Nuts, whether you add a some a day to your daily diet or swap them for your daily bag of potato chips and have nuts rather, may help you manage your weight or drop undesired pounds. For someone interested in weight management or weight loss, quite often the tendency is to shy away from calorie-dense meals. The fibre in nuts may demonstrate the researcher’s findings, as this nutrient is essential for weight control. It could also be linked to the blood sugar response to nuts, associated with the other snacks. Anything that spikes blood sugar will spike insulin, and that promotes fat accumulation. If you snack on something that doesn’t cause that blood sugar spike, it doesn’t require insulin.
Nuts May Help With Weight Maintenance Along With Weight Loss
For optimal health, maintaining your weight is just as, if not more, important than losing weight if you need to, experts say. And, as the study suggests, nuts may help with weight maintenance.
A lot of people feel it’s normal or expected to gain weight as you get older, but it doesn’t have to happen. We should just be focusing on a good, healthy balance in our diet, staying away from processed foods, and getting a regular workout.
Nuts Are Calorie-Dense but Full of Nutrients
Nuts are high in good polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat, which are heart-healthy particularly when they’re substituting unhealthy saturated and trans fat. The fibre in nuts increases satiety and fullness and is useful for gut microbial diversity. Gut bacteria may play a role in immunity, weight, and risk for various diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and provocative bowel diseases.
Also, nuts provide all three macronutrients and are a great source of calcium, phytonutrients, and other minerals your body needs for optimal health.
Brazil Nuts Can Help You Feel Full, a Separate Study Suggests
Other recent research supports eating nuts for weight control.
The small study of 22 adults found that, after eating Brazil nuts, participants felt fuller and had constant blood glucose and insulin levels 40 minutes after eating. Forty minutes after having pretzels, participants showed a notable increase in blood glucose and insulin.
Replacing a half serving a day of less healthful foods with nuts may be a simple strategy to help prevent gradual long-term weight gain and obesity.
What to Look for When Buying Nuts at the Grocery Store
When it comes to grocery shopping for nuts, Skip those roasted in oil, topped with salt, and any that have added sweeteners.
Most Americans are consuming way too much sugar, and that’s just another example of extra sugar we don’t need.
Chong avoids nuts that have added spices, as they may include chemicals used to create flavour. If you don’t like plain, raw nuts, roast them at home and mix them with your favourite herbs or spices for flavour.
Remember, eat nuts as you would a portion-controlled snack, not a “healthy” free-for-all. If you don’t like eating them solo, add a tablespoon to your oatmeal, yogurt, cottage cheese, or salad.
