I think its safe to say that most everyone likes some kind of nuts, interestingly nut consumption had decreased in the last 20 years as people think they are too high in fats. In fact nuts can protect against heart disease and possible diabetes. They dont appear to contribute to obesity if eaten as part of a healthy diet, one handful of nuts 5 times a week has been found to halve the risk of heart disease. Nuts in general have low levels of saturated fat, have high levels on mono unsaturated and polyunsaturated fat, have no cholesterol, contain lots of fibre, Vitamins E, B6, niacin, folic acid and potassium, also zinc, iron, calcium, copper, selenium, magnesium. Nuts such as almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews, brazils, chestnuts, hazelnuts, peanuts and pistachios have mainly mono-unsaturated fats. Coconut and palm nuts have high levels of saturated fats so limit intake of those. Some people have extremely allergies to peanuts sometimes this can include brazil nuts, almonds and hazelnuts. Peanuts are in fact a legume and grow underground.Vegetarians, vegans and those who avoid red meat should eat nuts daily as they are a good substitute. Divide lots of 30gms of nuts and put into airtight zip lock bags, keep them on hand ready for a snack. Nuts are best stored in the fridge and will keep around 4 months, you can also freeze them for up to 6 months. Nuts can be used in a variety of ways, in stir fries, cakes and biscuits, sweet pies ( we all know the famous pecan pie ) asian cooking, in a salad, chopped nuts go well sprinkled over ice cream, you can toast nuts for extra flavour. How many nuts can you think of? Here are just a few
pecans, cashews, chestnuts, pistachios, bunya, peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts, macadamias, pine, brazil, walnuts, how many more can you name?