SKILL INDIA

[10/15, 22:27] SKILL INDIA: Avocados are a source of key nutrients, including healthy fats andfiber. They also contain anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds and may help reduceheart disease risk.Avocados are native to Mexico and Central America, but they are cultivated inmany areas of the world, including North America.In the United States, California is the top producer of avocados and is home to more than 5,000avocado farms, which generate over 400 million pounds of avocados each year.Avocadoscontain a wide range of nutrients and may have various health benefits. These includeimproving digestion, lowering the risk of depression, preventing bone loss, supporting hearthealth, and protecting against cancer.Avocados are a source of vitamins C, E, K, and B6, aswell as riboflavin, niacin, folate, pantothenic acid, magnesium, and potassium. They alsoprovide lutein, beta carotene, and omega-3 fatty acids.Avocados contain high levels of healthy, beneficial fats, which can help a person feelfullerTrusted Source between meals. Eating fat slows the breakdown of carbohydrates, whichhelps keep blood sugar levels stable.The fruit of domestic varieties have smooth, buttery,golden-green flesh when ripe. Depending on the cultivar, avocados have green, brown, purplish,or black skin, and may be pear-shaped, egg-shaped, or spherical. For commercial purposes thefruits are picked while unripe and ripened after harvesting. The nutrient density and extremelyhigh fat content of avocado flesh are useful to a variety of cuisines and are often eaten to enrichvegetarian diets.Persea americana is a tree that grows to 9–20 m (30–66 ft) with a trunkdiameter between 0.3–0.6 m (0.98–1.97 ft). The leaves are 7.62–25 cm (3–10 in) long andalternately arranged.Panicles of flowers with deciduous bracts arise from new growth or theaxils of leaves. The tree flowers thousands of blossoms every year. Avocado blossoms sproutfrom racemes near the leaf axils; they are small and inconspicuous 5–10 mm (3⁄16–3⁄8 in) wide.They have no petals but instead 2 whorls of 3 pale-green or greenish-yellow downy perianthlobes, each blossom has 9 stamens with 2 basal orange nectar glands.The fruit of horticulturalcultivars has a markedly higher fat content than most other fruit, mostly monounsaturated fat,and as such serves as an important staple in the diet of consumers who have limited access toother fatty foods (high-fat meats and fish, dairy products). Having a high smoke point, avocado oil is expensive compared to common salad and cooking oils, and is mostly used for salads ordips.A ripe avocado yields to gentle pressure when held in the palm of the hand and squeezed. Theflesh is prone to enzymatic browning, quickly turning brown after exposure to air.To prevent this,lime or lemon juice can be added to avocados after peeling.It is used in both savory and sweetdishes, though in many countries not for both. The avocado is common in vegetarian cuisine asa substitute for meats in sandwiches and salads because of its high fat content.Generally, avocado is served raw, though some cultivars, including the common ‘Hass’, can becooked for a short time without becoming bitter. The flesh of some avocados may be renderedinedible by heat. Prolonged cooking induces this chemical reaction in all cultivars.In Mexico andCentral America, avocados are served mixed with white rice, in soups, salads, or on the side ofchicken and meat. They are also commonly added to pozole. In Peru, they are consumed withtequeños as mayonnaise, served as a side dish with parrillas, used in salads and sandwiches,or as a whole dish when filled with tuna, shrimp, or chicken. In Chile, it is used as a puree-likesauce with chicken, hamburgers, and hot dogs; and in slices for celery or lettuce salads. TheChilean version of Caesar salad contains large slices of mature avocado.Avocados in savorydishes, often seen as exotic, are a relative novelty in Portuguese-speaking countries, such asBrazil, where the traditional preparation is mashed with sugar and lime, and eaten as a dessertor snack. This contrasts with Spanish-speaking countries such as Chile, Mexico, or Argentina,where the opposite is true and sweet preparations are rare. With the exception of thePhilippines, a former Spanish colony where avocados are traditionally used in sweetpreparations and savory uses are seen as exotic.In Ethiopia, avocados are made into juice bymixing them with sugar and milk or water, usually served with Vimto and a slice of lemon. It isalso common to serve layered multiple fruit juices in a glass (locally called Spris) made ofavocados, mangoes, bananas, guavas, and papayas. Avocados are also used to make salads.In Kenya and Nigeria, the avocado is often eaten as a fruit alone or mixed with other fruits in afruit salad, or as part of a vegetable salad. In Ghana, they are often eaten alone on sliced breadas a sandwich. In Sri Lanka, their well-ripened flesh, thoroughly mashed or pureed with milk andkitul treacle (a liquid jaggery made from the sap of the inflorescence of jaggery palms), is acommon dessert. In Haiti, they are often consumed with cassava or regular bread forbreakfast.Raw avocado flesh is 73% water, 15% fat, 9% carbohydrates, and 2% protein (table).In a 100 gram reference amount, avocado supplies 160 calories, and is a rich source (20% ormore of the Daily Value, DV) of several B vitamins (such as 28% DV in pantothenic acid) andvitamin K (20% DV), with moderate contents (10–19% DV) of vitamin C, vitamin E, andpotassium. Avocados also contain phytosterols and carotenoids, such as lutein andzeaxanthin.According to information published by the Water Footprint Network, it takes anaverage of approximately 70 litres (18 US gallons; 15 imperial gallons) of applied fresh groundor surface water, not including rainfall or natural moisture in the soil, to grow one avocado (283L/kg [33.9 US gal/lb; 28.2 imp gal/lb]). However, the amount of water needed depends on whereit is grown; for example, in the main avocado-growing region of Chile, about 320 L (85 US gal;70 imp gal) of applied water are needed to grow one avocado (1,280 L/kg [153 US gal/lb; 128imp gal/lb]).Like the banana, the avocado is a climacteric fruit, which matures on the tree, but ripens off the tree. Avocados used in commerce are picked hard and green and kept in coolersat 3.3 to 5.6 °C (37.9 to 42.1 °F) until they reach their final destination. Avocados must bemature to ripen properly. Avocados that fall off the tree ripen on the ground. Generally, the fruitis picked once it reaches maturity; Mexican growers pick ‘Hass’ avocados when they have morethan 23% dry matter, and other producing countries have similar standards. Once picked,avocados ripen in one to two weeks (depending on the cultivar) at room temperature (faster ifstored with other fruits such as apples or bananas, because of the influence of ethylene gas).Some supermarkets sell ripened avocados which have been treated with synthetic ethylene tohasten ripening.