10 Easy Ways to Include Nuts in Your Diet

It’s easy to include nuts and seeds in your diet to enjoy their health benefits. However, as most nuts are high in calories and fats, do not eat them in excess. Remember – a healthy handful a day.

1. Eat as they are just directly from the package.
2. Team nuts with dried fruit and seeds for the perfect nutrient-dense snack.
3. Add chopped mixed nuts and dried fruits for a nutritious breakfast cereal to start the day.
4. Blend them up into a smooth and spread on toasts or cracker biscuits.

1. Add freshly roasted nuts (cashews or peanuts are especially tasty) to a tofu or stir-fry.
2. Try crushed nuts (and chopped dried fruits) for muffins, biscuits, cakes, cookies and other baking goods.
3. Top pasta with pine nuts or combine pistachios with basil, garlic and olive oil to make your own pesto.
4. Mix a handful of nuts with chopped dried fruits, oats and yogurt and refrigerate overnight for your Bircher muesli.

9. Crush them and add as ingredients to salads, smoothies, soups and other dishes.
10. Enjoy them with your ice cream or dessert

Remember, it is never too late to change your diet to maintain or even improve your overall health.

Raw nuts and seeds contain phytic acid (a form of bound phosphorous) and enzyme inhibitors to protect them from inner oxidation and prevent from premature sprouting, safeguarding the seeds until germination in nature. Humans are not able to breakdown this anti-nutrient biochemicals, which may cause gastrointestinal discomfort and lower the absorption of essential nutrients.

Most statements extolling the health benefits of raw nuts and seeds are inaccurate as they fail to take that fact into account.

The phytates and enzyme inhibitors can be easily neutralized by soaking nuts and seeds in salt water and low temperature dehydrating. When nuts are soaked, the germination process begins, allowing the enzyme inhibitors to be deactivated and increasing the nutrition of the nut significantly, as well as making them much easier to digest. One exception is with macadamia nuts (and other white nuts), which have only negligible amounts of enzyme inhibitors, so soaking is not as necessary.

• Put raw nuts/seeds into a bowl
• Add salted water (1-2 tablespoons unrefined salt per 1 Liter) so that nuts are submerged
• Allow to stand covered for about 7 hours (or overnight)
• Rinse nuts to remove salt residue and spread out in single layer on a rack to dehydrate
• Dry at a low temperature in oven for 12 hours or until nuts are slightly crispy