Pineapple

ANY millennial worth their salt knows avocado is the fruit (and yes, it is a fruit) of the moment. Mashed on toast, blended in a smoothie or even baked in a healthy dessert, its popularity among foodies is unrivalled. As a result, sales have soared, reaching £128million (R2.1billion) across the UK last year.

But there’s a new fruit in town – or, rather, an old one that’s having another moment in the sun. According to UK supermarket Tesco, sales of whole pineapples surged by 15% last year, overtaking the avocado for speed of growth.

So could pineapple really be the new avocado?

Millennials aren’t the first to get overexcited about a fruit. Thanks to their exotic looks, pineapples created a stir across Europe after Christopher Columbus stumbled across them in South America in 1493.

But it wasn’t until the

Victorian period that they became widely available. They were farmed across the Empire, while gardeners at home used modern greenhouses with hot-water heating to grow huge specimens.

The rise of the avocado in recent years has been extraordinary. This is partly down to improved ripening technology, allowing shoppers to buy them “ripe and ready” from the shelves.

But there’s also a healthy dose of PR at play in the avocado’s changed fortunes. From the mid-90s, campaigns promoted avocados’ health benefits, while in recent years, their reinvention as a breakfast food, served on toast, has seen them become a cultural phenomenon. Meanwhile, the pineapple has been enjoying a more underthe-radar rise – triggered by its popularity as a design motif, plastered on everything from dresses to pool inflatables. Demand for pineapple juice is up by more than a fifth and sales of tinned pineapple chunks have grown by 5%. Even pineappletopped Hawaiian pizza is staging a comeback, with sales up 30%. It wasn’t long until all those Instagram foodies realised that a pineapple looked even prettier than an avocado in an internet post. Now they’re popping up in all sorts of recipes.

For example, one updated take on the combination of ham and pineapple involves hollowing out a pineapple, stuffing it with pieces of pork, wrapping it in bacon and slow-roasting it as a sticky, savoury treat. This concoction is known as the “swine-apple”.

So, which is better for you? It’s a tricky question. Avocados are much higher in fat, but it is the healthy kind needed for brain function, the absorption of vitamins

and joint health.

They are also packed with fibre and an astonishing number of vitamins and minerals, including B-vitamins, vitamin K, potassium, copper, vitamin E and vitamin C.

A medium-sized pineapple can have 17g of sugar, but it’s worth remembering that this is natural sugar, rather than the processed kind that’s at the root of obesity. You might not want to guzzle too much sugary pineapple juice, but the raw fruit is still a comparatively healthy indulgence.

It’s also rich in vitamin C and antioxidants – good for cell repair in your body. Nutritionist Antonia Magor (antoniamagor. com) adds: “Pineapples contain an enzyme called bromelain that helps support healthy digestion, acts as an anti-inflammatory and promotes wound healing.”

Last month a study found eating pineapple daily could relieve painful joints in people with arthritis.

As the avocado craze hit its peak, injuries from trying to cut