Audit Expert: Wang Guoyi.
Postdoctoral Fellow in Nutrition and Food Safety, China Agricultural University.
In recent years, with the popularization of the concept of nutritional balance and the development of the economy, nuts, with their wide variety, taste and nutrition and other highlights, have become "booming" again. At the same time, many well-known snack brands have launched various nut gift boxes, and they also offer a great weapon to solve the problem of holiday gift-giving.
In fact, under the discerning taste buds of Chinese, nuts have "captured" people's hearts with their deliciousness and nutrition since ancient times, whether they are hidden in many rarities such as sacrifices and tributes, or contained in the introduction of ancient books such as the "Compendium ......of Materia Medica", or exist in the lives of the people of "female hazelnut".
Maybe you are reading this article, and now the living room table at home is indispensable for the decoration of nuts, so do you know how nuts can be "just" reasonable?
Nuts are traditionally used in the dish.
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What is a "nut"?
When it comes to nuts, the most well-known ones are walnuts and chestnuts. And a random search for a snack gift pack, which contains macadamia nuts, pecans, crab fava beans, garlic peas, ......But peas and broad beans don't seem to be counted as nuts. So what exactly are nuts?
A wide variety of nuts.
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Let's look at it in two ways: first, let's go to the "Chinese Food Composition Table" to check the definition of "nuts" - nuts, also known as shell fruits, eat more of their hard kernel pits, rich in starch and oil seed cotyledons or endosperms, because some plant dried seeds and nuts are often "bound to marketing" in business, nuts can be divided into two subcategories: tree nuts and seeds; Second, let's look at the professional definition of nuts in botany: nuts, that is, a type of angiosperm that do not split dried fruits, refer to the type in which the exocarp is dry and hardened after the fruit is ripe, but does not dehiscence.
Therefore, nuts that are generally accepted by the general public in daily life also contain some other types of fruits or seeds. In summary, from a commercial point of view, nuts can be defined as: dried fruits (or seeds) with a hard, lignified skin or a leathery rind and edible kernels. Then peas and broad beans are naturally not considered nuts.
Nuts, how should they be "just"?
Browsing various nutrition channels such as the National Health Commission and the Chinese Nutrition Society**, "nuts have become a nutritious dietary recommendation." So, what should be the "just" way for nuts to be healthy?
> quantitatively.
As shown in the figure below, according to the recommendations of the Chinese Nutrition Society, we only need to "just" 25 to 35 grams of soybeans and nuts every day, and about 10 grams per day when allocated to nuts. A 10-gram serving of nuts is equivalent to about 3 walnuts, 8 almonds, 10 Brazil nuts, 7 cashews, 4 macadamia nuts, 5 chestnuts, 40 pine nuts, 30 pistachios, or 15 unshelled peanuts. Strictly speaking, according to the different composition and content of different nuts, we need to set our own consumption standards.
2022 Chinese Residents' Balanced Diet Pagoda.
* |The official website of the Chinese Nutrition Society.
> can't be just.
According to the different fat and carbohydrate content, nuts can be divided into starchy nuts and oily nuts, starchy nuts mainly include chestnut, ginkgo (ginkgo), cashews, etc., oily nuts mainly include walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, etc.
Therefore, for people who need to control their carbohydrate intake, such as diabetics, starchy nuts should be eaten less to control blood sugar; For people who need to control fat intake, such as patients with high blood lipids, fat nuts should be eaten less to control blood lipids.
In addition to this, for people with allergies, the consumption of the corresponding nuts should be avoided to avoid allergic reactions; For patients with throat diseases, they should try to eat less or no roasted or fried nuts to avoid irritating the throat and causing discomfort. In summary, there are many kinds of situations that cannot be corrected, including special patients, allergens, etc.
Moreover, different nuts have different ways to eat and match the taboos, which are waiting to be discovered and sorted out by nut lovers. In short, when eating nuts, you need to choose the right type and intake of nuts according to your own situation and nutritional needs, and pay attention to controlling the frequency and method of intake, so as not to cause adverse effects on health.
> new chafa.
The "redness" of nuts is also inseparable from the innovation of their eating methods, as far as nut snacks are concerned, there are different flavors such as durian cashew nut, lychee flavor, and bubble flavor. We can also catch the trend of "nuts+" and eat nuts with other delicacies to collide with new delicacies, such as yogurt bowls, nut cereals, lotus root flour and so on.
Although there are novel and diverse ways to eat nuts, salt-baked, fried and other methods are not conducive to health, so it is recommended to eat them well and not "greedy for cups", and try to eat plain or boiled nuts.
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Just "out of good body."
> nutrients.
Nuts are known for their rich nutrition, and the main nutrients can be divided into two categories: bioactive components and nutrients, of which nutrients refer to seven categories of essential substances for human beings to maintain the normal life activities of the body, which are divided into two categories: macro and micro, macro nutrients contain fats, proteins and carbohydrates, and micronutrients contain minerals and vitamins. Minerals generally refer to the various beneficial elements we often say, such as nuts are rich in magnesium, calcium, potassium, etc.; Vitamins include fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins, and nuts are rich in and well-known E and B vitamins.
Bioactive substances refer to substances that are not essential but have important benefits for the maintenance of the body's health, and are relatively unfamiliar to everyone. The phytoactive ingredients in nuts mainly contain phenols, acids, etc., such as proanthocyanidins, phenolic acids, etc.
The fat-soluble substances in the nutrients are divided, which we call fat-soluble active ingredients, including unsaturated fatty acids, glycerides, carotenoids, chlorophyll, sterols, squalene, etc., which play a regulatory role in the normal life activities of the body.
> benefits.
A large number of studies have found that various nutrients in nuts have beneficial effects on human metabolism and blood vessels, and have health care effects such as preventing cardiovascular diseases, preventing diabetes, lowering lipids and controlling sugar, lowering blood pressure, improving vascular endothelial function, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer, weight loss, and preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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In short, eating nuts in appropriate and moderate amounts is beneficial to physical and mental health, and is the "right-hand man" of our balanced diet. During the Chinese New Year, do you have your favorite nuts on the table? Remember that although nuts are good, they must be tasted in moderation!