Avocados - The Fatty Fruit That Fights Back
If you’re thinking about foods that help manage Type 2 Diabetes or just want to eat healthier, avocados deserve a spot on your plate. Avocados are little green powerhouses packed with monounsaturated fats that improve insulin sensitivity, cholesterol and reduce risk of cardiovascular disease. So… how exactly does this relatively small fruit help patients with T2D? Well, let’s start with the basics.
When you were a kid, your parents might’ve warned you that when you eat too much sugar, you could develop diabetes. But why?
Diabetes occurs when blood sugar levels are too high and the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced by beta cells in the pancreas. But… What's a hormone? Well, hormones are like the crossing guards of our bodies– They tell the body which lanes to open, which ones should close, and when to stop or go. Without them, the “traffic” of our bodies wouldn’t flow smoothly, ultimately causing problems.
Insulin waves pedestrians (sugar) from one side of the street (our bloodstream) to the other (our cells). If the pancreas doesn’t make sufficient insulin, glucose (the building blocks of sugar) can’t cross the street, and start accumulating in the bloodstream. Too many glucose molecules in the bloodstream causes high blood sugar, scientifically referred to as hyperglycemia (“What is diabetes?”, n.d). Diabetes is a chronic disease that is usually caused by hyperglycemia, affecting the body’s ability to break glucose into energy we can use (Fallabel, 2024).
TYPES OF DIABETES
There are many types of diabetes, but among the most common types are Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed at birth or early childhood, and is actually considered an autoimmune disease! T1D occurs when the immune system gets a little overzealous and attacks the beta cells by mistaking them for disease-causing microorganisms (Mayo Clinic, 2024). T1D patients need to take insulin injections every day to stay alive because the pancreas doesn't produce it.
On the other hand, T2D most frequently develops around the age of 45. There are many factors that can indicate T2D risk. Family history, obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are all risk factors for T2D development (Cleveland Clinic, 2025).
However, both T1D and T2D can go into remission, meaning that patients no longer rely on insulin injections for an extended period of time. For T1D, some patients experience a “honeymoon phase,” where the remaining beta cells produce insulin for the body. For T2D patients, significant lifestyle changes must be made, such as dieting, weight loss and exercise (Mayo Clinic, 2025). While remission isn’t a cure, it is a period when the blood sugar levels stabilize to a normal range.
When insulin binds, it flicks a cellular switch, activating one of two pathways:
The ERK pathway which tells the cell to grow and carry out other important functions
The PI3K pathway which tells the cell to take in sugar from the blood and store it… But how?
When the PI3K pathway is activated, GLUT4 (a glucose transporter) moves to the membrane. GLUT4 acts as a secret passageway that lets glucose enter the cell to be used for energy. When glucose is transported, blood sugar levels go down because glucose is removed from the bloodstream (Saltiel & Kahn, 2001).
But in T2D, insulin resistance occurs, which is where the receptors don’t properly respond to insulin. When we eat a lot of sugar, the pancreas works overtime to produce insulin, and the insulin receptors are like “Hey man! Is this a fluke? Why so much insulin?!” Eventually, they stop effectively responding to insulin, meaning the PI3K pathway can’t be activated, so blood sugar stays high. This is called insulin resistance, and it can be an important sign in T2D development. Over time, the pancreas gets damaged and insulin production drops, ultimately causing diabetes (Cleveland Clinic, 2025). Okay, back to you, avocados. How do avocados help T2D patients? Let’s dive in. Avocados are packed with healthy, unsaturated fats. Wait… healthy fats? Aren’t all fats inherently unhealthy? Well, not exactly…
TYPES OF FATS
There are four types of fats. Monounsaturated fats (MUFAs), polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs), saturated fat and trans fats. All of these fats are built up of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon atoms. But the key difference in all of these fats is in their structure. Unsaturated fats have double bonds in their structure, forming a little “kink” that prevents molecules from packing together. Saturated fats have no double bonds, and more hydrogen, meaning that molecules can easily pack together. Trans fats are a little different. Most industrially produced trans fats start unsaturated, but undergo a process known as hydrogenation. This process changes the cis double bonds in unsaturated fats into trans double bonds. Okay… so it has a double bond. So it doesn’t pack together… right?
Good thought. During hydrogenation, the trans double bond straightens that whole fat. But they’re actually worse for you than saturated fats. They look like saturated fat, in the sense that they can both pack together tightly, but the key difference is that the body isn’t used to handling molecules that are straight, but also have a double bond.
Taking a couple steps back, MUFAS and PUFAS are the healthiest type of fat. Eating fat is an essential part of lots of bodily processes, so it shouldn’t be avoided altogether. A good mantra to remember when it comes to eating fats is:
EAT UNSATURATED FATS
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LIMIT SATURATED FATS
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AVOID TRANS FATS
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EAT UNSATURATED FATS 〰️ LIMIT SATURATED FATS 〰️ AVOID TRANS FATS 〰️
When we consume fats, they are digested into fatty acids and glycerol. These are absorbed in the intestine and then sent through the blood to tissues. Cells take up these fatty acids from blood to make or repair cell membranes. If you eat a lot of unsaturated fats, the membrane remains flexible and healthy, because it’s not packed together tightly. If you eat lots of saturated fats, the cells become more rigid, but if you eat trans fats, they become extremely stiff.
So… how does all this relate to T2D? Well, membrane flexibility is a huge part of insulin resistance. Proteins on the cell membrane need to be able to move around to function optimally. If we eat a lot of trans fats and saturated fats, it interferes with the insulin receptors’ ability, ultimately being a huge contributing factor to insulin resistance.
These monounsaturated fats can also help improve cholesterol, in turn reducing risk of cardiovascular disease. So… what is cholesterol? Cholesterol is a lipid that has many functions in the body, including hormone production and providing necessary structural integrity in the cell membrane. While cholesterol is necessary for survival, too much of it can cause harm. You may have heard the term "cholesterol” being passed around in a doctor’s office as something negative, and this usually refers to LDL levels.
Image Source: (Witters, 2022) — Personal Communication
However, HDL is another type of cholesterol whose job it is to reverse cholesterol transport. This means that it picks up excess cholesterol from arteries and takes it back to the liver for disposal. It interacts with transporters like ABCA1 and ABCG1, cholesterol transporters that make sure the cell membranes don’t have too much cholesterol (Smith et al., 2008). On the other hand, LDL delivers cholesterol to cells. This gives the cells the cholesterol they need to build cells and cell membranes, but excess LDL can slip underneath the lining of our blood vessels (endothelium) and creates plaque.
When it’s trapped beneath the endothelium (the lining in our blood vessels), it oxidizes and becomes oxLDL, which is very inflammatory. When the endothelium senses the oxLDL, it signals for help by calling in cells called macrophages to come help. But these macrophages end up stuffed full of cholesterol and become foam cells. Essentially, they just become big puffy cells loaded with fat. These foam cells later combine with other debris and become a large fatty streak, which can develop into what’s known as an atherosclerotic plaque (Doe et al., 2011). This buildup narrows the artery, making it stiff and easy to rupture. This clot can also block blood flow, later causing heart attack and stroke. So I suppose it’s a pretty good thing that monounsaturated fats increase HDL levels, which is shown to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Okay, okay, you’re probably sick of all the science talk by now. But what I’m trying to get at is that avocados aren’t just yummy toast-toppers, they’re powerful green bodyguards. Their healthy fats help keep our cell membranes flexible, help insulin receptors do their job and boost HDL. They’re the ultimate heart protector, blood sugar babysitter and cholesterol clean up crew. Not bad for a fruit. In short, avocados aren’t just food, they’re fuel. So go ahead– slice it, mash it, throw it on toast. Your cells will thank you!
