Florida avocados pack fewer calories than California cousins

Excerpts from an article written by Susan Salisbury in the 7/16/10 edition of the Palm Beach Post

With summer here, South Florida's tropical fruits such as mangoes and avocados - yes, it is a fruit - are in season.

The trademarked SlimCado, with 50 percent less fat and 33 percent fewer calories than the leading California avocado, is grown in Miami-Dade County and marketed across the United States and in Canada by Brooks Tropicals of Homestead.

The SlimCado season runs from June through January and might go as late as March this year, said Brooks' marketing director, Mary Ostlund. They're in stores now.

What did Brooks do to take the calories out of the avocado?
"We did nothing to these avocados to make them SlimCados," Ostlund said. "They are Florida avocados."

Florida-grown avocados are lighter-tasting and naturally contain less fat than the California-grown Hass variety because of our humid climate, Ostlund said. Brooks has grown them since 1928 and began selling the fruit under the SlimCado label in 1987.