If wondering, "Is avocado a fruit or a vegetable", then you are not alone. Avocados are a beautiful creamy fruit, filled with healthy unsaturated fats! Here's why avocados are a fruit, what they taste like, health benefits, how to tell if they are ripe, and the best recipes to enjoy avocados!
Avocados fleshy mesocarp, which is the edible portion of the fruit, is creamy and delicious and loaded with healthy monosaturated (unsaturated) fats. The flesh is consumed in both sweet and savory dishes from homemade taco sauce and topped on salads to sweet chocolate pudding.
So which is it really though - a fruit or a vegetable? This lovely produce falls into the green fruits category! The nutritional content of an avocado is more similar to a vegetable and is listed in some of the USDA sites that way. Yet avocados come from the flowering part of an avocado tree. This versatile fruit is indeed a fruit and one to be eaten everyday - and let's explain why!
Jump to:
Is avocado a fruit or a vegetable, and why?
An avocado is a fruit, and in-fact botanists technically consider avocado a single-seeded berry. There are dozens of varieties of avocados such as Gwen, Reed, and most commonly found in grocery stores - Hass.
Avocado is a green fruit rather than a vegetable because it grows on trees from the flower (or berry) of the plant. Fruits contain seeds while vegetables grow from roots and are made up of plants that contain stems and leaves.
What is an avocado?
The avocado is prized as the mother fruit with its oily flesh and incredible health benefits. The avocado tree is a wild cultivated evergreen tree that produces botanically a large berry containing a single large seed - the avocado.
Avocados are also known as genus Persea americana, avocado pear, or alligator pear and come from the Lauraceae family. Avocado trees grows native to Mexico and Central America and their fruit is marketed as a superfood due to high levels of phytochemicals such as antioxidants and nutrients. The skin is inedible, yet loaded with hundreds of phytochemical compounds that seep into the flesh as it grows.
There are three parts to an avocado:
- The innermost layer around the seed, or the endocarp.
- That beautiful greenish-yellow oily flesh that is delicious and edible, or the mesocarp.
- Dark green skin or rind on the outside of an avocado, or the exocarp.
Guess what else... it takes over 70 liters of water for the plant to cultivate! That is why the avocado tree only produces fruit in certain climates.
Is avocado good for you?
Yes, avocados are incredibly good for you and it goes far beyond what is reported.
The yellow-green color of an avocado flesh contains isothiocyanates, which help restore stomach and intestinal lining. Isothiocyanates increase detoxification and is mostly found in vegetables, even though the avocado is a fruit.
Eating avocados help to sooth and restore gut health especially if you are suffering from digestive disorders such as Crohn's disease, gluten sensitivity, Celiac, colitis, or IBS.
Avocados are one of the best antioxidant rich foods and contain anti-inflammatory properties similar to that of aspirin- only without thinning the blood. They are great to add to a morning greens smoothie.
Why is avocado a berry?
The avocado fruit is a single-seeded berry. This is classified from the flesh of an avocado: the endocarp covering the seed rather than a drupe (or stone fruit). Since avocados come from the flower of a plant (the avocado tree), that flower turns into a berry to produce the avocado fruit.
Sweet recipes using avocados
- Avocado Chocolate Pudding
- Sweet Potato Toast with Avocado
- Healthy Carrot Muffins with Avocado, Banana, and Oats
Savory recipes using avocados
Frequently Asked Questions
In botany, fruits and vegetables are classified by which part of the plant they come from and usually distinguished by taste. In the case of the avocado, one would think this vegetal is a vegetable based off it not being very sweet and the nutritional content. Since the nutritional value of avocados are similar to that of vegetables, avocados are classified as a vegetable on some of the USDA sites.
Yes, avocado is a berry since it blooms from the flower of an avocado tree.
No, avocados are not a stone fruit, or drupe. Stone fruits such as cherries, mangos, peaches, and apricots have a thin skin and stone in the center. While avocados are similar and have a seed in the center, they are too fleshy to be a stone fruit. Therefore, avocados cannot be considered stone fruits.
Conclusion
Avocados are indeed a fruit, not a vegetable. They come from a berry and a superfood with extreme nutritional value and health benefits. These pear-shaped fruits make a great alternative snack for trips and on-the-go healthy eating. All you need to do when you get hungry is wash, slice, and twist open an avocado. Then using a spoon, scoop out the flesh and enjoy!
If you wonder - Is Avocado A Fruit or Vegetable - I hope this helps answer your questions. Follow along with me on INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE and TWITTER for a feature and for recipe inspiration! And don't forget to give a star rating and leave a comment below.
Leave a Reply