Nuts are seeds from the center of a woody shell. But for years, nuts have gotten a bad rap. After all, they’re loaded with fat and calories, and who can eat just one?
On the other hand, new evidence says that nuts are excellent sources of protein, minerals, and fiber and provide other dietary compounds that help fight disease and lower cholesterol levels. This Healthy Eating article tells you the following about nuts:
Peanuts are legumes. (A legume is, officially, “the fruit or seed of various bean or pea plants.”) But everybody calls them nuts, and they have many of the same nutritional qualities as nuts.
Unlike peanuts, which grow on the ground, nuts such as almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, and coconuts grow on trees.
Because nuts are power-packed with calories and fat, most people avoid them. In fact, 78 percent of the calories in nuts come from fat. But the good news is that about 85 percent of that fat is unsaturated and an excellent source of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats — the “good fats.” Nuts don’t contain cholesterol or trans-fatty acids. Trans-fatty acids have gained notoriety because it’s becoming widely known that these chemically altered vegetable fats have the same negative effects on the body as saturated fats.
Another benefit of the fat in nuts is that it contributes to the feeling of being full. Eating a few nuts may actually help curb your appetite.
Scientists have discovered that eating nuts can actually lower the risk of heart disease when they’re substituted for foods that are high in saturated fats because nuts help reduce blood cholesterol levels. One study showed that when 20 percent of the calories in a low-fat diet came from walnuts, blood cholesterol levels dropped by 12 percent. Almonds and peanuts have the same type of effect.
Nuts also contain several nutrients that may be helpful in fighting cancer, diabetes, and heart disease:
Although 43 g of nuts doesn’t sound like much, it is a nice handful. This amount of almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pistachios, or walnuts gives you between 3 and 11 grams of protein and 240 to 300 calories. This table gives you a nutritional countdown on nuts.
| Nut | Number of Kernels per 43 g |
Calories per 43 g |
Grams of Fat per 43 g |
|---|---|---|---|
| Almonds, unroasted | 36 | 240 | 21 |
| Brazil nuts, unroasted | 9 – 12 | 285 | 29 |
| Cashews, dry roasted | 27 | 240 | 20 |
| Hazelnuts, unroasted | 30 | 270 | 26 |
| Macadamia nuts, dry roasted | 15 – 18 | 300 | 33 |
| Peanuts, dry roasted | 42 | 255 | 21 |
| Pecans, unroasted | 30 halves | 300 | 30 |
| Pine nuts, unroasted | 236 | 240 | 21 |
| Pistachios, dry roasted | 71 | 240 | 20 |
| Walnuts, unroasted | 21 halves | 285 | 27 |
There are so many ways to include nuts in your diet, but don’t forget that nuts contain calories when working them into your diabetes nutrition plan. Here are a few suggestions to get you started, but you can also talk with your dietitian or health care professional about how to get more nuts in your diet.
This week, think of two ways to include nuts in your diet and list one way here:
Throughout the week, did you include nuts in your diet?
