Nuts – A Super Food Headliner In A Tiny Packet
Nuts are a picture of snacks helping your heart and lowering your cholesterol while filling you up between meals? Snacking has gotten a bad name through the years, mostly due to the over-abundance of pre-packaged snack foods. But, snacking doesn’t have to be bad for you if you know what snacks to choose. As a matter of fact, snacking can be really good for you. Let’s take a look at one healthy food that should be considered an essential snack.
Nutrition & Nuts by the Handful
That little nut you have been snacking on is really a super food because of the unique combination of fats, protein, vitamins, and minerals. This tiny powerhouse works hard lowering the risk of some significant diseases and health conditions.
Don’t let the fat content or calorie count of nuts worry you too much. Even though nuts are often high in calories and fat, they have ‘good’ fats and omega 3 fatty acids that lower bad cholesterol levels and help regulate blood pressure and healthy heart rhythms. The fiber content in nuts also helps control cholesterol and has been found to lower the risk for diabetes.
But that’s not all. Certain types of nuts also have plant sterols which is another cholesterol inhibitor. So important as a cholesterol inhibitor, as a matter of fact, that plant sterols are added to things like orange juice and margarine for the health benefits. And you’ve got it all right there in a nut.
In addition, vitamin E and the amino acid L-arginine are two elements that help reduce plaque in the circulatory system, which helps to prevent clots in arteries. Nuts have so many of these healthy elements that they may be one of the most powerful food you can eat to take care of your heart.
Enjoy Nuts in Numerous Ways
The important thing to remember with nuts is, like many other things in life, too much of a good thing isn’t really good. Since nuts are dense in calories and fat, a little goes a long way. For instance, just a dozen or so cashews can have up to 180 calories. For this reason, health experts recommend limiting your daily intake of most nuts to no more than a couple of ounces. This