The US Has An "Avocado Hand" Epidemic: Here's How To Avoid An A&E Trip When Making Guac

The culprit? A phenomenon known as “avocado hand”. An estimated 50,413 people in the US had avocado-related knife injuries between 1998 to 2017, according to a study published in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine in 2020. 

Dubbing the problem an “epidemic”, researchers from the Emory University School of Medicine wrote that the figures increased over time, rising from an estimated 3,143 cases between 1998 and 2002 to 27,059 cases between 2013 and 2017. 

Incidence reached an all-time high in 2016 and 2017. The team speculated that the surge in injuries might be linked to the growing popularity of avocados in the US over recent decades. 

Notably, over 80 percent of these injuries involved women, particularly younger women between the ages of 23 and 39, who represented nearly one-third of all reported accidents. The reason why this might be the case isn't discussed.

The issue often arises from the large, round, and slippery seed embedded in the avocado’s soft flesh, making it easy for the knife to slip and result in injury.

A 2017 medical case report described it as so: “Classically, the patients hold the avocado in their non-dominant hand while using a knife to cut/peel the fruit with their dominant hand. The mechanism of injury is usually a stabbing injury to the non-dominant hand as the knife slips past the stone, through the soft avocado fruit.”

Fear not, though. While the statistics may sound alarming, you can still enjoy your avocado safely without an urgent trip to the emergency room. To make sure you slice with confidence, the California Avocado Commission has published a short online guide on their website called: “5 tips to help you cut an avocado without cutting yourself.” Here’s what they recommend:

• Choose a suitable knife. Use a medium-sized chef’s knife or a Santoku knife for cutting avocados and avoid paring knives as they may be too short or too sharp.
• Use a chopping board. Keep the avocado on the cutting board while cutting, rotating it around the seed instead of holding it in your hand.
• Quarter it with care. It’s advised to quarter the avocado by rotating it 90 degrees and making another full horizontal cut around the seed, or separate the halves and place them face up on the cutting board.
• Avoid whacking the seed with a knife (or poking it with the tip) while holding the avocado in your hand. Instead, remove the seed using a spoon or your fingers instead of striking it with a knife to prevent accidents.
•  Peel the avocado instead of scooping it out, as peeling preserves more of the fruit and its nutrients.