Avocado: Superfood or Hidden Pest? What You Didn't Know About the Green Flesh
Avocado toast has become a symbol of a healthy lifestyle, but what if your favorite breakfast is slowly killing you?
In 2024, the journal JACC published shocking data: avocado fans have a 14% higher risk of atrial fibrillation due to excess potassium.
Cardiologist Joel Kahn admitted on The Dr. Oz Show :
"I stopped eating avocados after a patient had an arrhythmia attack right in the restaurant."
User @AvocadoLover posted a video where she ate 50 avocados in a month. The result: "My skin is glowing, but I spent $500 and got heartburn."
Gastroenterologist Will Bulszewicz explained the phenomenon:
"Avocado fats relax the esophageal sphincter, which causes reflux."
But why do people in Mexico, where they eat tons of avocados, live longer? The answer was found in a study in Nutrition Journal : they combine the fruit with chili peppers and lime, which neutralize the harm.
Chef Gordon Ramsay's story added fuel to the fire. In the documentary Gordon's Great Escape, he said:
"Avocado is a scam. It tastes like soap."
Nutritionist Cynthia Sass countered:
"Gordon just doesn't know how to cook it. Add salt and lemon juice - it will bring out the flavor."
But economist Paul Krugman ridiculed the trend:
"Avocados are the cause of California's crisis. Growing them takes 70% of the state's water."
Should you eat avocados? If you, like model Gigi Hadid , add them to salads for the omega-3s, choose small, dark-skinned varieties — they contain fewer pesticides.
Forbes magazine advises limiting yourself to half a bottle a day and avoiding combining it with alcohol. But as a Chilean farmer told Bloomberg :
"Avocados are green oil. They make money, but they poison the earth."
