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We love these 18 Avocado facts, how many did you know?

  1. Avocados are a fruit, not a vegetable and even more specifically they are classed as a single-seeded berry. They belong to the Genus Persea in the Lauraceae family.
  2. Avocados contain four grams of protein, making them the fruit with the highest protein content!
  3. Avocados have the highest fibre content of any fruit and contain vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin E, magnesium, and folate.
  4. An Avocado has more potassium than a banana. A single avocado has 975 milligrams of potassium, while a banana, well-known for being loaded with potassium, delivers just half that, with 487 milligrams per large fruit.
  5. Avocado trees do not self-pollinate; they need another avocado tree close by to grow.
  6. Avocados are an Aztec symbol of love and fertility, and they also grow in pairs on trees.
  7. Don’t just think of avocados as a savory addition to sandwiches and salads, Brazilians add avocados to ice cream.
  8. You can tell that an avocado is ripe when they feel heavy for their size and are dark in colour. If you want to quicken the ripening process, simply put one in brown paper bag for a few days. You can speed this process up even more by adding a banana into the bag.
  9. Avocados mature on the tree, but only ripen once they are taken off the tree.
  10. Hass is the most popular variety of avocado grown worldwide. The Hass tree was discovered in the backyard of a mailman named Rudolph Hass in California in the 1930’s and Hass patented his tree in 1935. Today 95% of commercially grown avocados come from trees descended from this single tree.
  11. On average, 53.5 million pounds of guacamole are eaten every Super Bowl Sunday, enough to cover a football field more than 20 feet thick.
  12. Speaking of guacamole, the origin of the word comes from Spanish explorers could not pronounce the Aztec word for avocado, “ahuacatl,” so they called the avocado “aguacate.”
  13. You can swap them into baking recipes for butter. The creamy texture and healthy fats make for a surprisingly-easy baking substitution. And no, you won’t be making green muffins. In the right ratios, you can ditch some butter and replace with avocado for healthier chocolate chip cookies, banana bread and brownies.
  14. You don’t have to eat them to reap their benefits. Nutritional perks aside, avocados can play a key role in your healthy hair and skin routine. The antioxidants, amino acids and essential oils inside an avocado can help repair damaged hair, moisturise dry skin, treat sunburns and maybe even mizzen wrinkles, HuffPost Style reported.
  15. It is estimated that the Mexico drug cartels make $152 million a year from growing and selling avocados.
  16. Avocados used to be called “alligator pears.”
  17. Avocados are poisonous to birds, cats, dogs, rabbits, and basically all pets.
  18. One food chain in the USA called Chipotle Mexican Grill uses 44,000 kilos of avocado per day.