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Avocados
Nutritional Profile
Energy value (calories per serving): Moderate
Protein: Low
Fat: High

Saturated fat: High

Cholesterol: None
Carbohydrates: Moderate
Fiber: High to very high

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Sodium: Low
Major vitamin contribution: Vitamins A, folate, vitamin C
Major mineral contribution: Potassium

About the Nutrients in This Food

The avocado is an unusual fruit because about 16 percent of its total weight
is fat, primarily monounsaturated fatty acids. Like many other fruits, avocados are high in fiber (the Florida avocado is very high in fiber), a good
source of the B vitamin folate, vitamin C, and potassium.
The edible part of half of one average size avocado (100 g/3.5 ounces)
provides 6.7 g dietary fiber, 15 g fat (2.1 g saturated fat, 9.7 g monounsaturated fat, 1.8 g polyunsaturated fat), 81 mcg folate (20 percent of the
RDA), 20 mg vitamin C (26 percent of the RDA for a woman, 22 percent
for a man), and 485 mg potassium (the equivalent of one eight-ounce cup
of fresh orange juice).
The edible part of one-half a Florida avocado (a.k.a. alligator pear)
has eight grams dietary fiber, 13.5 g fat (2.65 g saturated fat), 81 mcg folate
(41 percent of the RDA for a man, 45 percent of the RDA for a woman), 12
mg vitamin C (20 percent of the RDA), and 741 mg potassium, 50 percent
more than one cup fresh orange juice.

Diets That May Exclude or Restrict This Food

Controlled-potassium diet
Low-fat diet

Avocados

Buying This Food

Look for: Fruit that feels heavy for its size. The avocados most commonly sold in the U.S.
are the Hassa purple-black bumpy fruit that accounts for 85 percent of the avocados
shipped from Californiaand the smooth-skinned Florida avocado (alligator pear). The
California Avocado Commission lists several more on its Web site (http://www.avocado.
org/about/varieties): the oval, midwinter Bacon; the pear-shaped, late-fall Fuerte; the Gwen,
a slightly larger Hass; Pinkerton, pear-shaped with a smaller seed; the round summer Reed;
and the yellow-green, pear-shaped Zutano.
Avoid: Avocados with soft dark spots on the skin that indicate damage underneath.

Storing This Food

Store hard, unripened avocados in a warm place; a bowl on top of the refrigerator will do.
Avocados are shipped before they ripen, when the flesh is hard enough to resist bruising in
transit, but they ripen off the tree and will soften nicely at home.
Store soft, ripe avocados in the refrigerator to slow the natural enzyme action that
turns their flesh brown as they mature even when the fruit has not been cut.

Preparing This Food

When you peel or slice an avocado, you tear its cell walls, releasing polyphenoloxidase,
an enzyme that converts phenols in the avocado to brownish compounds that darken the
avocados naturally pale green flesh. You can slow this reaction (but not stop it completely)
by brushing the exposed surface of the avocado with an acid (lemon juice or vinegar). To
store a cut avocado, brush it with lemon juice or vinegar, wrap it tightly in plastic, and keep
it in the refrigeratorwhere it will eventually turn brown. Or you can store the avocado as
guacamole; mixing it with lemon juice, tomatoes, onions, and mayonnaise (all of which are
acidic) is an efficient way to protect the color of the fruit.

What Happens When You Cook This Food

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How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food

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Medical Uses and/or Benefits

Lower risk of some birth defects. As many as two of every 1,000 babies born in the United
States each year may have cleft palate or a neural tube (spinal cord) defect due to their mothers not having gotten adequate amounts of folate during pregnancy. The current RDA for
folate is 180 mcg for a healthy woman and 200 mcg for a healthy man, but the FDA now
recommends 400 mcg for a woman who is or may become pregnant. Taking folate supplements before becoming pregnant and through the first two months of pregnancy reduces
the risk of cleft palate; taking folate through the entire pregnancy reduces the risk of neural
tube defects.
Lower risk of heart attack. In the spring of 1998, an analysis of data from the records for
more than 80,000 women enrolled in the long-running Nurses Health Study at Harvard
School of Public Health/Brigham and Womans Hospital, in Boston, demonstrated that a
diet providing more than 400 mcg folate and 3 mg vitamin B6 daily, from either food or
supplements, more than twice the current RDA for each, may reduce a womans risk of heart
attack by almost 50 percent. Although men were not included in the analysis, the results are
assumed to apply to them as well.
However, data from a meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical
Association in December 2006 called this theory into question. Researchers at Tulane University examined the results of 12 controlled studies in which 16,958 patients with preexisting
cardiovascular disease were given either folic acid supplements or placebos (look-alike pills
with no folic acid) for at least six months. The scientists, who found no reduction in the risk
of further heart disease or overall death rates among those taking folic acid, concluded that
further studies will be required to ascertain whether taking folic acid supplements reduces
the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Lower levels of cholesterol. Avocados are rich in oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat believed
to reduce cholesterol levels.
Potassium benefits. Because potassium is excreted in urine, potassium-rich foods are often
recommended for people taking diuretics. In addition, a diet rich in potassium (from food)
is associated with a lower risk of stroke. A 1998 Harvard School of Public Health analysis
of data from the long-running Health Professionals Study shows 38 percent fewer strokes
among men who ate nine servings of high potassium foods a day vs. those who ate less
than four servings. Among men with high blood pressure, taking a daily 1,000 mg potassium supplementabout the amount of potassium in one avocadoreduced the incidence
of stroke by 60 percent.

Adverse Effects Associated with This Food

Latex-fruit syndrome. Latex is a milky fluid obtained from the rubber tree and used to
make medical and surgical products such as condoms and protective latex gloves, as well as
rubber bands, balloons, and toys; elastic used in clothing; pacifiers and baby-bottle nipples;
chewing gum; and various adhesives. Some of the proteins in latex are allergenic, known

Avocados
to cause reactions ranging from mild to potentially life-threatening. Some of the proteins found naturally in latex also occur naturally in foods from plants such as avocados,
bananas, chestnuts, kiwi fruit, tomatoes, and food and diet sodas sweetened with aspartame. Persons sensitive to these foods are likely to be sensitive to latex as well. Note: The
National Institute of Health Sciences, in Japan, also lists the following foods as suspect:
Almonds, apples, apricots, bamboo shoots, bell peppers, buckwheat, cantaloupe, carrots,
celery, cherries, chestnuts, coconut, figs, grapefruit, lettuce, loquat, mangoes, mushrooms,
mustard, nectarines, oranges, passion fruit, papaya, peaches, peanuts, peppermint, pineapples, potatoes, soybeans, strawberries, walnuts, and watermelon.

Food/Drug Interactions
MAO inhibitors. Monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors are drugs used as antidepressants
or antihypertensives. They inhibit the action of enzymes that break down the amino acid
tyramine so it can be eliminated from the body. Tyramine is a pressor amine, a chemical
that constricts blood vessels and raises blood pressure. If you eat a food such as avocado that
contains tyramine while you are taking an MAO inhibitor you cannot eliminate the pressor
amine, and the result may be abnormally high blood pressure or a hypertensive crisis (sustained elevated blood pressure).
False-positive test for tumors. Carcinoid tumors (which may arise from tissues in the endocrine system, the intestines, or the lungs) secrete serotonin, a natural chemical that makes
blood vessels expand or contract. Because serotonin is excreted in urine, these tumors are
diagnosed by measuring the levels of serotonin by-products in the urine. Avocados contain
large amounts of serotonin; eating them in the three days before a test for an endocrine
tumor might produce a false-positive result, suggesting that you have the tumor when in
fact you dont. (Other foods high in serotonin are bananas, eggplant, pineapples, plums,
tomatoes, and walnuts.)