Serum Metabolite Profiles in Adults With Abdominal Obesity Responding to Daily Avocado

Journal of the American Heart Association, Volume 15, Issue 6 , March 17, 2026. BackgroundAvocado consumption has been associated with improvements in diet quality and cardiometabolic risk factors, but effects on serum metabolite profiles remain underexplored.MethodsSecondary analysis was conducted using untargeted metabolomics to assess fasting serum metabolite profiles at baseline (preintervention) and 6 months (postintervention) in a subset of participants with abdominal obesity from the HAT (Habitual Diet and Avocado Trial), who were randomized to the avocado group (n = 120; 70% women; 49 ± 13 years of age; body mass index 33.1 ± 5.7 kg/m2).

Pre–post intervention changes in metabolites, cardiometabolic risk factors (blood pressure, lipid profile, glucose, insulin, high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein), visceral adipose tissue volume, and hepatic fat fraction were evaluated using Wilcoxon tests. Multilevel partial‐least squares discriminant analysis, accounting for within‐subject correlation was used to examine metabolite changes associated with avocado intake, and multiple regression assessed metabolite‐cardiometabolic risk factor associations, adjusting for covariates (age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, physical activity, energy intake) and multiple testing (false discovery rate 1).