A scientific exploration of which avocado shape offers the most bang for your buck

If you’re a most judicious avocado connoisseur like I am, you may have heard the pro tip that choosing oblong fruit specimens over round ones yields more of that delicious green interior for your toast—the reasoning being that longer and narrower fruits have smaller pits and therefore more meat. (Exhibit A.) But is this true, or an optical illusion? In an (extremely non-scientific) experiment, I’ve just discovered precisely which avocado silhouette yields the most green goodness for your dollar.

The bottom line: longer and skinnier avocados should definitely get first pick.

How did I reach this conclusion? Earlier today I went on a mission. I bought a dozen avocados and a food scale. I divided the produce into four categories: Long and Skinny, Long and Fat, Short and Skinny, and Short and Fat. I weighed each avocado, removed the pits, and weighed them again. Finally, I performed the necessary calculations to determine pit weight as a percentage of total weight and compared the averages. (I know, this all seems pretty extra, but it’s for science!)

Here’s how the avocado shapes shake out (in terms of more flesh, less pit)

These are the results, noting pit weight as a percentage of overall weight:

Long and Skinny: 13 percentLong and Fat: 16 percentShort and Skinny: 16 percentShort and Fat: 18 percent

The pit doesn’t do anything except take up room inside the fruit (unless you need a new houseplant), so a smaller pit equals more edible avocado! According to my experiment, Long and Skinny amounts to about 5 percent more for you to eat as compared to Short and Fat. If you’re eating avocados regularly, you’re basically getting, like…a little bit more avocado to mash onto your toast. But still! This was fun.

Further, according to wellness blogger Bethany Ugarte, choosing rough-skinned fruit usually also means it has a smaller pit.

To summarize: long and skinny + rough skin =

Apart from being packed with healthy fats, avocados are also a good source of magnesium. Here’s why that matters.