In our house we are nuts about nuts! There is never a jar far away that is filled with different nuts and it honestly feels like I am refilling them every couple of days. Nuts are our go to food for a quick top up, or to take the hunger away until dinner – especially with kids heavily into sport who arrive home ‘starrrrving!’
Our favourite and staple nuts are almonds, brazil, walnuts, cashews, hazelnuts, pistachios and pecans. We have, on the very rare occasion, organic peanut butter but more often than not have our homemade almond butter. But Macadamia’s were our all-time favourite when we were living in Australia.
Nuts are also great to make homemade butters with. Peanuts are super easy to use as are almonds. We love to roast ours for a bit to draw out the natural oils and then once cooled we blitz them in the blender until silky smooth! So yummy to have a spoonful when you are a little peckish and dinner isn’t too far away.
As chiropractors we are always looking for foods that will serve our nerve system seeing that it’s the master communicating system of the body. Feeding your nerve system foods that will support it’s function will be most beneficial.
Here’s why we love these nuts.
Almonds: balances cholesterol, improves insulin sensitivity and enhances your memory!
Brazil nuts: balances cholesterol and calms inflammation but it is also a great detox nut. We only have about 4-5 of these a day.
Walnuts: These are nuts for your brain! Have you ever looked at a walnut…closely? Did you notice the shape of the brain with in it – two hemispheres and a corpus collosum in between…it’s genius! Walnuts provide omega-3, balance cholesterol and blood pressure and they may improve your brain function.
Cashews: Provide the healthy fats for your body and help fight the free radicals circulating around your system and may reduce the risk of chronic disease.
Hazelnuts: These delicious nuts boost your Vitamin E, reduce your heart disease risk and lower cholesterol.
Pistachios: These fabulous green tinged beauties are wonderful for your nerve system. They balance sugar levels and cholesterol and improve blood lipid levels too. They also enhance your blood vessel function, reduce oxidative stress and boost your motor function. Winning!
Pecans: These pack a punch with helping reduce your cholesterol as well as boosting your antioxidant levels.
The quality of your nut is also something to consider.
We are an organic household and as such always purchase organic nuts that are raw, unsalted and dry roasted because not all nuts are brought to the consumer in a healthy way. Lots of packaged nuts and nut butters can have salt, sugar and hydrogenated oils added. So be careful when purchasing your nuts… always read the ingredients!
Looking for a way to get more nuts into your healthy eating?
Here’s some of our delicious recipes that use our favourite almond nuts!
