Column: Walnuts – The King Of Nuts
[Opinion column written by Agathe Holowatinc]
In North America, September and October are the months in which walnuts are harvested and, for many reasons, these have long been my absolute favourite nut!
Did you know that walnuts are often alluded to as the “king” of nuts? Dr. Mercola writes:
‘Oftentimes, the simplest foods are best for your health, and this is certainly the case for nuts, in which Mother Nature has crafted a nearly perfect package of protein, healthy fats, fiber, plant sterols, antioxidants, and many vitamins and minerals. Among nuts, the case may be made that walnuts are king, as research shows they may boost your health in a number of ways at very easy-to-achieve doses.’
Walnuts are healthy because of their high concentration of nutrients.
- Walnuts are rich in powerful antioxidants that fight free radicals – the culprits that cause aging. So these amazing nuts have some serious anti-aging properties! The concentration of antioxidants is highest in the papery skin of the walnut, so it’s important to consume it. Some researchers have called the powerful antioxidants found in walnuts “remarkable.”
- Walnuts are a super plant source of Omega-3s [essential fatty acids] – significantly higher than any other nut. These boost mood, fight depression, improve brain function, enhance skin health, and help with so many processes in your body that you really do not want to miss out.
- In addition to the antioxidants and Omega-3s, walnuts contain iron, selenium, calcium, zinc, folate, melatonin, vitamin E and some B vitamins. They’re a nutrient powerhouse!
- Because of specific phytonutrients and the high amounts of polyunsaturated fats found in walnuts, they are very good for brain health and brain function. Which is easy to remember because they look like little brains.
- Walnuts have been found to be excellent in helping people feel full and can contribute to healthy weight loss. They also have compounds that burn belly fat.
- Walnuts have certain fats and nutrients that improve sperm quality and support reproductive health in men.
- Consuming walnuts can enrich the gut microbiome and increase certain good bacteria strains. This boosts immunity and mood, digestion and absorption of nutrients.
- Walnuts are a great anti-inflammatory food. They are good for heart health and also have cancer-fighting properties.
- There are even more health benefits, but I wanted to list some of the major ones; quite the list, right?!
They’re also so delicious, raw or roasted! Although the highest level of health benefits comes from eating these nuts raw, roasting them once in a while is a nice way to switch things up, and they’re still a nutrition powerhouse.
As a treat, I’m going to share one of my favourite walnut recipes. It’s a total crowd-pleaser. Kid love it too! Sea salt and maple roasted walnuts are a ‘real food’ snack. Put these into little clear gift bags for friends or colleagues, toss them on a salad, or pack them in your kid’s lunch bag for school or your carry-on for a long flight as they will sustain you.
Be warned: they’re addictive, so watch out! Maybe have someone else portion control them for you [not kidding – trust me on this].
Sea Salt & Maple Roasted Walnuts Recipe – Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 2 cups walnuts, halved
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil or avocado oil
- ½ cup organic maple syrup
- 1 tsp Celtic sea salt
- 1 tsp maple or date sugar [optional]
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 to 415 degrees. Rub first three ingredients together and put into a baking dish. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and sprinkle with salt to taste, and maple sugar [optional]. Let cool. Place into a glass container and refrigerate to keep the walnuts crisp and fresh.
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Stay safe and healthy everyone!
“Get FUELLED today for a healthier and happier tomorrow!”
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- Agathe Holowatinc is a Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, co-founder and director at FUELLED Bermuda Ltd., published author, health food private chef and health industry entrepreneur. She is a passionate advocate of real food, holistic approaches to health and communicating big ideas in a simple way. Visit fuelledlife.com or call or WhatsApp on 532-0426.
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What would be good is if we planted ‘food forests’ or food trees in place of solely ornamentals. Imagine if there was a walnut, almond or pecan tree in every neighborhood and every park? Imagine if we could plant fruit, avocado and breadfruit trees apart from the existing loquats, all along the railway trails. Instead of weeds or flowers we could grow kale, runner beans and carrots with maybe a few flowers as well.
Many countries are doing this to improve their local food availability aka food security and improve access to healthy local food for all.
The community gardens, most sponsored by the health dept. are a start. (There’s some of your ‘sugar tax dollars’ put to good use!). Maybe company’s could join in and sponsor a garden for their staff or the general public?
So true, and a good few people do plant and sell fruit trees, I have bought sour sop, blackberry, rose apple, cherimoya, lychee, acerola cherry, miracle fruit, moringa, breadfruit (mafala variety), guava, Carter naval orange, and coffee mostly off emoo. I started coconut, ackee, sugar apples and more rose apples, snake fruit palm,and lychee from seed sourced here locally, the first four from trees growing here and the last two from store bought fruit. My son successfully air layered the acerola cherry and has made a good amount of grafted citrus like naval oranges, red grapefruit, finger limes, mandarins, lemon and lime. He also planted avocados, loquats, peach, and almond(Caribbean) and more sugar apples coconuts, sugar cane, dragon fruit and rose apples.
One major problem is some fruits don’t do so well in our climate and the harsh winds can set them back years. No reason not to plant them though, seeking more protected spots for trees which can’t take too much wind will help. Some seedlings we plant we may never see bear fruit but think of how much fruit we enjoyed which we didn’t plant and it makes sense to do something for future generations. Some of us go throughout life never producing any food or fruits yet want to eat three square meals a day. There are large tamarind, avocado, loquat, mango and I heard about a guinep tree planted long ago and others I don’t know about. Yesterday I got a bag of small figs and a massive 26 finger hand of bananas from a friend.
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago but if you haven’t then today is.