Health benefits and popularity of Mexican food helping the rapid growth int avocado consumption

The rise of the avocado, America’s new favorite fruit - The Washington Post:

America is in love with avocados. The country's appetite for the creamy versatile fruit (yes, avocados are fruit) has grown just about every year for the past 15 years, according to data from the Hass Avocado Board, invadingkitchens and menus across the country. The rise is such that sales of Hass avocados, which make up more than 95 percent of all avocados consumed in the United States, soared to a record of nearly 1.9 billion pounds (or some 4.25 billion avocados) last year, more than double the amount consumed in 2005, and nearly four times as many sold in 2000.

Most avocado varieties can be exceedingly fickle, ripening too quickly to be shipped and sporting skin too thin to sit on supermarket shelves without bruising. On the other hand, the Haas avocado, which has been adopted as the mainstream variety produced and distributed around the country, ripens slowly, changes color when ripe, keeps for long and has a thick skin. ...
Beyond the benefits of the Hass variety and influx of foreign fruit, the country's growing Hispanic population has helped, too. Mexican cuisine, which regularly features avocados—often in the form of a lime-kissed dip—has itself gone mainstream ...
Avocados have also benefited from an association with healthfulness. Numerous studies have linked consumption of the fruit to healthier overall diets, including one published earlier this month, and another in early 2013. A recent revelation that not all fats are evil has painted avocados in a much more becoming light. "Avocados do contain fat, but it is mostly the monounsaturated kind [the good kind]," New York University's Langone Medical Center says on its website. "No matter how you slice it, the avocado has plenty of health benefits."

'via Blog this'