SOUTH AFRICA: You need never die of anything serious

. CAPE TOWN (The Star), August 25, 2008: It is named Haas after the postman who discovered it. For thousands of years it was a favourite food of the Aztecs who called it "ahuacati" (meaning testicle). It became fashionable in the West in 1935, but so expensive that only royalty and the very rich could afford it. The Aztecs claimed it was an aphrodisiac. Now you can buy them anywhere - even at the side of the road. What is it? An avocado - the Haas being the dark-skinned variety. Tzaneen, from where most South African avocados come, is promoting the fruit (it's not a vegetable) just as, a few years ago, it so successfully promoted the mango. Now the mango, filled with so much goodness it could one day make the entire medical profession obsolete, is - as I have demonstrated on many an occasion - impossible to eat with any decorum. But the avo, in complete contrast, rates along with the naartjie and the banana as the easiest of fruits to peel. So the thought occurs, why not try to breed a hybrid - an avomango, or a mangado? The two fruits have a lot in common. They both grow on evergreens, both have big stones, both were cultivated in the tropics and subtropics for millennia (the mango in India and Malaysia). But what they have most in common is their nutritional value. I was very impressed by what I heard from the South Africa Avocado Growers' Association (Saaga) about the avo. I was particularly interested because I am nowadays counting kilojoules in the attempt to loose 20kg, and I had been told avocados were full of protein and can replace meat in our diets. One decent-sized avo, green or black, contains 2000 kj in energy, which is a third of my daily allowance. But the association says the fat content is "good fat", because it is monounsaturated (as in olives and peanuts) and low in the glycemic index which, even though I don't understand what they are talking about, greatly impresses me. Avos reduce blood pressure, increase iron absorption, provide magnesium and make the blood, well, redder. The Heart Foundation supports all this. Ah yes, and avos are full of Vitamin E which is a powerful antioxidant. This, I suppose, stops the extra iron you are absorbing from rusting. I don't even begin to understand what antioxidants are. All I know is that I am so full of them these days that I'm probably healthier than I feel. There's more. Avos have the highest concentration of soluble fibre of any commonly eaten vegetable. It sounds as if it has as much fibre as a doormat, so why is its flesh like butter? Obviously I don't understand fibre either. Avos also have the highest concentration of lutein, which reduces the chance of prostate cancer and eye disease. Patently, you need never die of anything serious if you eat enough avos. Regarding it being a tropical fruit I knew of a tree in Parkhurst, Johannesburg, that produced so much fruit the owners provided avos for local green grocers. According to farmers a single tree can produce 500 avocados. What impressed me most about Saaga's information was that it came with a free recipe book describing all the things you can do with an avo. I rushed home and made avocado Ritz for the family. Just cut them in half lengthways, fill the cavity left by the stone with prawns, shrimps or smoked salmon, and top with a tomato sauce-mayonaise mix. Hey Prestik - all your oxidants will go leaping out of the windows. The avo season runs from mid-March to September. © 2008 Star & Independent Online (Pty) Ltd.