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We all know the saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. But does that also apply to the superfood avocado? What happens if you eat them every day?

The avocado is considered a real superfood. But what exactly is the pear-shaped fruit all about? And is she really that healthy? The avocado originally comes from Mexico. It now also grows in subtropical areas such as southern Spain or Israel. Depending on the variety, the fruits of the avocado tree can weigh up to a kilogram and can take on different shades of green.

Avocado: Why is the superfood so healthy?

In contrast to most fruits, the avocado contains hardly any sugar, but a lot of fiber. In addition, the consumption of avocados provides important minerals, including iron, calcium and phosphate. Especially in the vegan diet, the high-fat fruit is used in many recipes due to its numerous nutrients. The avocado is actually a true superfood. The green fruit is especially good for:
The cholesterol level
The cardiovascular system
The care of our skin
According to studies, an avocado a day lowers the so-called “bad cholesterol” (LDL cholesterol), since our body mainly needs unsaturated fatty acids for metabolism. The fatty acids in the avocado are responsible for promoting the “good” HDL cholesterol. This in turn ensures that the LDL cholesterol is removed from the arteries.

In addition, the daily consumption of avocados also makes you happy: it supports the formation of the happiness hormone serotonin.

It’s so easy to integrate the avocado into your diet

Most people know avocados in the form of guacamole, the popular Mexican dip often eaten with chips. On the other hand, if you want to include an avocado in your daily diet, you can eat the valuable fruit pure or prepare it with other healthy foods. Very tasty: sliced ​​avocado with a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt. Since the avocado is very creamy due to its high fat content, it is ideal as a butter substitute, in dressings or in smoothies.

For further use, simply cut the avocado in half, deseed and scrape out with a spoon. The crushed pulp can also be enjoyed wonderfully on a rice waffle or as a vitamin-rich bread topping.

Conclusion: The avocado is clearly one of the fattest fruits. Depending on the variety, their flesh contains 15 to 25 percent fat. But this fat consists mostly of unsaturated fatty acids. For this reason, the avocado is an extremely healthy food, despite the many calories (compared to other types of fruit).

You certainly know the problem: your hair looks dull, brittle, or stressed. Reasons for this can be frequent coloring but also unfavorable weather conditions. Especially now, when the fresh season begins, cold, dry weather and heating air ensure that hair loses its shine and strength.

In such cases, it is not always possible to go to the hairdresser. In addition, care products are often overpriced and have a short-term effect. Completely different from a weekly avocado pack.

Shiny hair, all-natural

Common hair care products are often too expensive. In addition, they often contain silicone-like components, which we do not yet know what they will do to our hair in the long term. Just one large, ripe avocado and one tablespoon of honey a week will change the texture of your hair in the long run. The moisture level improves significantly and your hair looks shiny and healthy!

Avocado, good for hair and scalp

For this moisture pack, just mash up an avocado and add a tablespoon of honey. First, wet your hair with warm water. Make sure the water is not too hot. This is not good for the scalp. Now massage the avocado-honey mixture into your hair. Now leave the pack on for 30 minutes.

Moisture pack with great effect

The pack is best absorbed under a shower cap or wrapped in a towel. After about 30 minutes, the essential oils of the avocado fruit have penetrated. They now give your hair an unmistakable shine and help to rebuild brittle areas. Now all you have to do is rinse your hair and wash it off with little shampoo.

…and her hair shines with new freshness!

This moisture pack is a time and money saver. Apply only once a week and you will see that your hair radiates strength and freshness after a very short time. A little tip: If you can’t find a ripe avocado, just take an unripe one and wrap it in the newspaper for 1-2 days. Then she is ready for your hair treatment!

Vegans like to eat avocados. Because the healthy superfood is a delicious substitute for animal foods. Strictly speaking, the avocado is not vegan at all – at least that is what the British television broadcaster BBC claims.

“Which of these foods can you eat as a strict vegan?” presenter Sandi Toksvig asks her contestants on the latest episode of BBC quiz show “QI”. Almonds, avocados, kiwis, a pumpkin and a melon are shown on a screen. The surprising answer: “None.”

Although the food does not consist of animal products, animals are exploited for their cultivation, according to the moderator. Just like honey production, avocado cultivation uses bees in an unnatural way. “The fruits depend on the bees, which are transported long distances across the country by truck,” says Toksvig on the show.

Animals are exploited to grow avocados

The method is called “migratory beekeeping”, in which the bees swarm out to pollinate the fields, then put them back in boxes and transport them to the next cultivation area. The same applies to cucumbers, broccoli, cherries and lettuce.

In fact, when it comes to honey, animal rights activists argue just like the BBC show: According to the animal welfare organization Peta, bees for the honey industry are “victims of unnatural living conditions, genetic manipulation and stressful transport.”

The difference, however, is that honey is produced directly by the bees. When growing avocados (and growing many other fruits and vegetables), the bees are only responsible for pollinating the plants.

Pollination is actually a natural process. On large fields and plantations, however, there are not enough bees to fertilize an entire plantation. The bees are therefore placed artificially on the fields.

So are avocados, almonds & co. vegan?

Media such as Bild.de, bento or Focus online are picking up the story and warning vegans about the allegedly non-vegan types of fruit and vegetables. But what is the truth of the claim?

Ultimately, whether avocados and other fruits and vegetables are vegan depends on how you define veganism. The organization The Vegan Society, for example, contradicts the interpretation of the program “QI”. “Vegans avoid using animals as much as possible,” spokeswoman Dominika Piasecka told the online magazine Plant Based News.

It is clear that in agriculture animals are often harmed indirectly. Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to avoid this at the moment, the spokeswoman said. “Vegans go a long way in reducing animal suffering. We welcome any changes in farming practices that support this.”

Avocados: Not only problematic for animals

Apart from that, the avocado is also a not unproblematic food for other reasons. In Germany, for example, the fruit is mainly imported from Peru, Chile, Mexico and South Africa. It covers a correspondingly long transport route in refrigerated containers, which causes emissions twice over and has a negative impact on the ecological balance of the fruit.

In Mexico in particular, environmental organizations also complain that forests are being cleared illegally to make way for avocado fields.

And avocados need enormous amounts of water: an avocado tree needs around 50 liters of water per day, which is already scarce in the rather hot, dry growing areas. Estimates assume that almost 1,000 liters of water are used for one kilo of avocados – that’s often only three pieces.

So whether the avocado is vegan or not is a matter of definition. The fact is: the fruit is not exactly sustainable. If you still don’t want to do without avocados, you should opt for organically grown fruit and also choose avocados from Spain or Israel, because the transport routes are shorter here.

Instead of eating the avocado pit, most people just throw it in the trash. The core contains extremely healthy ingredients. But what about the controversial bitter substance persin?

The avocado is considered a healthy superfood that is rich in unsaturated fatty acids as well as vitamins and minerals. Normally, however, we only talk about the pulp – the skin and core usually end up in the garbage.

In recent years, however, it has been found that the avocado seed contains healthy nutrients and antioxidants. So should you eat the avocado seed as well? Some swear by it, others advise against it.

Eating an avocado seed: It should be that healthy

The ingredients and health benefits of the avocado have been extensively studied – but only in relation to the pulp. The situation is different with the avocado core, where research is still in its infancy. However, previous nutrient analyzes sound promising: the avocado core contains many of the fruit’s healthy ingredients, even in a concentrated form.

The avocado seed provides the following nutrients:
vitamins,
minerals such as potassium, magnesium, iron,
fiber,
Amino acids,
unsaturated fatty acids,
bitter substances,
phytochemicals such as phenolic acid, flavonoids, carotenoids.
These ingredients are all considered to be extremely beneficial to health. From a medical point of view, the unsaturated fatty acids, bitter substances and secondary plant substances are of particular interest. Because of these substances, the avocado seed is said to have many positive effects. Among other things, he should…

…protect cells from oxidation by free radicals,
…inhibit inflammation,
… prevent cardiovascular diseases,
… strengthen the immune system,
…prevent infections,
…stimulate the metabolism and
Prevent thyroid disorders.
Current research suggests that the avocado seed may lower cholesterol levels. It can also be used to treat high blood pressure, diabetes and inflammatory diseases.

The antioxidant properties of the seed have already been scientifically confirmed. Beyond that, however, there is a lack of further investigations and studies on humans. So far, only research has been done on how avocado seed extract can affect the body – but not the consumption of the seed.

Potential Risks: Is the avocado seed toxic?

Because of the current research situation, the consumer advice center NRW warns against eating the avocado stone. Based on the current information, it is not certain to what extent it is healthy to consume the seed. In this context, reference is also made to the bitter substance persine, which is toxic to humans in large doses and is also found in the pulp of fruit and other types of fruit. Therefore, some voices strongly warn against eating the avocado seed. But even these claims have not yet been sufficiently substantiated.

The ingredients and possible health-promoting effects of the avocado seed sound promising. Since the popular fruit has a bad climate balance, it makes sense from an ecological point of view to use as many parts of the avocado as possible. However, due to the lack of human studies and long-term studies, we advise against eating the avocado stone in large quantities and only occasionally using it very sparingly in the kitchen.

In general, however, avocados are problematic from many perspectives: cultivation requires an enormous amount of water, which is scarce in most growing areas anyway. The mostly long transport routes worsen the ecological footprint even more. Blood also sticks to avocados from Mexico in particular, since the avocado trade there is controlled by the drug cartels. That’s why we strongly advise you to buy avocados only rarely – and if you do, then buy organic avocados from Europe, such as Spain or Italy.

Preparing the avocado seed: This is how you can eat it

The best way to use the avocado seed is to let it dry first. You have the following options for this:
Remove the brown skin from the avocado stone. This works best if you soak the core in water for a short time beforehand or let it dry for a day. Then let the washed core dry for 1-3 days.
Alternatively, you can also cut the fresh avocado seed into pieces or thin slices with a sharp knife and then let it dry. The fastest way to do this is in the sun or in a dehydrator. You can also lightly toast the pieces in a pan.
You can then prepare the dried pieces as follows:

If you have a powerful blender, you can mix parts of the avocado seed into smoothies. Since the core has a relatively tart, bitter taste, you should combine it with flavorful ingredients such as cabbage, rocket, spinach or berries.
You can use a kitchen grater to finely grate the avocado seed and add it to both sweet and savory dishes. For example, you can sprinkle the fine pieces over muesli or add them to the salad.
You can also prepare a tea from the avocado seed. Pour hot water over a teaspoon of the fine shredded pieces and let the tea steep for ten minutes before straining.
Attention: Also because of the slightly bitter taste, you should only add the core sparingly.

Tip: If you don’t want to eat the avocado seed, you can also germinate it and grow your own avocado plant.

Ripe avocados often spoil fairly quickly, but you can freeze them to give them a longer shelf life. We’ll show you how to properly freeze whole and pureed avocados.

Freeze avocados: use leftovers

Your avocado was just perfectly ripe and the next moment it’s already brown? To prevent this, you can freeze ripe avocados and use them later. This is how you actively counteract food waste and can use the leftovers in delicious avocado recipes.

Even if you spontaneously feel like having avocados, it is helpful to have a reserve in the freezer. This way, you don’t have to buy new avocados from the supermarket that may still be unripe and inedible.

You should only consume avocados in moderation anyway, since the long and energy-consuming transport route in air-conditioned ships and the high water consumption have a very negative effect on our environment. Therefore, when buying and consuming avocados, the following motto applies: only buy a little/rarely and always use everything!

The right time to freeze

Before you freeze your avocado, you want to make sure it’s fully ripe. To test the degree of ripeness, you can apply light pressure to the fruit with your fingers. If the avocado yields, it’s ripe.

If the avocado is not yet ripe, it is best to wrap it in newspaper and store it at room temperature. If you put the avocado in a paper bag with an apple, the fruit will ripen even faster. Apples contain the ripening gas ethylene, which causes other fruits to ripen faster. After about one to three days, an avocado should be ripe, now you can freeze it.

Freeze halved avocados

First, halve the avocado with a sharp knife.
Now take a tablespoon and use it to carefully remove the core. Here you can find out what else you can use the avocado seed for.
Now drizzle some lemon juice on the two avocado halves. This will prevent the flesh from turning brown.
Now wrap the halves in beeswax towels and put them in the freezer. You can also freeze them in a screw-top jar.
It’s best to label the bee growth or jar with a water-soluble pen to help you remember the date you froze the avocado.
To defrost the avocado, you can now simply place it on a plate at room temperature for an hour. And you’re ready to enjoy a ripe avocado!
Good to know: Avocados can be stored in the freezer for up to eight months. Don’t be surprised if freezing changes the texture of the avocado. This is completely normal and does not change the taste of the fruit.

Freeze avocado puree

If you puree the avocado before freezing, you can save yourself a step if you want to use it later for guacamole or a green smoothie.
First, cut the avocado in half again and remove the stone.
Now scoop out the fruit with a spoon and place the pulp in a blender. Add some lemon juice to keep the green color. If you don’t have a blender, you can also mash the avocado with a fork.
Mash the avocado until you like the consistency.
Now pour the avocado puree into a freezer container, e.g. a screw-top jar. Don’t forget to label it with the current date!
Off to the freezer!
Place the puree in the refrigerator at least 12 hours before you plan to use it. This allows the avocado to thaw slowly and gently.
Tip: For small portions that are quick to hand, simply fill the pureed avocado into an ice cube mold and freeze it.

The avocado plant is healthy. Hence our information on planting and storing avocados correctly. You will also get to know the valuable nutrients of the fruit and what you can use the avocado plant for. Because this offers many possibilities from consumption to skincare.

In the meantime, it has become indispensable in our supermarkets. The avocado is versatile. For example, you can promote your health and improve your complexion. But what should you pay attention to? We have collected all the facts for you.

Interesting facts about the avocado plant

The avocado fruit, hyped as a superfood, is actually a berry. This grows on trees and originally comes from Central and South America. Here it was already cultivated and used by the indigenous peoples living there. After Spanish conquerors conquered the continent, they also came across this valuable fruit. Thus, their global distribution began, with intensive trade starting later. Nowadays you can find a healthy avocado plant in every supermarket. And this can be used in different ways. So you can use them as a spread, make dips or enjoy them in salads. You can also use it to make delicious smoothies yourself or use them for your skin, hair, or effective hand care.

Is the avocado healthy?

Yes, this delicious fruit is healthy! Because it contains valuable nutrients for your body. It provides healthy unsaturated fats and vitamins such as vitamins E, C, K, and B vitamins. Potassium and magnesium can also be found in this superfood. It also contains little fructose and can therefore be eaten by people with fructose intolerance. Thus, you can promote your health by enjoying the avocado plant in good measure. In addition, note interesting facts about healthy oatmeal.

The avocado nutritional values

As already mentioned, depending on the quality, avocado is one of the healthy foods that you can have more often on your menu. In addition to the valuable nutrients, the avocado has the following nutritional values. Keep in mind that the numbers may vary depending on the size and weight of the fruit.

Plant your own avocados

However, you can plant an avocado yourself. For this, you need the core, which you can find in the middle of the pulp. But you need some patience. It doesn’t always work on the first try and it can take several months for the seed to germinate. If you want to plant avocado, you can use two different methods. Either you stick the core directly into the soil and keep it moist. Or you use the water glass method. To do this, fill a glass with water. Then wash the core and make a small cut in it. Then stick three to four toothpicks into the tip of the core and place the frame on the glass so that the core protrudes into the water. You should also note the following things:

  • Change the water regularly.
  • Choose a sunny location.
  • Make sure you have enough heat.

Store avocados properly

The avocado plant is delicious and very healthy. But surely you know the problem that avocados turn brown quickly in the fresh air. And even the beautiful salad quickly looks unappetizing. But lemon juice helps! To do this, sprinkle some lemon juice on the avocado pieces. Then they stay attractive longer.

You should also store this food properly. If you bought an unripe avocado and now want to speed up the after-ripening process, you should store it at room temperature. You can also put them in a paper bag with apples and bananas to speed up the process. If you have a ripe avocado, you can put it in the fridge. This will slow down the ripening of the fruit.

Delicious avocado recipes

Since the avocado is usually eaten raw, you can use it for salads, dips, or a spread. It has become indispensable in vegetarian and vegan cuisine and the number of recipes is endless. You can use the fruit in many ways, especially for brunch. So make a delicious avocado spread with a ripe avocado, a squeeze of lemon, and salt and pepper. If you like, you can refine the whole thing with cream cheese and delicious garlic. Also our avocado recipe for a hearty avocado and potato soup.

Did you know that you can plant the avocado seed and grow your own avocado? All you need is water, toothpicks and some potting soil – and of course the stone from which you want to pull the avocado.

The guacamole is ready and you still have an avocado seed left? The avocado stone is also the seed for an avocado tree – so you can easily grow a tree for your home from a leftover avocado seed by planting it. However, you cannot harvest an avocado from such a tree, since the male and female flowers are not open at the same time, which means that self-pollination and thus ripening into an avocado are ruled out.

Plant avocado seeds and grow avocados

To get fruit, you would need two different types of avocado trees, each with their flowers opening in opposite directions. Nevertheless, the evergreen tree from the planted avocado seed is a pretty sight, for example in the conservatory, as a houseplant or in a greenhouse. Also read: Grow your own vegetables: 8 foods that keep growing back.

Grow avocado as a houseplant – that’s how it works!

Use the following trick to grow avocados:

Remove the avocado pit from the avocado, wash it well and let it dry.
Before you can plant it, the avocado seed needs to form roots. To do this, poke three toothpicks about halfway down the side of the avocado stone.
Then hang the avocado stone with the pointed side up in a glass container with water so that the lower end of the avocado is in the water.
The toothpicks serve as a holder and lie on the edge of the glass jar.

Off into the ground: plant avocado seeds

After about three to ten weeks, several roots will have formed and you can plant the avocado seeds in normal potting soil. It is important that the pointed part that was above the toothpick is not covered with soil. The pot with the planted avocado seed is then covered with a clear plastic bag or glass bell jar to create enough humidity.

Watered regularly and placed in a bright place at over 20 degrees, the avocado seed will soon begin to sprout. As soon as the plant has a few green leaves, you can remove the cover and place the avocado tree in its final location. It’s that easy to grow your own avocado!

The avocado is literally on everyone’s lips, especially among diet-conscious people and vegetarians. But how healthy is she really? Can you still buy them when they are also being criticized as a problem for the environment?

The fruit of the avocado tree – yes, it’s fruit, more precisely: it’s berries! – came to Europe with the Spanish conquistadors from the tropical regions of Central America. The trees, which can grow up to twenty meters tall, now thrive in many tropical and subtropical countries and it is expected that China will soon increase its cultivation.

Avocado: What varieties are there?

To put it simply, avocados come in three different types that differ in shape and fat content: the Mexican (M), the Guatemalan (G), and the West Indian (W). Of the more than 400 varieties (often also crosses between two types), only a few are available from us.

Our local grocers most frequently stock the “Fuerte” (a cross between G and M) and “Hass” (G) varieties.

A Fuerte is pear-shaped with a smooth, dark olive green skin,
the Hass is rather ovoid to round with a rough, green skin that turns black when the fruit is ripe.
The varieties differ in taste: while the yellowish flesh of the Hass tastes more nutty, the greenish flesh of the Fuerte has a mild, creamy taste.

Fatty Superfood: Is the Butterfruit Avocado Healthy?

Fuerte and Hass have in common the high fat content of around 15 grams of fat per 100 grams. This makes the green gold a calorie bomb: 100 g of avocado contain around 160 kilocalories (FDDB), a “portion” (usually meaning half an average avocado with 250 grams ) with its 125 grams comes to 200 kilocalories (kcal).

But: The fats in avocados are mostly healthy, unsaturated fatty acids, including omega-3 fatty acids. They can even help you lose weight by boosting your metabolism.

In addition to the valuable unsaturated fatty acids, avocados also have a healthy high content of B vitamins, vitamin A and vitamin E as well as minerals such as potassium and magnesium. They are rich in essential amino acids that our body needs, for example, to build muscle or reduce stress.

All in all, the avocado is a healthy, plant-based source of fat and protein (but only 2g protein per 100g), and not just for vegans. Something else makes them healthy despite their fat content: the stone fruit contains few carbohydrates (3g/100g). This means that the superfood is also suitable for a low-carb diet and reduces possible ravenous hunger attacks thanks to the slowly digestible fats.

Avocado & Environment: Transportation, Water, and Other Issues

In the industrialized countries, consumption of the green berry is booming. But it is increasingly controversial – because it has more and more effects on the environment.

The problems of the avocado
Long transport routes.
The majority of the avocados available in Germany come from Peru, Chile, Mexico and also from South Africa. So they have very long transport routes behind them, and that always means high CO2 emissions. The negative thing is that the fruit spends the long transport routes in refrigerated containers, otherwise you couldn’t offer them in this country.
Export vs. local production.
Large companies produce for international trade and export their avocados, while small farmers mainly sell their products regionally. The fewer small farmers there are, the less it is possible to ensure that the local population is adequately supplied. The players in the agricultural industry have little interest in small sales markets such as the local population. Instead, they are geared to the demand of the international markets they serve.
Social tensions.
In Mexico – one of the largest avocado producers – 80 percent of the forests belong to village communities. However, since arable land is becoming scarce, illegal deforestation is increasing. The traditional communal management of the land is also becoming more difficult as more land is sold to influential agricultural companies. In this way, the social fabric becomes increasingly unbalanced.
Crime.
The avocado is a valuable commodity in countries like Mexico – so organized crime is now involved there as well. Among other things, the state of Michoacán became known, in which protection money is extorted from the farmers and they have to organize themselves with vigilante groups. A star chef even said that they are the blood diamonds of Mexico.
deforestation.
Especially in Mexico, which produces by far the most avocados (FAO), environmental organizations complain about the illegal deforestation to make room for new cultivation areas. Indigenous peoples in particular suffer from this (NZZ).
water consumption.
An avocado tree needs around 50 liters of water per day, which is already scarce in the rather hot, dry growing areas. It is usually taken from groundwater or rivers that are diverted for this purpose. It is estimated that 1,000 to 2,000 liters of water are required for one kilo of the greasy fruit (source: VZ). That is 5 to 10 bathtubs of water (100 to 200l each) for about 4 fruits.
Drinking water.
Cultivation regions suffer from the lack of water caused by industrial agriculture. The private drinking water supply is also becoming increasingly difficult and sufficient drinking water can no longer be made available for households in the cultivation regions. In some regions of Chile, the entire population is therefore supplied with drinking water via tankers.
Conventional cultivation.
Sustainability plays a minor role in the main growing areas, the fruit is mostly grown conventionally and in monocultures and also artificially pollinated (see avocados vegan?). The mineral fertilizers used in conventional agriculture pollute the environment, especially soil and groundwater (UBA) and thus also drinking water. So what we eat here as healthy is unhealthy for everyone elsewhere.
Bad working conditions.
The demand for the “green gold” is high – in order to meet it, the avocado producers try to grow as many avocados as efficiently as possible. This is at the expense of the working conditions: the pay is poor and the working days are long and physically demanding. To make matters worse, child labor is not uncommon in production – as with many jobs in the agricultural industry.
pollutants.
In many cases, the water contains many pollutants due to self-drilled wells and poor filtration. This puts a strain on avocados, which actually don’t need any pesticides themselves. In some cases, however, benzalkonium chloride is subsequently applied as a disinfectant – residues remain in the fruit.

An ecological advantage should also be mentioned: the plant is relatively undemanding as far as the soil is concerned, and pesticides are usually not necessary (during cultivation; poisons are used for transport and no savings were made in the past either).

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.

If an avocado is brown on the inside, you don’t necessarily have to throw it away. In many cases, the delicious fruit is still edible. In this tip, we explain how to distinguish ripe avocados from spoiled ones.

Avocados are delicious, are rightly considered a healthy superfood and are becoming increasingly popular. However, the tropical fruits have a catch in addition to their bad ecological balance: It is not exactly easy to distinguish ripe or spoiled avocados from the outside – the surprise often only comes after cutting open. If you then find that the avocado is brown on the inside, you don’t have to throw it away right away. We explain how you can recognize a good avocado.

Avocado brown inside – still edible or spoiled?

There are two reasons why avocados turn brown on the inside:

If you cut open an avocado and don’t use it right away, the flesh will turn brown over time. This is due to oxidation, which also causes the brown coloring of sliced ​​apples. As a result, the avocado no longer looks as appetizing, but it is still edible. It is better to cut open avocados just before eating them. Alternatively, you can brush the cut surface with a little lemon juice to slow down the browning.
However, if the avocado is already brown on the inside when you cut it, it may no longer be edible. Below you will find out what you should pay attention to in this case.
If the avocado is brown on the inside, you should rely primarily on your senses and feelings. The following indicators will help you distinguish a ripe from a spoiled avocado:

If there is only a brown spot under the avocado skin, it is most likely a bruise. In this case, you can cut away the spot and still use the remaining fruit.
If the avocado only has one or two small brown spots inside, it’s still edible in many cases. Simply cut away the spots and use the remaining pulp.
However, if the flesh is streaked with brown spots or brown in several large areas, the avocado is no longer edible. In this case, you should discard the fruit.
The same applies if the fruit is very fibrous and has thin threads. Then the avocado is also no longer edible.
If you then have an unpleasant smell or taste or even moldy spots, you should definitely not eat the avocado anymore.
Caution: If the avocado has visible mold anywhere, you should definitely not eat it. It is then not enough to just cut away the moldy area, since the mycelium of the mold could have spread invisibly throughout the fruit.

Recognizing ripe avocados: you should pay attention to this

If you observe the following points, you can tell a spoiled avocado from a ripe one before you buy it and thus avoid food waste:

With the pressure test, you can see the degree of ripeness of an avocado from the outside: press lightly on the skin with the palm of your hand – an unripe avocado is hard, while a ripe avocado gives slightly. On the other hand, if it feels mushy or seems to have collapsed under the skin, the avocado is probably already bad. Attention: Don’t just do the pressure test with one finger but with the palm of your hand, otherwise the avocado will easily bruise.
Pay attention to the base of the stem: If the avocado is already brown here, it is probably already brown on the inside and no longer good. A better sign is if the avocado is still fresh and green at this point.
The color of the skin can also indicate a spoiled avocado: In the case of the most common type of avocado, ‘Hass’, it should be dark green or brown. If the skin is already black, the avocado is probably no longer good – especially if it feels a bit spongy. Other avocado varieties, such as the ‘Fuerte’, keep their green color even when they are already ripe.
Mold is always a clear indicator of a spoiled avocado. Even if the avocado only has a moldy spot on the outside, you shouldn’t buy it anymore.

Use unripe and overripe avocados

A sliced ​​avocado should be light green to yellowish on the inside and pleasantly soft (see picture above). If the flesh is still hard, the avocado is not yet ripe and has not yet developed its delicious aroma:

Unripe avocados ripen within a few days at room temperature. This is even faster if you store the avocado near apples.
If you have already cut open the avocado and only then discovered the hard flesh, you can still let it ripen a bit. So that it doesn’t turn brown inside, you should brush the cut surface with a little lemon juice or olive oil, put the stone back in the middle and close the two avocado halves together again. So you can easily let the avocado sit for another day and ripen.
If an avocado is already very ripe and soft, you can no longer cut it into pieces and use it in a salad. Nevertheless, you can still conjure up delicious dishes from overripe but edible avocados:

Especially for homemade guacamole, avocados should be really ripe and soft anyway, as the flesh is crushed anyway. Our recipe shows you how to make the delicious dip yourself.
You can also use overripe avocados for other sauces, dressings and dips. Depending on the recipe, you can simply puree them with the other ingredients.
You can also use ripe avocados in smoothies. It is particularly tasty, for example, if you puree an avocado with two bananas, a heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder and, if necessary, some sweetener.

Buying avocados sustainably – buying tips

Avocados are rightly considered a healthy superfood: The tropical fruits are rich in unsaturated fatty acids and have a high content of B vitamins, vitamin A and vitamin E. They also provide several essential amino acids and minerals such as potassium and magnesium.

However, the avocado is not so brilliant in terms of its ecological balance: Most of the fruits come from Central and South America and have therefore been transported long distances in refrigerated containers. In addition, avocado trees need a lot of water: an estimated 1,000 liters of water are needed for one kilo of avocado – and the growing areas are usually already dry.

Organically farmed avocados have a better life cycle assessment than those from conventional farming that uses mineral fertilizers. In some supermarkets and health food stores you can also buy avocados from Spain, Portugal or Israel. This means that the delicious fruits have a significantly shorter transport route behind them.

Nevertheless: Even organic avocados from Spain have an immense ecological footprint and should therefore only be bought and used seldom. Instead of guacamole, you can also make pesto yourself from local ingredients, for example.