Why Nuts?

I’ve had a question from a reader about the quantity and types of nuts that I eat. If I am trying to lose weight and keep the percentage of fat down, why am I eating so many nuts?

Oddly enough, the reason I eat nuts is for their fat content. Most nuts are high in the good kinds of fats, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, which have been shown to lower levels of LDL cholesterol (so called “bad” cholesterol). Walnuts are especially well known for their heart healthy good fats. As well, these fats have an anti-inflammatory effect on the body, which helps reduce post-exercise muscle soreness and speeds repair of the muscles.

The other good reason to eat nuts is for their vitamins and minerals which can be hard to get from other foods. The three types most often recommended for this are almonds, brazils and cashews (known as the ABC nuts). Almonds are an excellent source of vitamin E which is an important antioxidant, protecting against damage caused by free radicals (whether they be from the sun or a tough exercise session or other factors). Unfortunately I have a slight sensitivity to almonds so I take a daily vitamin E supplement and only have them occasionally. Brazil nuts are one of the few foods naturally high in selenium, which acts with vitamin E to boost your immune system during endurance training, as well as helping to protect against cancer, particularly skin cancer. And certain antioxidant enzymes can only be made if there is sufficient selenium in the body (on a side note, selenium deficiency can also lead to low sperm counts in men). Cashews are high in a variety of minerals including iron, copper, magnesium, potassium and zinc. But more importantly, together with almonds and brazil nuts they form a complete protein, with all of your essential amino acids.

So while nuts are high in fat and calories, I think the above nutritional benefits make it worth my while to work them into my diet.

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1605.21	101.9g	181.64g	52.48g	0	33.14g
	25.4%	45.3%	29.4%
Calories burned through exercise:		Rest Day

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
09:30	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold tap water	200mL
	Whole Scrambled egg with 2 egg whites	3 eggs
	Heinz Beanz, reduced sugar and salt	170g
	Raw tomato	85g
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	150mL
	Seedless Red Grapes	100g
10:15	Black tea	500mL
12:00	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
13:15	Princes Tuna chunks (in brine, drained)	67g
	with Hellmann's light mayonnaise	13g
	and Branston gherkin relish	10g
	on Genius brown bread toast	2 slices
	Carrot sticks	127g
	Sainsbury's Pineapple Fruit Dairy Split	60g
16:30	Total Greek yoghurt	125g
	Sainsbury's frozen mixed blueberries and strawberries	100g
	Brazil nuts	8g
	Cashews	17g
19:30	Baked Salmon	127g
	with Kraft light Honey Mustard dressing	10mL
	Boiled and mashed sweet potato	200g
	Steamed cauliflower	108g
	Steamed broccoli	53g
20:00	Ellactiva Chocolate Calcium Chew	1 chew
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.