Almonds, pistachios part of good-for-you recipes
In your mission to eat healthier this year, you've axed iced cinnamon rolls and breaded shrimp off your shopping list. Just don't cross off nuts.
Many nut varieties can be part of a healthful eating plan, contributing fiber, protein and heart-healthy fats to your meals and even helping you shed pounds.
“If you look at cultures around the world, those who have done a better job of maintaining their weight include nuts on their diets,” says David Grotto, an Elmhurst dietitian and author of “101 Foods That Could Save Your Life.”
Even in America, he said, researchers recently concluded that people who ate one to two handfuls of almonds a day lost more weight and kept it off longer than the study group that didn't eat almonds.
Grotto, who is penning a third book, says it appears nuts satisfy us more than other snacks and they may contain a compound that prevents their fats from being absorbed into our bodies.
According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, when people substitute nuts for choices such as fatty meat and deep-fried foods high in saturated or trans fats, blood cholesterol usually declines.
“Plant sterols work like a sponge sucking up cholesterol,” Grotto explains.
Nuts contain mostly the good-for-you monounsaturated fat; almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pistachios, pine nuts and pecans all have 3 grams or less of cholesterol-raising saturated fat in a 1½-ounce (about ⅓ cup) serving. Walnuts are high in polyunsaturated fat, some of which is a heart-healthy omega-3 fat similar to that found in salmon and other fatty fish.
Cashews and almonds are especially high in magnesium, pecans are loaded with manganese and pistachios are rich in vitamin B-6. Brazil nuts are an outstanding source of the antioxidant mineral selenium. Almonds are exceptional sources of vitamin E, another antioxidant; hazelnuts, peanuts and Brazil nuts are also good sources.
“Macadamia nuts are the highest source (among nuts) for monounsaturated fat; they're also the most calorie-dense so a small amount might be good, but not an entire box,” Grotto says.
Indeed portion control is key.
Since nuts contain 240 to 285 calories per ⅓ cup, make sure that you don't add them to your diet without dropping less-healthy alternatives.
Outside of just snacking on almonds or pistachios while at work or playing Angry Birds, nuts can add their protein, fiber and nutrients to numerous sweet and savory recipes. Add chopped nuts to your favorite muffin recipe, stir them into oatmeal, sprinkle them into rice pilaf or swirl some into yogurt.
At America's Test Kitchen, editors working on “Light & Healthy 2012” found they could boost the flavor and nutrition profile of their breaded chicken breasts with toasted nuts. Editors noted that “in countless baking recipes we toast nuts to deepen their flavor. We were already toasting the bread crumbs, so why not toast the nuts along with them?”
The results: “our tasters couldn't stop reaching for second helpings ...”