Nuts provide a good source of healthy fats and a variety of vitamins and minerals. Studies have shown that including them in your diet each day has heart protective benefits. But how much should you have and which types are the best?
All nuts contain health fats and a variety of different nutrients, each differing on nutrients and quantities, for specific details of which nut has which nutrients, visit:
-Nutrition Australia here.
– Nuts for Life here.
So it’s good to include a variety of different nuts in your diet and non are off limits.
While including nuts in your diet is a great thing to do (I eat nuts everyday) there are a few things to note:
-Nuts are high in kilojoules / calories, although according the Nuts for Life dietitian Lisa Yates not all of the fat is absorbed which is great news! A serving of nuts is about 30g.
-Mainly choose raw nuts rather than roasted or salted.
Raw nuts are more fresh and healthier. The fats in nuts can easily go racid (go off) especially when stored for long periods after roasting. If you like roasted nuts, get the raw ones and roast them fresh, then store in an airtight jar in the fridge.
But how many nuts are in a 30g serve?
This varies depending on the type of nut. Some supermarkets sell nuts in 30g packs e.g. Lucky Nuts but if you like to buy nuts in bulk like I do, here is a guide as to how many nuts are in a 30g serve from Nutrition Australia:
- 20 almonds or
- 15 cashews or
- 20 hazelnuts or
- 15 macadamias or
- 15 pecans or
- 2 tablespoons of pine nuts or
- 30 pistachio kernels or
- 9 walnut kernels or
- a small handful of mixed nuts or about two of each of the ten nut varieties (except chestnut which isn’t eaten raw)
Eating a serve of nuts each day has many health benefits with research showing potential benefits for heart health and diabetes. Eat them as quick and easy snacks, sprinkle them on salads, yoghurts or cereals, or replace some of the flour in baking with them. So don’t worry about that fact that these contain fats, just choose raw nuts and stick to recommended portion sizes.
