Avocado Nutritional Profile

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Avocado Nutritional Profile

Avocados are delicious! They are characteristically creamy, buttery to the palate, yet they are subtly flavourful pear-shaped fruits of Central American origin.
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Unlike most other fruits, they are high in fat content and contain more calories than most fruits, except perhaps, the durian. Nonetheless, they are highly popular fruits due to their delicious texture and their exceptional good nutrition profile and health-benefiting properties.
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Botanically, the fruit belongs to the genus of Lauraceae; this family also includes other members including bay laurel and cinnamon. The scientific name of the avocado is Persea americana.
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Other common everyday names include alligator pear, aguacate and butter pear.
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The avocado fruit hails from a medium-sized, evergreen tree that reaches about 20-30 feet in height. The leaves are large, and the foliage green. It grows well in fertile soils with high moisture. In the winter, small light green flowers appear. About 8-10 months from that first bloom, pear-shaped green fruits grow and mature to cover the whole tree.
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Avocados characteristically mature on the trees but ripen only after their harvest. Once ripened, their colour turns from light green to deep green or purple. The flesh yields to gentle thumb pressure. Inside the skin is the creamy, butter-coloured flesh. The texture is smooth and easy on the palate, however the taste is bland. The avocado has a single, large centrally-placed brown-coloured seed.
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Each fruit weighs about 300-700 g; however, there are avocados of many different sizes.

The Health Benefits of Avocado
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Avocado Nutritional Content — Source: USDA National Nutrient data base

Avocados are similar to olives; they are high in mono-unsaturated fats and calories. However, avocados are very rich in dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals. They are also packed with numerous plant nutrients.
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The creamy avocado pulp is an excellent source of mono-unsaturated fatty acids like oleic and palmitoleic acids and also omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid, linoleic acid.
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Research suggest that the Mediterranean diet with its high mono-unsaturated fatty acid content is excellent for cardio vascular health, helping to create a healthy blood lipid profile.
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Avocados are an excellent source of soluble and insoluble dietary fibre. 100 grams of avocado flesh provides 6.7 g or about 18% of recommended daily intake of fibre. Dietary fibre is good for the prevention of constipation.
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Avocado has high concentrations of tannin similar to persimmons. Tannin is a polyphenolic compound (once relegated as an antinutritional agent) has beneficial anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer, and antioxidant properties.
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The creamy avocado flesh contains small amounts of many health promoting flavonoid polyphenolic antioxidants including cryptoxanthin, lutein, zea-xanthin, beta and alpha carotenes. Together, these compounds are protective scavengers: they fight oxygen-derived free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) which play a role in aging and other disease processes.
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The total antioxidant strength (ORAC) of avocados (raw, Hass variety) is 1933 µmol TE/100 g.
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Avocados contain many beneficial vitamins: A, E, and K
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Avocados are also excellent sources of minerals including iron, copper, magnesium, and manganese. Magnesium plays an essential in strengthening bones; it has also a cardiac-protective role. Manganese is used as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Copper and iron are essential for the production of red blood cells.
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The fresh avocado pear is an extremely rich source of potassium. Just 100 g of the avocado flesh provides 485 mg (about 10%) of required daily levels. Potassium is a vital component of cell and body fluids; it helps regulate the heart rate and blood pressure including countering any harmful effects of sodium.
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Selection and Storage

Avocados are available in the market year round. Choose medium-sized, completely ripe fruits. Gently press the fruit to check its degree of readiness for serving.

Avoid choosing very hard fruits as they will probably take quite some time to ripen. However, avoid buying overly soft, ripe fruits. Such fruits tend to be mushy and their prime flavour would have expired. Check for any surface cuts, blemishes and bruising.

At home, store the fruits in a cool, dark place. Wrap unripe fruits with paper wraps and place together with a ripe banana or apple. This will help speed up their maturing for consumption.
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Preparation and Serving Methods

The avocado has delicate, buttery, creamy texture; however, favour-wise, it is bland to neutral.
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To serve it, cut the fruit lengthwise through its center all the way around the seed. Then, rotate or twist the halves in the opposite direction and gently pull the 2 parts away from each other. Scoop the seed out using a spoon. Gently peel the skin of the 2 halves of the avocado with your fingers, beginning at its stem end. Cut the flesh into desired cubes.

Sprinkle or rinse cut sections of the fruit in lemon juice to prevent enzymatic brown discoloration.
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Below are 5 Serving Tips:

In many countries in Central America, the avocado enjoyed “natural”, and usually eaten and enjoyed with just a dash of pepper, lime juice and salt.
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Its popularity includes its creamy flesh being added to vegetable and fruit salads.
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Mashed avocado is popular and is used in the preparation of Mexican polenta and pancakes. Guacamole is a favourite avocado-based Mexican dip. Its popularity has gone international and guacamole is a well-loved dip the world over.
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Similarly, guasacaca is a Venezuelan variant of the guacamole salsa. It is prepared with vinegar instead of lemon juice.
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Pureed avocado can be mixed into ice-cream, shakes and fruit juices.
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Safety Profile

Raw, unripe avocados are hard. They contain tannins making them bitter to the tongue, and therefore, unappetizing. It is inadvisable to eat unripe avocados because high tannin tannin levels prevent vitamins and minerals from being absorbed in the gut.

It is rare, however, certain individuals may experience allergic symptoms. The symptoms may include itching in the throat, hives, a runny nose and breathlessness. Fortunately, and most times, these symptoms are mild and self-limiting.
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Further Resources: