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Avocados provide almost twenty key vitamins and minerals. They’re good for your heart and your eyes. They lower the risk of depression and several types of cancer. All these qualities contributed to a popularity surge for the fruit in recent years. However, though they are nutritious, avocados may not be healthy. At least, not for the hands those who don’t know how to properly cut them.
Emergency room doctors in the UK and US are reporting an increase in knife injuries related to avocados. The BBC even gave a definition for “avocado hand,” the term medical practitioners are using to describe the phenomenon, in a health warning video. It’s “a serious stab or slash injury resulting from failed attempts to penetrate the fruit’s hard outer casing with a sharp knife before encountering the inner stone.”
Turns out many people underestimate the durability of the avocado shell. This outermost layer is much tougher than the squishy, tasty interior. The thick pit in the fruit’s center also stops knives from cutting clean through the middle. All this makes it tricky for amateurs – especially the hungry and impatient – to reach the edible bits. Worse still is that apparently, many make the mistake of holding the fruit in their hands as they cut it. This is, of course, dangerous, and the results are predictable. (Warning: a disgusting image is about to come up.)
A bunch of clickbait websites, as well as some that should know better, are mocking this. (I’m not naming names.) But as you can see, it’s genuinely dangerous. Some of the injuries are purely surface scratches. However, other people have literally skewered their hands in a bloody flesh-and-fruit shish kebab. Even less gruesome cuts can still damage or even sever nerves, which can take months to heal. Anyone who enjoys the fruit is advised to learn how to properly prepare it.
Oh, and before people crack any jokes about dem darn millennials, this isn’t just a generational thing. Sheel Sharma, MD and plastic surgeon at NYU Langone Medical Center, told CBS News he’s operated on all kinds of people with avocado hand. “I have seen a range of celebrity chefs to bankers to housewives to filmmakers to people of all ages.”
All this is only happening because avocados are so darn popular now. Starbucks also hopped on that bandwagon, and the result might be even grosser.
