Health Prevent typical avocado mistakes

Tasty and healthy: how to best handle avocados

On the bread, as a guacamole, in a salad or even as a sweet: avocados are becoming more popular in this country as well. The fruits are not only delicious and versatile, but also very healthy at the same time. But there are some mistakes that are common in the handling of avocados. Some of these also endanger your health.

The avocado is an all-rounder

Only a few years ago, many Germans only knew avocados from their holidays. But now the delicious fruit can be found in almost all supermarkets. In this country, it is usually used as a dip, for example in the form of guacamole or as a bread covering. But the healthy superfood can do a lot more: avocados are suitable for salads and soups, they can be baked in the oven and serve as the basis for seductive desserts and delicious drinks. The fruits are very healthy, but if misused, there is also a health risk.

Although avocados are extremely healthy, misuse can also pose a health risk to them. For example, the fruits should always be washed before cutting. (Image: nata_vkusidey / fotolia.com)

Delicious and healthy fruits

The avocado is often seen as an extremely fatty calorie bomb, which is why many avoid the tasty fruit.

However, the unsaturated fatty acids that the body can not produce itself can even help you lose weight.

According to experts, the enzyme lipase, which controls the burning of fat during digestion and in adipose tissue, plays a role in particular.

In addition, the fruits contain minerals such as magnesium, potassium and iron as well as vitamins B, E and K and provitamin A..

According to scientific research, avocados can help lower cholesterol levels and are good for hematopoiesis.

In addition, thanks to the potassium they contain, they are an important contribution to a healthy heart.

Wash avocados before preparing

Before preparing the fruits, they should always be cleaned with cold or lukewarm water and lightly scrubbed.

Because on the hubby shell of the fruit bumble bacteria and pesticides, which can reach when cutting with a knife in the pulp.

But there is another threat to health: Cutting and coring would "more and more people injure themselves acutely," as the vice president of the British Society of Hand Surgery, Simon Eccles, told The Times.

Such injuries are therefore referred to in the clinic as "avocado hand".

The physician pleaded for "clear warnings" to reduce the injuries.

It is particularly problematic when the popular superfruit is still very hard.

Experts therefore point out how to get the avocado ripe faster: by wrapping it in paper together with an apple and then storing the packet at room temperature.

With other fruits, avocados and apples should not be stored better, as they release the gas ethylene, which ensures that fruits in the environment ripen prematurely and rot faster.

Superfood with bad ecological balance

The growing global demand for avocados is often hard to cover, experts say. This boom is also associated with significant disadvantages for the environment, because the fruits need a lot of water.

Researchers at the University of Twente in Enschede in the Netherlands have calculated in a scientific paper that nearly 2,000 liters of water are needed to produce one kilogram of avocados.

In growing countries where drinking water is scarce, production can have drastic consequences.

Environmentalists also criticize that avocados put back long transport routes until they land in our supermarket. Therefore, for example, the Vegetarian Federation Germany (VEBU) advises to pay attention to organic quality and origin when purchasing. (Ad)