What is your deepest desire? World peace? A cure to the world's worst diseases? How about a low-fat avocado?
Well, if you've been waiting for a low-fat avocado, Eurobanan’s Isla Bonita (not the Madonna song but the Spanish brand) may have what you want, if you are in Spain. The company will be unveiling their Avocado Light later this month at a trade fair in Madrid. Its website claims that the Avocado Light has up to 30% less fat than regular avocados and ripens faster and turns brown slower. How is this possible? Here's what their website says:
It is a type of avocado exclusive of Isla Bonita, mainly consumed in countries of Latin America and cultivated in very specific climates, which confers properties and organoleptic qualities very different to the most commercialized avocados, in addition to a series of nutritional advantages added.
What does this mean? Well, according to the Merrian Webster dictionary, organoleptic means
being, affecting or relating to qualities (such as taste, color, odor, and feel) of a substance (such as a food or drug) that stimulate the sense organs
Basically anything that tastes, looks, smells or feels in some way (which is basically everything except an invisible ghost who is very polite and quiet) has organoleptic qualities. So instead of saying, "I like sushi," you could say, "I like the organoleptic qualities of sushi," unless your like of sushi is more metaphysical or based on the theory of sushi rather than actually sushi, which would be a bit weird. Therefore the website's statement above says that their avocado tastes, looks, smells, and feels a certain way because it grows somewhere versus growing nowhere. Not exactly blinding us with science.
Should you give a guac about low-fat avocados? Will the light version make the standard, higher-fat avocado ... toast? Yes, regular avocados do have a lot of fat. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), one cup of sliced avocado has about 21 grams of fat. But 14 grams of this is monounsaturated fat, which has been shown to lower bad cholesterol, otherwise known as low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. So most of the fat is "good" fat. Thus, when it comes to Avocado Light, call me avo-skeptical until I see more science.
Remember, fat in itself is not necessarily bad. And low-fat is not necessarily good. As we've seen, special low-fat foods can have other not so healthy ingredients that compensate for the lack of fat. The type and amount of fat and other ingredients that you eat are what matters. Certainly, eating nothing but avocado toast every day morning, noon and night may be providing too much fat in your diet and preventing you from getting your dream home, according to Tim Gurner, Australian real estate millionaire (because, after all, avocado toast and not high home prices or lack of income is the culprit). However, if you eat a balanced diet and in moderation, regular avocados may do just fine.
