Whether avocado is considered a fruit or a vegetable is not so easy to tell at first glance. In this article you will find out which category avocado actually belongs to and which characteristics it is based on.
Avocados have been a popular food in Europe for many years. Whether as a spread on breakfast bread, as a dip or as a bowl: avocados are versatile and enrich national and international cuisine.
But when it comes to the question of whether green avocados can be classified as fruit or vegetables, opinions are often divided.
Avocado: fruit or vegetable?
Most people would probably immediately associate the avocado with the vegetable. After all, it doesn’t taste as sweet as most fruits. In fact, however, this fruit is a berry and therefore, from a botanical point of view, a type of fruit. Because the avocado comes from a perennial tree that belongs to the laurel family.
In some countries, residents have been consuming avocados for several thousand years. Depending on where the avocado is grown, there are different varieties:
An avocado variety with a smooth green skin comes from South Africa.
Israel, on the other hand, exports avocados with a low fat content.
Another popular variety from Mexico is called Fuerte and features an olive green skin.
The Hass variety comes from California and is characterized by a rough skin with a nutty aroma.
Use and ingredients of the avocado
Avocados originally grow in the tropical rainforests of Central America. Today, however, they are grown in many different countries, including Australia, South Africa, and the United States. In total, the fast-growing trees even produce up to 400 different cultivars.
The fruits are harvested when they are still unripe. The avocados then ripen in newspaper for a few days. However, the pear-shaped fruits are only ripe when they are almost spoiled. Then you can loosely remove the pulp from the pit and use it.
However, we recommend eating avocados in moderation, if at all. The fruits are ecologically problematic for various reasons. The long transport routes and thus the high CO2 emissions, as well as the high water requirements of the avocado plants are just some of the downsides.
If you decide to buy avocados from time to time anyway, make sure they are organic if possible. In this way you ensure that farmers have avoided using chemical-synthetic pesticides during cultivation.
