Heart-healthy diets that include avocados may lower so-called bad cholesterol among otherwise healthy overweight and obese people.

The findings don’t mean people should simply add avocados to their daily diets. Scientists from Pennsylvania State University say avocados incorporated into healthy diets reduced low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. People should be eating a heart-healthy diet to lower the risk of heart disease, Newsmax.com reports.

Earlier researches show that virgin olive oil or mixed nuts rich with monounsaturated fatty acids cut the risk of major cardiovascular problems like strokes and heart attacks by about 30 percent over five years among older people. Researchers say, avocados are another source of monounsaturated fatty acids, but they also have several other beneficial components, such as vitamins, minerals and fiber.

For the new study, they assigned 45 otherwise healthy overweight and obese people between ages 21 and 70 to one of three diets aimed at reducing cholesterol, which can collect in the arteries as plaque.

Participants ate a regular American diet for the two weeks before starting the cholesterol-lowering diets. Then they followed either a low-fat diet without avocado, a moderate-fat diet without avocado or a moderate-fat diet with one avocado added every day.

Five weeks into the assigned diets, average LDL levels had fallen among the second group more, but added avocados showed more positive results.