Avocado Adventure

1915: Hotel Alexandria, Los Angeles, California

Sitting comfortably in green velvet chairs in Hotel Alexandria’s plush hotel lobby, an industrious group of American farmers gathered to discuss the prospect of marketing a newly discovered fruit. The pebbly skinned, pear shaped fruit, called ahuacate. Beneath the high gold leaf ceiling and exquisite chandeliers, a waiter graciously serves the men tasty bits of the topic of their discussion. 

A fly on the wall was listening in

“$12.00 a dozen*? A pretty profit impending, gentlemen. This fruit is delicious, seductive. The people will love it. We need to get it to market.”

“Fine and dandy. But one huge obstacle is that no one can even pronounce the name. AHUACATE

“Then we change the name!”

“To what? Its alias? ‘alligator pear’? That is hardly appealing either.”

“Well, we can’t call it ‘testicle’, even if there is a likeness! That’s the Aztec translation for the unpronounceable ahuacate. I do not think that would go over too well with the ladies. We can’t presume to begin selling ‘testicles’, even if the fruit is known as an aphrodisiac. 

“Change the name!”

And they did. Thus, the birth of avocado. The farmers even decided on the plural: ‘avocados’, without an ‘e’. Just to be daring.

While the avocado is native to countries like Mexico, Peru and Dominican Republic, there are now over 3500 avocado growers in California. The nutrition is exemplary both to consume and to treat the skin: fatty acids, vitamins, lecithin, protein. 

The Aztecs used avocado oil on their skin as protection against intense sun and strong brutal winds. It is the use in skin care that interests us.

The Fruit Escape

If you do not know how to cut open an avocado ask You Tube. Follow the instructions and your avocado will make a clean break.  Added to our clay neem, it makes a wonderful facial. 

Avocado is renowned to help nourish the skin, moisturize and heal. It can help with eczema, psoriasis, acne, wrinkles, inflammation, sunburn, nails and hair. Pure avocado oil can be applied directly to the skin or in a bath. Blends are easy to make. Adding a little emu or tamanu oil to avocado is a great blend. A drop of lavender or rosemary or frankincense aims for perfection. 

If buying a commercial blend, read the entire label

Beware of skin care creams, lotions etc. advertising ‘with avocado oil’. That is the good, but check them out for the bad and the ugly.  Think of consuming a sugar laden, bad fat, fast food lunch with an organic freshly picked fruit. The healthy fruit can hardly undo what the toxins in the rest of the meal are doing to you.

For example, if you are about to buy a product with avocado oil, but see alongside it, ingredients like ‘disodium EDTA’ or phenoxyethanol or Peg-30 to name a few, put it back. Your skin will not do well with that meal.

Earth to Body makes 7 skin products with avocado oil that your skin will love. All good. No bad. 

Thank you, Aztecs, for sharing your lore about avocados. 

*$20 each fruit in today’s dollars