How Many Calories in an Avocado?
Despite it's popularity across the world the avocado is not one of the top ten eaten fruits. However it is a common question for people to ask, how many calories in an avocado? This page is going to provide you with information on exactly that as well as other nutritional information on avocados which are a highly nutritional fruit. Although avocados are known to be high in calories there are many nutritional benefits to eating avocados that are well worth knowing and you will find them on this page as we provide much more information that just the calories content!
Before we go on to talk about calories we are going to briefly provide you with some information on the fruit.
A few quick pieces of information about the avocado fruit:
There are three main species of avocado that come from the tropical climates of Mexico, Guatemala and the West Indies although they are grown in other areas as well, notably in temperate parts of the North America such as the states of Florida and California.
The avocado fruit ripens after it has been harvested.
Avocados grow on an avocado tree which can grow at a fast pace and exceed seventy feet in height! The leaves will usually stay on the tree for two to three years and are shed in the early spring and often remain collected beneath the tree as they slow to degrade.
The avocado tree will grow in quick busts during spells of warm weather in warmer climates where as they will grow in one longer spell in areas that are cooler.
A grafted avocado tree will produce fruit withing one to two years as opposed to a much longer period of eight to twenty years for a seedling. Grafted means that the plant/tree is a hybrid composed of the top part of one variety and the bottom of another, joining them together, hence the term 'grafted'.
The avocado tree/plant is able to part self pollinate.
The avocado fruit will begin to Flower in January and one panicle that it produces will normally provide one to three fruits.
The avocado is called the 'alligator pear' in England because it is the same shape as a pear and the external texture of the fruit resembles the skin of alligator.
How many calories does an avocado have?
Obviously avocado is a fruit that grows and not every avocado fruit is going to grow to the same size or weight so here we are going to provide some averages when providing the information on calories in avocado.
- In 100g of raw avocado fruit there are approximately 160 calories
- In 1 ounce of raw avocado fruit there are approximately 45 calories
- In an 8 ounce cup of pureed raw avocado fruit there are approximately 370 calories
Nutritional values of avocado
Having seen how many calories are in an avocado we will now look at some of the other nutritional benefits of the avocado fruit:
As with the calories in avocado these are approximations.
- We know that in 100 grams of raw avocado there is 160 calories.
- There are 17 grams of carbohydrate in 100 grams of raw avocado.
- There are 1.9 grams of protein in 100 grams of raw avocado. For more information on protein rich foods please click here.
- There are 17.5 grams of fat in 100 grams of raw avocado.
- There is no cholesterol in avocados, in fact studies have shown avocado to be beneficial in lowering blood cholesterol.
- There is 3.4 grams of fibre in 100 grams of raw avocado.
- There is 6 milligrams of sodium in 100 grams of raw avocado.
- There are 485 milligrams of potassium in 100 grams of raw avocado.
- There are 12 milligrams of calcium in 100 grams of raw avocado.
- Avocados are rich in vitamins B, C, E, K and also folic acid.
The above clearly highlights that there are much more interesting nutritional facts about the avocado than just the answer to the question 'how many calories does an avocado have?'
The avocado has one of the highest oil contents of all fruits and they are also very high in monosaturates. As you will see above it is a rich source of potassium which is a useful mineral that helps the body to maintain a healthy blood pressure. It has a higher level of potassium content than the banana which is synonymous with being high in potassium.
The monosaturated fat that avocados hold is believed to assist in speeding up your metabolism as it can increase your metabolic rate, the high amount of fat in avocados will satisfy your hunger and prevent you from eating unnecessarily which is also positive for your metabolism and any diet plan that you may be on. As if you came to this site only wanting to know how many calories are in an avocado?
The avocado is a fruit that has a high fat content in comparison to many other fruits such as the banana. It is often used in both savoury and sweet dishes due to the fact that it's taste is not expressively sweet. The avocado is often eaten by vegetarians as the fat content is a positive substitute to that derived from meat and other things that they do not eat. As far as fruits go the avocado is quite high in calories, however all in all it is one of the healthiest fruits that you can get your hands on due to it's rich nutrient content.
Three quarters of the calories in avocados come from the fat content and most of this fat is monosaturated fat, this type of fat is referred to as 'good fat' so please do not let this put you off enjoying this lovely fruit.
On the whole we can see that avocados are good for you, the fat content is high but this is good fat and the only downfall is perhaps that there are excessive calories in avocado.
We hope that this page has been useful in providing you with not only information on how many calories in an avocado but also further nutritional information on the avocado fruit. There is much more to our site than just information on calories in avocado so please visit our main page on calories in food and also if you are interested in the calories in other fruits please see our calories in fruit page.
