Is there anything better than a perfectly ripe avocado? You can grill them. You can blend them. I mean, shit, guacamole should practically be its own food group. But the problem with avocados is they’re high in fat, right? Americans hate fat. They’re not entirely sure why it’s so bad, but what they do know is, that fat is very bad.
So it makes perfect sense that some food scientist might want to go ahead and marry our love of the magical fruit with our hatred for all things “fat” and invent a lite avocado. Which is exactly what’s happened: The folks at the Isla Bonita brand in Spain recently announced that they’ve created an avocado with 30 percent less fat. Hooray!
The only problem is, not all fat is created equal. There’s trans fat, which scientists agree is not good for you since it increases the risk of coronary artery disease. There’s also saturated fat — verdict is still out on that one — and unsaturated fat, which actually has real health benefits.
It’s that last one that makes up most of the fat in avocados. As long as you’re not eating unsaturated fat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, a moderate diet of the stuff can help reduce bad cholesterol, thereby reducing your chances of suffering from heart disease. On top of that, unsaturated fat has been shown to also help in regulating the body’s insulin and blood sugar levels, which is great news for people who suffer from diabetes.
And it’s these benefits that makes the invention of a so-called “diet” avocado that much more puzzling. Avocados are perfectly healthful just the way they are! There’s no need to get fancy and invent one with less fat; that’s just making them less good for us.
So before you run out and snatch up all these lite avocados because you heard avocados are fatty and fat is bad, remember: A full-fat avocado isn’t just delicious, it’s deliciously good for you.
A few other things we learned about our bodies today:
- If consumed in high enough amounts, alcohol will kill harmful bacteria in your stomach. It just might also kill your stomach, too.
- If you love air pollution and amazing sunsets, move to London.
- Americans are STD-riddled monsters, and it’s only getting worse.
- When our brains need to conserve their resources they gotta start somewhere, and that somewhere is grammar.
- Your pet probably eats better than you do.
- In today’s “no, duh” news, cigarette-smoking habits are even harder to break than we thought.
Jeff Gross
Jeff Gross is MEL’s senior editor for social media and content marketing. His daily ICYMI column, which chronicles all things meta on the site, is the quickest way to catch up on MEL, and the funniest thing you’ll read all day. Follow him on Twitter.
