don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Avocados? You may be wondering, how does a fatty little fruit the size of two golf balls filled with guacamole sauce rise to a level of consequence where it becomes one of Don's Reports? Why, not even the apple ever got an essay devoted to it, and it had a starring role in Genesis, for heaven's sake!

The key to understanding how the avocado came to such prominence is due to one of the following two possibilities -- can you guess which is the correct choice?

1. The political influence of the avocado growers. Perhaps these people control politicians who follow the dictates of the powerful avocado trade group -- and they have used this influence to pass laws mandating an avocado theme in one of my daily Don's Reports; or
2. The nutritional qualities of this fruit. There really is a lot to discuss about the small pear-shaped green thing that grows on avocado trees and is rich in monounsaturated fats, which raise HDL (healthy) cholesterol levels and help slow arterial aging. Also, new research indicates that the avocado contains an antioxidant called "gluthathione," which some investigators thinks has a role in preventing some cardiovascular diseases and cancers.

If you picked #2, above, you are an astute reader. If you picked #1, you should eat MORE avocados -- they might make you smarter! Did you know that Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galili, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, George W. Bush, and Albert Gore (winner of the popular vote for president in 2000) all enjoyed avocados? I love them, too. This is a fruit not to be taken lightly.

If you are impressed with the efforts of the above mentioned notables in creating early astronomical tools, clarifying who orbits whom, how the world of nature really works, the origin of our species, the role of the unconscious, the meaning of Christian symbols, the relativity of it all, the significance of human life in the context of all those billions and billions of stars, the pros and cons of raising campaign funds at Bob Jones University and Buddhist temples, the chutzpah of making guest appearances on Saturday Night Live, respectively, then you will be interested in learning more about the health benefits of avocados.

While loaded with fat, avocado fat is mainly unsaturated -- the best kind you can get, and you do need fat even if Ally McBeal and her ilk would never admit it. As nurse Michele Doucette noted, avocados are not just another fruit -- they're special. Even though you don't have to chew them mightily like an apple, for instance, they have tons of fiber (an expression--not literally "tons" of fiber) and plenty of vitamins, minerals, and those trendy phytochemicals! Furthermore, there is no shortage of recipes for using avocados with salads, sandwiches, omelets and so on. The nutrient dense avocado can be used to replace butter or sour cream or simply to make other foods taste better while lowering calories in the process.

Most people, myself included, can't tell a common Hass avocado from Pinkerton, Bacon, or Zutano varieties but, happily, there's no need -- they're all good.

Add one to your next salad -- it's good for your health and great for the taste buds, too. Just for the record, nobody pressured or paid me to plug the avocado -- I just think they're great!

Be well.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the PHYSICAL DOMAIN under the skill area of nutrition. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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