There's no denying that avocados are an excellent source of nutrition. Widely touted as a “superfood,” they’re rich in fiber, potassium, copper, magnesium, vitamins C, E, and K, folate, and other B vitamins. They’re a good source of healthy fats, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory compounds, and have been linked to health benefits such as maintaining "good" cholesterol and healthy blood pressure levels and helping to lower heart disease risk. Regular consumption of avocados may also contribute to a healthy gut and has even been linked to better cognitive function.
Together with their delicious taste and versatility as an ingredient, these health benefits have contributed to the skyrocketing popularity of avocados over the past few decades. In the United States, the annual per capita consumption rose from 1.5 pounds in 1989 to 7.5 pounds in 2017. However, this has coincided with a massive increase in knife-related accidents suffered while slicing avocados—the aptly named "avocado hand."
According to a study in the American Journal of Health Behavior, avocados are responsible for roughly 1 in every 50 consumer product-related knife injuries. And although the idea of people injuring themselves while cutting avocados has been widely mocked in numerous jokes and memes, the problem is serious enough to have merited academic studies in the U.S. and several European countries.
In 2020, Emory University researchers reported that over 50,000 Americans suffered avocado-cutting injuries serious enough to seek medical attention between 1998 and 2017, describing the problem as “an epidemic of hand injury.” The researchers also noted a significant rise in avocado injuries in the most recent years, which correlates with the increase in the avocado’s ever-growing popularity. Specifically, there were nine times as many avocado hand injuries from 2013 to 2017 as from 1998 to 2002.
Admittedly, avocados can be tricky to prepare correctly, so it’s no surprise that injuries can occur, though the scale of the problem has alarmed the medical community. Most injuries occur while holding the avocado and slicing it, or attempting to remove the pit with a knife. With bumpy skin and a slippery pit, it’s easy for knives to slide and slice into fingers and palms, even when cutting on a cutting board. As most people hold the knife in their dominant hand and the avocado in their non-dominant hand, injuries to the left hand are the most common.
The Emory study revealed that avocado hand is most likely to occur among women in the millennial age group. Over 80% of the avocado-related injuries recorded in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) between 1998 and 2017 were suffered by women. Interestingly, weekends were the most common time for injuries (nearly 36% occurred on Saturdays or Sundays). Over 45% took place in April, May, June, or July, leading the researchers to conclude that many avocado hand injuries occur when preparing food for family gatherings or BBQs, sometimes with alcohol involved.
Avoiding the dreaded avocado hand:
- So how do you cut and pit an avocado safely? The best way to halve the avocado is to place it on its side on a cutting board and gently hold the top with your non-dominant hand. Then use your dominant hand to cut until you reach the pit. Rotate the avocado with your non-dominant hand (keeping the knife-holding hand fixed) until the cut goes all the way around. Put the knife down, then twist to pull the halves apart.
- Once halved, the pit should pop out on its own if you push firmly upwards on the skin with both thumbs directly underneath the pit. Alternatively, squeeze the halved avocado lightly before using a spoon to scoop out the pit.
- Then, peel the skin with your fingers or a spoon. Always slice the avocado on a chopping board (rather than holding it in your hand). You can also use a spoon instead of a knife to scoop out the avocado flesh.
- Fancy another avocado fact? In the botanical sense, avocados are fruit (technically, they’re berries). They belong to the same plant family (Lauraceae) as the cinnamon tree.
