If you’re trying to keep to a healthy diet, you may be wary of nuts, due to how they are high calories – and how most of these calories are from fat. However, nuts are an excellent choice for a snack, for sprinkling in salads, and more. There are many health benefits from snacking on nuts. You just need to know how to eat them properly in order to prevent caloric overload.

Here’s what you need to know about why the fat content of nuts can actually be a good thing and the potential health benefits you could experience from snacking on nuts. Let’s get into it!

Should You Be Worried About The Fat Content Of Nuts?

So long as you eat nuts in moderation? No.

Fat gets a bad rep in today’s world. People want to do whatever they can to avoid it, going for low-fat and no-fat alternatives with the idea that they’re healthier than the full-fat options. However, your body needs a regular intake of fat in order to best maintain your overall health.

When you try to cut out as much fat as possible, you could end up depriving your body of an essential nutrient. Fat gives you energy, it supports cellular growth, it protects your organs, it helps with nutrient absorption, and it keeps your blood pressure and cholesterol under control. Healthy fats are a must for a healthy body!

Nuts are a wonderful source of fat, especially since most of them have unsaturated fats (aka, the “healthy” kind). Unsaturated fats can lower your cholesterol. Some nuts have saturated fat (the “bad” kind), which you need to be more careful with, since consuming high amounts of saturated fats can increase your cholesterol and risk of heart disease. However, most nuts have the “good” kind, not the “bad” kind.

Since nuts are so high in fats and calories, you do need to mind your portion sizes to avoid having too much of a good thing. However, people who have a habit of snacking on nuts enjoy all sorts of different health benefits.

Health Benefits Of Snacking On Nuts

As with anything else, the potential benefits you could experience from snacking on nuts vary from person to person. They also vary depending on the type of nut you opt for and your portion sizes.

#1. Help Your Heart

The American Heart Association highlights the importance of dietary fats for a healthy heart. Nuts can lower inflammation related to heart disease, improve artery health, decrease the risk of blood clots (and ergo heart attacks), and lower the risk of high blood pressure and early death from heart disease.

#2. Aid Weight Loss

We know, we know. If you want to lose weight, shouldn’t you stay away from high-fat foods? Au contraire! Nuts can help you on your weight loss journey. Studies have shown that people who eat nuts lost more weight than control groups that did not. Your body does not absorb all of the calories from nuts, plus nuts help you to feel fuller and longer, ultimately helping you eat less.

#3. Improve Cholesterol

Scientists have uncovered a direct correlation between snacking on nuts a few times a week and the reduction of LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels in your body. This decreases your risk of suffering from a stroke or heart disease.

#4. High Nutritional Value

Snacking on nuts is good for more than just their healthy fats! Different nuts have different nutrient levels and they are highly variable. However, as a whole, nuts are full of antioxidants, which protect your cells from free radicals and cholesterol. Nuts also have: fiber, vitamin E, protein, manganese, and more.

#5. Reduce Inflammation

Inflammation isn’t always a bad thing. Acute inflammation protects your body from foreign elements and helps to heal injuries. However, long-term, chronic inflammation can result in all sorts of health problems, from diabetes to arthritis and more. Nuts help to reduce this bad inflammation and keep you healthier.

These are but 5 of the many health benefits of snacking on nuts. If you ever have any questions about the best options for your diet, consult with a primary care provider, dietician, or nutritionist, as they will be able to help you with your specific dietary needs.

Delicious Nut Mixes And Gift Boxes For You To Enjoy

Kitchen Kneads owns and operates Salt City Nut Company. This is a local brand of nut and fruit mixes and gift boxes crafted by experienced roasters. We have all sorts of nut mixes available, from variety packs to jumbo tubs. We also offer, raw, roast & salted, and roasted with no salt mixes.

Feel free to browse through our offerings and see if anything catches your eye. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’re here to help, however we can.

This year, we’ve had so many spring holidays all in one month – Easter, Passover, Ramadan, and just spring in general! Whether you’re celebrating a special holiday or you just want to host a gathering with seasonal dishes, these delectable spring holiday dishes help you shake off the cold of winter and welcome spring’s new life and sun. We’ll tackle the holidays in alphabetical order and give you one dish for each, plus two that are perfect for the spring season in general.

You don’t need to celebrate a holiday to enjoy these dishes! They’re wonderful for everyone to try, regardless of what you do or do not celebrate the holidays they can be served during. Spring is associated with new life, so why not try something new, after all? From sweet, to savory, and back again, you’re sure to find something you enjoy with these delicious spring holiday dishes.

Kolachi Nut Rolls

This Eastern European sweet nut roll is a delicacy often enjoyed on holidays, such as Easter. Kolaches themselves are incredibly variable depending on where you are. For some people, a kolachi is any type of cake; for others, it’s like a fruit or cheese danish. The kolachi we’re talking about is a sweet nut roll that is often enjoyed during Christmas and Easter and other special occasions.

Also called orechovnik, this spring holiday dish consists of a slightly sweet bread with a nutty filling. In order to make it, you’ll mix together a sweet enriched yeast dough and then spread the filling across it and roll it up in a log shape. You’ll need to allot time for the dough to rise before you put the filling on it.

Once baked, you can brush it with oil, drizzle some icing on top, or sprinkle some powdered sugar before cutting it up and serving.

Matzo Ball Soup

There are many dishes people enjoy for seder, including matzo ball soup. Children and adults alike love to see this chicken soup with matzo balls among their Passover seder courses. Matzo ball soup is tasty and easy to make, though it causes some division: some people prefer light and fluffy matzo balls that float while others like the denser dumplings that sink in the broth.

As such, recipes vary, according to personal preference. In general, though, you’ll start off by making your matzo balls. Refrigerating them and then cooking them prior to adding them to the soup ensures that they won’t fall apart. Then, you’ll make your chicken soup and add the matzo balls. You’ll want to simmer until the matzo balls are cooked all the way through before serving.

Stuffed Dates

It’s traditional to break fast with dates. After not having had anything to eat or drink since before the sun rose, stuffed dates are quick and easy to make as it’s setting, so you don’t need to spend forever waiting for them to be ready. Stuffed dates are a delicious dish to serve for Iftar, and can be done in many different ways, both sweet and savory.

Some ways that you can make this healthy treat are:

Almonds, dark chocolate, and coconut make your dates taste like a chocolate bar.
Stuffing your dates with peanut butter and covering them in chocolate is perfect for those who like the peanut butter chocolate combination.
Almonds and crème fraiche garnished with toasted almonds is the ultimate in quick and easy.

Garlic Parmesan Roasted Asparagus

Asparagus is in season, making this a perfect spring holiday dish. Not to mention, it’s quick and easy, like most of these other spring holiday dishes. Asparagus is very healthy, and when you use olive oil to roast it, you’re using a healthy fat, too! This is a fantastic side dish, as it compliments many different main dishes, from pasta to chicken and more.

Since this is roasted, you’ll cover your asparagus spears with your garlic and parmesan mixture and then stick them in the oven until the topping has turned that perfect golden brown. So yummy and flavorful, so easy, so quick, and pretty healthy!

Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies

These soft buttery cookies are ideal for spring luncheons, especially with the floral element the lavender provides. Combining edible flowers with melt-in-your-mouth lemon shortbread makes for a perfectly seasonal treat that people won’t be able to have just one of! Lemon and lavender compliment each other beautifully, and using powdered sugar in your recipe ensures that your cookies will have that enviable texture.

Kitchen Kneads has a wide variety of appliances and ingredients to help you make whatever spring holiday dishes you desire. Take a look through our catalog and contact us if you have any questions.

Homemade artisan wheat crackers are a great way to once again use food storage. Store what you eat and eat what you store is a way that food storage can be advantageous for you today and in years to come. We call this a living food storage — a food storage that progressively gets used and then replaced. One advantage of this type of storage is that food doesn’t go bad or expire and you are learning to use it and make recipes that can become family favorites.

Homemade Artisan Wheat Crackers

I have always wanted to learn to make homemade crackers. They look easy and I have tried several recipes that honestly didn’t make the grade. This recipe that I want to share with you took me a couple of times to get a result that I really liked. A friend of mine made the same recipe so I knew that this recipe could be successful, so I pressed forward and kept tweaking the recipe and now want to share it with you so you can have success the first attempt. Using a kitchen scale ensures extremely accurate measuring of ingredients. I use a kitchen scale for the grains and butter in this recipe.

Crackers are a great pairing with cheese, fruit, and pickled or fermented foods. Theses crackers will remind you of wheat thins. I also used a ravioli/pasta cutter to have a nice edge. These crackers are packed with whole grain goodness, no preservatives, healthy salt, and a healthy sweetener. They can also have any seasoning or fresh herbs that you like. Flaked sea salt is also beautiful on these crackers.

Homemade Artisan Wheat Crackers

180 grams spelt grain, ground into flour
60 grams soft white wheat grain, ground into flour
60 grams hulled barley, ground into flour
80 grams hard white wheat, ground into flour
4 tablespoons agave
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Real Salt
113 grams butter, softened
¾ cup water

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine spelt flour, soft white wheat flour, barley flour, and salt.
Blend in butter thoroughly until smooth.
In a measuring cup, combine water, agave, and vanilla. Blend together.
Add liquid to butter and dry ingredients and mix for about 45 seconds just to blend. Dough will be sticky. Begin to add the hard white wheat flour and mix until just slightly sticky to the touch. Flatten the dough into a circle, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Divide the dough in thirds. On a lightly floured surface and using a large lightly floured rolling pin, begin rolling the dough from the middle out. Roll to paper-thin. Cut the dough to fit a cookie sheet. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased cookie sheet, moving the dough carefully.
Using a ravioli cutter, cut the dough into desired squares.
Sprinkle with desired toppings.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes. Rotate pan in oven after 5 minutes of baking. Crackers should be golden brown. All ovens cook differently. Watch the crackers carefully in case your oven requires more or less time to cook to golden brown. Remove from oven and cool completely. You will know if they were rolled to the correct thickness if they snap when eaten and are golden brown. After completely cooled, store in an airtight container to ensure freshness.

I challenge you to make these delicious crackers. As we see living costs rising, it feels very empowering to make delicious foods for our families to stretch our disposable income. This recipe makes a lot of crackers. I know you will enjoy this recipe and it will become a family favorite.

Sources: Elissa Ogden, Kitchen Kneads Family Cook Book

Homemade Artisan Wheat Crackers

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Should You Be Worried About The Fat Content Of Nuts?