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.
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