If you can't eat nuts due to allergies, try to include in your diet foods with similar nutritional profiles. If you can, eat peanuts instead of tree nuts or vice versa; if you're sensitive to all nuts, consider sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds. If you cannot eat any of these foods, make sure to include other sources of healthy fats, such as olives, avocados and any allowable vegetable oils. Legumes such as soy beans and other beans also offer a range of phytochemicals, plant protein and other nutrients.
A handful a day
"Nuts get a bad rap because people think sitting and eating peanuts is really fattening," says Melina, "but you should shift your perspective and eat nuts as part of your regular meal." Try sprinkling pecans and pistachios on a salad, garnishing a pasta dish with pine nuts and hazelnuts, adding peanuts and cashews to a stir-fry or stirring almonds and walnuts into your breakfast cereal. Also make use of nut butters -- ideally, those with no sugar, oils or other fillers added.
Nuts make an excellent snack, too. Not only are they healthier than the chips or candy bar you may be inclined to grab when midafternoon hunger pangs strike, but they give you staying power, as well -- and no sugar crash. Melina recommends making a homemade trail mix with nuts, seeds and unsweetened dried fruit and keeping some in your purse, car or office drawer. Making your own blend has two benefits: you can choose your favourite ingredients, and you'll avoid the hydrogenated oils, sugars and other extras added to many commercial mixes.
The nutty truth
Include nuts in your meals daily to lower your cholesterol levels and risk of heart disease, and you may just notice a difference in your energy levels as well. What's the downside? "In the different studies that have been done," says Melina, "nuts have not proven to have negative effects." So what are you waiting for? Go nuts!
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