Adding one-half of an avocado to a lunch not only adds nutrition to a meal, but it also may help people feel more satisfied and reduce their desire to snack after a meal, DNA India reported.

In a study, funded by the Hass Avocado Board, researchers compared the effects of incorporating Hass avocados into a lunch to eating a standard lunch with no avocado to determine how it could influence satiety, insulin response, blood sugar and subsequent food intake.

"Satiety is an important factor in weight management, because people who feel satisfied are less likely to snack between meals," Joan Sabate, MD, DrPH, chair of the Department of Nutrition who led the research team at Loma Linda University, said in the study.

Twenty-six healthy, overweight adults were involved in the study.

Over five sessions, participants were required to eat their normal breakfast followed by one of three lunch test meals: a standard lunch with no avocado, a lunch containing avocado, or a standard lunch with half of a fresh avocado added.

Researchers found that participants who added half of an avocado to their lunch reported feeling 26 percent more satisfied after their lunch than those who ate no avocado. They also reported having a decreased desire to eat after the meal by 40 percent over a three-hour period, and by 28 percent over a five-hour period after the meal, compared to their desire to eat an avocado after a standard meal.

Researchers noted that although adding avocado to a mean increased the participants' calorie intake and carbohydrate intake, they showed no increased in blood sugar levels compared to those who ate a standard lunch with no avocado.

This leads us to believe that avocados potential role in blood sugar management is worth further investigation," Sabate added.