Hi there, this is Monica Reinagel and you're listening to The Nutrition Diva,

quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous.

Over the last week or so, I've gotten a few questions from listeners about avocados

and how they fit into a healthy diet

and about a new product called a Slim Kato that's popped up in some grocery stores.

So this week I have answers to these

questions along with some other facts about avocados that might surprise you.

Botanically speaking, avocados are a fruit, but they're really unlike most of the fruits we eat.

They're very low in sugar and they're very high in fat. In fact, in the world of nutrition,

we don't count an avocado as a serving of fruit, but as a couple of servings of fat. Now that doesn't mean

that avocados are bad for you, quite the contrary. Most of the fat in avocado is mono-unsaturated,

the same type of heart-healthy fat found in olive oil.

People whose diets are high-and-unaturated fats have lower risks of heart disease and

they also tend to be slimmer. Nonetheless, if you're watching your calories,

you want to be aware that avocados pack a lot of calories

into a relatively small space.

Now, just how quickly those calories add up depends on what type of avocado you have.

Here in the U.S. the two main varieties of avocado are usually referred to as California and Florida avocados.

The California avocados, sometimes known as Haas avocados, are the ones with the dark pebbly

skins, and the ones with the smooth green rinds are Florida avocados.

One obvious difference is that Florida avocados are larger than the California variety and

so they're quite a bit higher in calories.

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