Results: The avocado database identified 34 avocados and avocado-containing foods and beverages. The proportion of avocado consumers in the pooled cohort was 51.3% (n = 389), with an average avocado intake of 21.57 ± 36.75 grams per day. Avocados were found to be closely related to other food groups at all of the food group levels at main meal occasions. A total of 68 food items containing avocados were identified for avocado consumers at the breakfast, lunch and dinner meals.

Conclusion: The avocado specific database provides a snapshot of the foods and beverages which contain avocados. Enumerating the full range of food choices in relation to avocado consumption should provide examples of food choices that people might consider in their efforts to increase their avocado consumption.

Copyright: © 2023 Guan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Australia
Humans
Obesity / therapy
Overweight* / therapy
Persea*
Retrospective Studies

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Hass Avocado Broad and the Avocado Nutrition Centre (C2021-0016). Clinical trials involved in the analysis were funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (ACTRN12608000453381 grant number 354111; ACTRN12608000425392 grant number 514631), Horticulture Australia Limited (ACTRN12610000784011 grant number VG09037), the California Walnut Commission (ANZCTRN 12614000581662, supplementary) and the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute (ANZCTRN 12614000581662). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.