Nutty about nuts

If you are an overweight couch potato, you smoke, drink and eat five fast- food meals a week, what you can do to get rid of heart attack is to consume a small handful of nuts every day. This my father has been doing for years after he had his fist massive heart attack and it has actually helped.

Almonds have been mentioned in the Old Testament of the ‘Bible’ as the most earliest cultivated foods. The famous Arabian marzipan was brought back by the crusaders returning from the Holy Lands in the 11^th and 13^th centuries. The oldest walnut remains were discovered in Iraq. They are still popular amongst Greeks and Romans and they use it liberally as form of oil and as a powder to thicken their gravies.

Today with the emerging of a new nutritional era, the new nutritional super power is nuts. Eating nuts can protect you from heart attack; lower the risk of diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer and a lot of other diseases.

It is true that nuts are rich in fat. But the good news that I discovered after seeing my father is nuts have polyunsaturated fats which lowers bad cholesterol and raises good cholesterol level in the blood stream. This reduces the chances of coronary heart diseases and cardiac arrhythmias, or irregular heart beats. Nuts reduce the risk of sudden cardiac deaths.

More importantly some nuts are rich sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which thin the blood helping it to flow more freely. Omega-3s also lower blood pressure. Eating nuts regularly lowers the risk of developing blood pressure by 20 per cent. The fibre helps maintain balanced glucose and insulin level.

As you age your body produces free radicals that damage your cells and causes aging reactions. The phytochemical in nuts are strong antioxidants, which prevent free radicals from ravaging your body. They also slow or stop the growth of cancer cells.

There are a lot of nutty myths though that nut contains cholesterol. Well contrary to popular belief, nuts don’t contain any cholesterol. No plant food does!  Nuts are junk food is another myth, but I am saying with experience and after losing eight kgs from my waist line that nuts are healthy snacks and you just take it from me. They are chock-full of nutrients like vitamin E, folic acid, copper and vitamin B6. When you are putting on weight do not blame it on the nuts. If you are eating nuts on top of your snacks and meals then you are bound to put on weight. Eat nuts in place of chips and chocolates as a snack and see the results!!!