Avocado may protect against liver damage

Avocado lovers have a reason to cheer and eat the tasty greenish fruit. Researchers from Japan said that animals fed avocado withstood liver damages better than other laboratory animals that ate any of 22 other fruits. In addition, the scientists discovered three new compounds that might explain why the avocado is protective. "Besides offering taste and nutrition, avocados seem to improve liver health," said Hirokazu Kawagishi, professor of applied biological chemistry, at Shizuoka University. He advocated that people should try to eat an avocado a day. Kawagishi made his report at Pacifichem 2000, an international meeting in Honolulu that attracted more than 10,000 scientists. The meeting was hosted by the American Chemical Society and its counterparts in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. A spokesperson for the California Avocado Info Bureau, Jeanette LeBlanc, said that in the United States the average person eats about one avocado every two weeks, although the numbers of people who are eating avocados continues to rise, UPI reports.