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La Montañita Co-op BlogFresh From the Field: Avocados and You, pt. 1June 10th, 2010 | No CommentsHello produce people. Over the next few days I got a 2-part piece on that most delicious of fruits, our friend the avocado.
Last week a customer asked me what an avocado is. Excellent question. Indeed, just what is an avocado? The answer is fascinating. Let’s start off with its scientific classification. The avocado belongs to the family Lauraceae, which makes it a laurel. Laurels are tropical and sub-tropical evergreen trees or shrubs. Most contain high levels of essential oils and the avocado is certainly no exception. The avocado is actually the a berry (let’s table that discussion for now). Other useful laurels include cinnamon, camphor, and of course, bay laurel, also known as bay leaves. While avocados are high in fat, it’s mostly monounsaturated fat. Avocados have been shown to benefit blood serum cholesterol levels. Specifically, in one study, after a seven-day diet rich in Avocados, hypercholesterolemia patients showed a 17% decrease in total serum cholesterol levels. These subjects also showed a 22% decrease in both LDL (harmful cholesterol) and triglyceride levels and 11% increase in HDL (helpful cholesterol) levels. So eat up and stop worrying already. Geez. Avocados are also very high in potassium and vitamins E and K.
The avocado tree is a most unusual flowering plant. Get this: avocado flowers open the first day as females, close and re-open the next afternoon male. This bizarre behavior makes breeding them rather difficult. Sadly, though you can grow an avocado tree from the pit, the likelihood is slim that your tree will bear fruit resembling the original fruit. For this (and other reasons), commercial avocado production is done by grafting. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s exciting conclusion. We’ll visit the journal of a conquistador’s historian, and even the world of the dinosaurs. Till then, Phil Leave a Reply |
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