6 



BULLETIN 77, HAWAII EXPERIMENT STATION 



Nutritive value: With the exception of olives no other fruit con- 

 tains as large a percentage of fat as do avocados. The fat content of 

 avocados varies widely from 7 to 26 percent according to variety and 

 race. The figures for water content show an equally wide variation. 

 The caloric value of any one sample of avocados, though always great 

 in comparison with that of other fruits, will vary according to the fat 

 and water content, one-fourth to one-half of a medium avocado yielding 

 100 calories. 



By means of human digestion experiments, the digestability of the 

 oils in fresh avocados was first tested by Mattill (28) and found to be 

 93.7 percent, a value comparable to that for butter, but later experiments 

 of a similar nature by Deuel and Holmes (11) gave a value of 82.5 

 percent. 



Though a pleasant addition to any diet, avocados are especially use- 

 ful in the diet of the diabetic. Because analyses (64, p. 66) show that 

 avocados contain no hydrolyzable carbohydrate other than sucrose and 

 because the total sugar content is less than one percent, for practical 

 purposes they may be considered carbohydrate-free, even though anal- 

 yses giving proximate composition indicate a carbohydrate by difference 

 of approximately 5 percent. 



The calcium content of avocados analyzed in Hawaii is only about 

 one-fourth that reported by other investigators (6) (66) for avocados 

 grown elsewhere. The phosphorus content is greater than that of many 

 common fruits, and the iron content is relatively high 3 . 



Avocados are reported to be a good source of vitamins A, B, C, and 

 G (B 2 ) (39). 



Supply: 4 Some variety or avocados is on the Hawaiian market dur- 

 ing the entire year, the largest quantity of avocados being available in 

 the late summer and early autumn, when the supply exceeds the demand. 

 The hard-shell "winter" avocado is placed on the market during the 

 months of November, December and January. The price and quality 

 of the fruit vary greatly. 



Use: The avocado is a favorite salad fruit. The most common way 

 of serving it is "on the half shell" and in salads and cocktails. Because 

 of the high fat content of many varieties, the avocado combines best 

 with vinegar or with such acid fruits and vegetables as oranges, grape- 

 fruit, lemons and tomatoes. However, some Orientals prefer sugar on 

 it instead of an acid substance. The avocado served with guava catsup 

 makes a pleasing combination. Combined with catsup, lemon juice, 

 vinegar or onion, the avocado makes a delicious sandwich spread. The 

 avocado contains a tannin which causes it to develop a very bitter 

 flavor on cooking, consequently no successful method of canning it has 

 yet been found. It may, however, be satisfactorily used in such hot 

 foods as vegetable soup, consomme or omelette if diced and added just 

 before serving. 



3 On the whole, fruits do not have a high content of the three important minerals calcium, phos- 

 phorus and iron compared with such foods as milk, eggs and many vegetables. For purposes o 

 comparison in this bulletin, all fruits containing 0.01 percent or more calcium, 0.03 percent or mar 

 of phosphorus and 0.0050 percent or more of iron will be considered as good fruit sources of thes 

 minerals. 



4 Throughout this bulletin "supply" relates to the Hawaiian Islands and sometimes more especially 

 to the Honolulu market. 



