Avocados are now an integral part of the diet, especially for many vegans. But is the hyped lifestyle fruit really vegan?
There has been a real hype about the avocado in recent years. As guacamole, in a salad or as strips on breakfast toast in the morning – the delicious fruit from Mexico has become indispensable, especially in vegetarian or vegan diets. It is not only healthy, rich in unsaturated fatty acids and potassium, but is said to even reduce the risk of heart attacks and cancer.
Avocados are not supposed to be vegan at all – TV show explains
But is that actually true? Are avocados actually vegan? In the BBC’s British quiz show “QI”, this myth is said to have been refuted recently and painful facts about the lifestyle fruit presented, as reported by 24hamburg.de.
Strictly speaking, the consumption of avocados is not vegan at all. Because: For the production of the so-called “butter of the tropics” bees are used – as is also known from the production of honey, in which the small insects are kept in mass breeding and, according to strict vegans, “exploited”.
Bees are “exploited” for the production of avocados
This is exactly what should not be the case with a vegan diet, in contrast to a vegetarian diet, which is why animal products such as eggs, milk and possibly even sugar are taboo for vegans in addition to honey. It’s similar with avocados, which probably wasn’t clear to the contestants of the British quiz show either, because when asked whether avocados, kiwis, melons, almonds and butternut squash are also vegan, they all answered “all”.
Unfortunately wrong, as the moderator then explained. Because bees are “exploited” for production and “are driven long distances across the country on trucks” because the plants are so difficult to cultivate. When the work was done, whole colonies of insects would be stowed away in boxes and transported to the next fields.
This strict interpretation of vegan nutrition also prohibits the consumption of many other types of vegetables and fruit that bees are used to produce, such as cucumbers, bananas, cherries or lettuce. Avocados are also considered a dangerous superfood for other reasons – for example, because their transport from South America to Europe is anything but environmentally and climate-friendly.
