The avocado is a tree which is native to tea and found in Central Mexico because it is the world’s largest avocado producer and exporter, demands of avocado within the US California and Florida states have increased since 1980s. It belongs to flowering plant family Lauraceae, genus/species is Persea americana also refers a tree fruits which is botanically called a large berry with single seed fruit. More than 50 varieties of avocado has been discovered in its basic group. Avocado commercially cultivated in those regions which has Mediterranean and tropical climates. Typically they are green in colour, fleshy body, egg shaped or spherical, known for their creamy texture to their high fat content, silky texture and rich in flavour of nutty or nut like as shows in figure 1.

Avocado has different names in different regions of the world like in United Kingdom (UK) when it was first time discovered in 1960s known as “avocado pear”, while in different parts of India it is known as “butter fruit” in Vietnam “bơ” in China it is called as è lí or “alligator pear” or (huángyóu guǒ) which means ‘butter fruit’. Now a days due latest techniques of hybridization and cross seedling it is very difficult to find the common name of common variety of avocado which belongs to special place of origin. It is often categorized according to its origin of their ancestors like in Guatemala, Mexico and West Indies. In fact it belongs to other parts of central and South America and cultivated there for several years for foods.

The largest avocado producer countries are Mexico, Chile, US, China, Peru, Brazil, Indonesia, Columbia and Guatemala. Among all these countries Mexico is the largest exporter of avocado to US about 0.5 million metric tons and about 0.2 million metric tons produce in California state while 35,000 tons in Florida each year.

According to dietary guidelines of Americans since 2015, they are increasing the intake of dietary fibres in their diet to decrease the peril of cardiovascular diseases, obesity and diabetes which is very common in USA. So the nutritionists recommend that only 50g (1 normal size avocado) contain about 11% fibres in it. The use of avocado can reduce the risk of obesity and heart diseases. Rather than this avocado has plenty of benefits. It acts to boost the nutrient inside the body and make them to absorb enough fat soluble nutrients and vitamins like A, D, E, K that got by eating fruits and vegetables.

According to Heart Association of USA different form of fats monounsaturated and polyunsaturated should be consumed rather than saturated trans- fats, it can be used to reduce the cholesterol level in a blood, which is responsible to decrease the risk of heart diseases. Avocado is the one and only fruit that contains unsaturated fatty acids like if we use 50g serving of avocado it will give us 1g polyunsaturated and 5g monounsaturated fatty acid. As described by the M.D., Director of Human Nutrition at the University of California, Los Angeles Mr. David Haber that improved the consumption of fruits and vegetables can decrease the risk of heart diseases by providing the healthful nutrients and phytonutrients such as lutein, mono and polyunsaturated fats, it is the best fruit for all those kinds of nutrients which are healthful for heart diseases. It has ability of an antioxidant and highest rank in lutein the major nutrient in cholesterol absorption. There are more than 75% of the fat in avocado which is unsaturated and has the great substitute in high saturated fat foods. When we will use avocado with other foods then it help to maintain the body and keep alert against blood pressure and heart diseases by making the food more palatable.

The diversity of avocado fruit fat shows that about 75% energy which comes by eating avocado fruit is from 67% of total fat as oleic acid a most important dominant monounsaturated fat. The other predominant fat found in avocado are linoleic acid and palmitic acid. The saturated fat is almost about 14% of the total fat and according to roughly calculation it contains ω-3 fatty acid 1%, ω-6 fatty acid about 14%, oleic acid and palmitoleic acid 65%, 6% respectively called ω-9 fatty acid which is about 71% in avocado.

A 50g mean one avocado contain following important nutrients in it as described in the table below

          Nutrients   Amount    Daily Value (%)
          Pantothenic Acid (B5)0.75mg15%
          Dietary Fibre3.0g11%
          Folate45.2cg10%
          Vitamin K11.1cg10%
          Copper0.12mg10%
          Riboflavin (B2)0.1mg8%
          Potassium      250mg6%
          Vitamin E            1mg6%
          Niacin (B3)            1mg      6%
          Vitamin (B6)                  0.15mg      6%
          Vitamin C3.3mg      4%
          Magnesium16g4%
          Manganese0.99mg4%
          Thiamine (B1)0.05g            4%
          Iron                  0.32mg            2%

The above mentioned table shows that avocado is the only fruit have naturally nutrient dense foods because a medium avocado provides about 20 different kinds of healthful mineral and vitamins that makes it nutrient dense food. The Californian avocado called the nutrient dense mean it provides a sufficient amount of vitamins, minerals and a little bit amount of calories.

According to American Health Association it shows that cholesterol is the main cause of heart dieses, by lowering the amount of cholesterol in our daily diet possible to reduce the risk of heart dieses and metabolic syndrome. Now a days heart diseases is the leading cause to increase the death rates in USA. Three key points which keep your heart strong are healthy diet, daily exercise and non-smoking.  So preliminary study shows that daily intake of avocado in our diet lower the amount of cholesterol level in the body and after seven days daily used of avocado in diet decrease the 17% serum cholesterol level in hypercholesterolemia patients. It is used to decrease 22% low density lipoprotein (LDL) which increase the fat in the body and increase the risk of obesity and triglyceride level while 11% increase the high density lipoprotein (HDL) level. In a study it shows that daily intake of normal size avocado (136g) per day for 6 weeks reduce the LDL significantly and provides the dietary fibre, phytosterole, monounsaturated fats and beta-sitosterol to the body.

Numerous studies sows that there is a relationship between avocado and human health such as blood fat, inflammatory system, cardiovascular system, protection against heart related risks which are oxygen based damage. The result of this showing the benefits of avocado in all these disciplines. Which are associated with the consumption of avocado at several times in a week, one avocado depending upon the variety at least must be consumed daily.

Most of the problematic metabolic syndrome, increase blood fat level and blood pressure can be reduced by daily intake of avocado because it’s the truly health preventive fruit. The nutrients provided by the avocado likely play an important role in cardiovascular health benefits and can be intake by different types of meal plans. I believe that avocado provides number of health benefits such as to control the blood sugar, to regulate insulin in the body that maintain the glucose level reduce the risk of diabetes, satiety and body weight management, reduce the risk related to problematic unwanted inflammation, blood pressure problem and cardiovascular problems.

It is clearly shows that avocado provides a variety of nutrients which are antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Some conventional nutrients like Mg, Ca, Vitamins C,E as well as other phytonutrients such as flavonoids, carotenoids and phytosterols also provided by avocado fruit. Most studies focused on the solution of cardiovascular problems and oxidative stress with the help of avocado. Because of promising nature of this fruit studies are looking forward new researches on avocado including human health related problem like cancer and others.

However I would like to advise you for the use of avocado fruit as much as possible in your daily diet to make your diet balance. We can use avocado by different recipes according to our requirements as per described by the region. Now a day number of dishes are made by avocado such as milk shake, salad dressings, avocado spreads, in sandwiches or burgers, juice, avocado dip, avocado soup and many more. It is said that good and balance diet keeps you healthy.

The author of the article is a Ph.D Candidate of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, China. He can be reached at waheed2678@yahoo.com