I am always asked if it is ‘OK’ to eats nuts if you’re trying to lose weight because they are ‘fattening’. Er, yes it is and no they are not. In fact, the opposite is often found in studies, see here, for example:
13 Healthy Reasons to Eat More Walnuts
Eat Almonds For Breakfast
The latter also includes my nutty crumble breakfast recipe, which I have happily started making again now I’ve got nuts back into my diet 🙂
Anyway, nuts generally help keep you fuller for longer, are nutrient-dense and help control blood sugar, so stop the ‘fat-hormone’ insulin from going too mad and sticking fat on your belly! For more on this, see my Belly Fat book.
So, today, I was also pleased to see a report on nuts being linked to lower inflammation levels:
Nuts are natural anti-inflammatories
People who eat nuts five or more times a week have lower markers of inflammation compared to people who never eat nuts—and inflammation levels dropped dramatically among people who substitute three servings a week of red meat, processed meat, eggs or refined grains for nuts.
Ok, so it’s not fabulous science but my clinical experience backs this up. The good fats and nutrients such as magnesium and B vits are probably the reason why – and also because if you substitute rubbish food with good food, of course your inflammation will come down.
I also recalled the other day that you can get a whopping 50mcg of the very important selenium from just one large brazil nut! Make sure any men are having a couple a day for prostate health at least and if your thyroid is not quite firing on all four cylinders, selenium is crucial. I am finding a lot of people are having hidden thyroid hormone conversion problems from simply a lack of the selenium required in that pathway. Similarly with iodine, but I digress. See the Thyroid Problems factsheet for more on that
Anyway, the upshot is: get some nuts! as the advert says – your insulin, cravings, glands and inflammation will thank you!