Recent studies have shown that avocados are ridiculously healthy for you and have health benefits that are, to put it mildly, amazing. This is fantastic news. I love avocados.

I was 18 when I had my first avocado. Oh, sure I had a “guacamole salad” of the Taco Bell variety before that but honestly I’m not really sure if there were any avocados in that concoction. It was a neon green paste with chunks of hard, red objects in it that I assume was some kind of pepper. At least I hope it was a pepper. But it took until I moved to California to experience the green goodness that is the avocado.

I was having lunch on Height Street with some friends at a little cafe and we all ordered burgers (on whole grain organic buns of course). The waitress asked if we wanted avocado slices, my friends said yes with enthusiasm.  I was skeptical thinking back on the green paste but was persuaded when one friend said, “C’mon, do it.”

Side note: It is a testament to how susceptible to peer pressure I was back then when the argument “c’mon do it” was sufficient for me to change my mind.

When eventually I bit down on that burger and tasted the gooey greatness of the green fruit I was hooked.

I began to have avocado on everything. Turkey club? Put avocado on it. Dinner salad? Avocado please. Peanut butter sandwich? Screw it, it needs avocado. There was almost nothing I did not put an avocado on.

It should be pointed out that this was at a time when I was still receiving money from my parents. Oh I had a part-time job but I was still being subsidized by Mom so the added expense of adding avocado to everything did not kick in till I was fully responsible my own finances. When that happened the additional charge of 75 cents or a dollar or more seemed to somehow be extravagant. And so my “avocado on everything” policy came to an end. After that it was reduced to a treat or a luxury.

Eventually I became a grown up and was able to provide for myself so as not to worry about the exorbitant cost of my favorite fruit. But now this was at a time when we were being told that avocados were high in fat and eating them could be detrimental.

Now for some reason this struck me as being important and I felt it necessary to stop eating avocados because of the danger it posed to my health. This is odd in retrospect because at this point in my life I was smoking heavily, drinking and eating a really massive amount of red meat. Yet somehow I latched on to the idea that avocados were bad for me. Go figure.

Now we see a complete turn around. Avocados are not just good for you but are vital to leading a long, healthy life, they will cure diseases and actually de-age you to roughly 25 years old. Keep in mind that there is a possibility that I have misunderstood the recent findings and may or may not be exaggerating just a tiny bit.

Regardless let’s give it up for the humble avocado! The beautiful green, glorious fruit that may be bad for you or may be wonderful for you but in the end makes no difference because they taste great and make life better. And that, my friends, is all that really matters.

So when it comes to eating avocados – C’mon, do it.

Also, here 6 more reasons you may not have known about:

• 6 Hidden Benefits of Avocados

And if you need more persuasion watch this:

Originally posted May 18, 2015