When it comes to nutritional impact, you can think of the avocado as your life-of-the-party pal. Its creamy, butter-replacing texture is loaded with healthy fat, and the benefi ts of good fat cover all the essentials, from your heart to your brain to your skin and even weight management. The fat in an avocado is primarily the monounsaturated kind, which is like that friend who has the magic touch of turning negatives into positives. Monounsaturated fats can help your body process fat by improving insulin sensitivity and persuading your adipose tissue to give up fat for energy.

Avocado isn’t just smooth charm. Like all great friends, it’s a team player, and this is never more obvious than when you include some with your salad. Eating avocado with beta carotene-rich foods like carrots can increase the absorption of the beta-carotene and its conversion to vitamin A in a form that our bodies can use. What’s not to love about making your salad taste better, while also improving its nutrient superpowers?

Unfortunately, even the best of things can have a dark side, and the avocado is no exception. One of the inherent side effects of conventional agriculture is the detrimental impact it has on the environment from the excessive use of herbicides, fungicides, and other chemicals. These toxins hang around in the water and atmosphere posing harm to all living creatures nearby. In Michoacan, Mexico, where about 40 percent of the world’s avocados are grown, locals and researchers alike are concerned by an alarming increase in health problems, including respiratory, liver, and kidney issues, in the area that seems to correlate with the avocado boom the region has experienced over recent years. Choosing organic is the best way to be a good friend to the environment and our fellow humans, especially those working in the fields who experience the brunt of the chemical exposure.

In the early 1900s, many people in the U.S. didn’t buy avocados because of their aphrodisiac reputation. In the 1980s we didn’t buy them because we were afraid of fat. Now you can raise your avocado toast to the liberation of romance and fat and go find a friend to share your guac with.

References available upon request