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Nuts Make Super Food Headline News

Snacking between meals is alright, if you choose the right foods to snack on. Nuts are a great choice, having a number of healthy benefits for cardiovascular health and good nutrition. In this article, you'll learn how to incorporate nuts into your diet in healthy ways, to satisfy your hunger and help keep your body going strong.


Nuts are Headline News as a Super Food with a Powerful Crunch

Do you have a picture of eating snacks that help your heart and lower your cholesterol while filling you up between meals? Snacking sometimes gets a bad name, mostly due to our indulgence with pre-packaged snack foods. If you know what snacks to choose, though, snacking can still be healthy eating. As a matter of fact, snacking between meals can actually be good for you. Let's take a closer look at one healthy essential snack you should be thinking of.

A Handful of Nutrition

The bite-size nuts you have been snacking on are really considered super food because of their unique combination of protein, vitamins, fats, and minerals. Nuts are tiny powerhouses that work hard to lower the risk of some significant health conditions and diseases.

You shouldn't let the calorie and fat content of nuts worry you too much, either. Nuts may be high in fat and calories, but these 'good' fats and omega 3 fatty acids lower bad cholesterol levels and help healthy heart rhythms and blood pressure. Nuts are also high in fiber content that helps control cholesterol and is being credited with lowering the risk for diabetes.

Certain types of nuts also have another important cholesterol inhibitor called plant sterols. So important, in fact, that they are added to things like margarine and orange juice for their health benefits.

Additionally, nuts have vitamin E and an amino acid called L-arginine, two elements that help reduce plaque in our circulatory system, which then helps prevent clots in arteries. All these factors make nuts one of the most powerful foods you can eat to care for your heart.

Numerous Ways to Use Nuts in Your Diet

One important thing to remember is, like so many other things in life, too much of a good thing isn't so good. Remember, nuts are dense in fat and calories, so a little goes a long way. A dozen cashews can have up to 180 calories, for example.

This is why health experts recommend limiting your daily intake of nuts to no more than a couple ounces. Since nuts can be expensive, this is actually good news for your budget. Adding nuts to your healthy diet then requires only a small investment for a big benefit.

You may be asking yourself what specific nuts are best to eat regularly. There isn't much definitive research to suggest one type of nut being better for you than another. Peanuts, cashews, walnuts, and almonds are among the more popular varieties in most regions. There are plenty of recipes for these particular nuts, so it's easy to incorporate them into meals and snacks.

One suggestion is to substitute chopped nuts for chocolate chips in cookies, as an example. Toss a few peanuts into pasta salads or green salads for extra crunch and added nutrition. Try some natural peanut butter on your morning toast instead of jam and butter. Walnuts are a great choice for topping savory salads. Chop up some almonds and toss them in with some vanilla yogurt for more crunch and flavor.

Peanuts, almonds, and other nuts are also good for grinding into a coarse meal breading. Use this to coat fish or chicken instead of flour or cornmeal when baking and frying these main dishes. Grind the meal a little finer and add to smoothies in your blender. Finely ground almonds can even substitute for wheat flour in many dishes. Almond flour is a gluten-free alternative that's becoming more popular in recent years.

It's best to buy small quantities of unsalted, shelled, or minimally processed nut varieties. Store nuts in a cool, dark, dry place to keep them fresh longer and protect them from oxidation. You can also store nuts in airtight containers in the freezer or refrigerator. Natural oils in nuts can become rancid if exposed to heat and air.

Your body gets big benefits from adding small amounts of nuts to your diet. Try a variety of nuts, store them well, and enjoy a handful of crunchy nutrition every day.


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