Nuts: At GreenAcres, we’re nutty for them!

So what’s the scoop on nuts? Good for us or not? Paleo regimen followers pride themselves on a healthy diet of animal and plant protein, fresh fruit, seeds and nuts. After all, they’re what our ancestors ate when there appeared to be little-to-no weight problem among the gentry at the time.

Flash forward a few thousand years and nuts to 21^st century man can be…well…confusing. To indulge or not to indulge, that is the question.  There’s a store in Wichita called the Nifty Nut House. It’s expanded through the years to contain every assortment of nut, candy and seed. There’s no slowing the growth of that place.  People who have left the city ages ago come back to stock up on bags and bags of their favorite nuts every time they return to town for a visit. It’s one of those sacred cows found in every city. Visiting the nut house is just one of those rights of passage. Gotta’ do it.

Same here at GreenAcres. We sell a boat load of nuts in bulk, menu items, protein bars, trail mixes—you name it. The most popular nuts right now in our Bradley Fair store are our private label salted cashews. Last year it was Marcona Almonds (a product of Spain) and RAW Walnuts—big with customers who swear by them for lowering cholesterol and warding off heart disease. 

We bake with a wide assortment of nuts. Think cashews when contemplating ordering RAW cheesecake. Many of our protein drinks and smoothies are made with Almond Milk (not really milk at all; rather almonds soaked in water and pulverated to a creamy consistency that looks and functions like a dairy product.) We have pumpkin seeds and pecans on our salad bars; sesame seeds and nuts in our cookies. We grind our own peanuts (not really a nut, but a legume) and almonds to make nut butter. We offer a killer pecan pie every now and then. GreenAcres has got to be one of the nuttiest places on the planet!

But are nuts really good for us?  There’s a guy on the Internet named Chris Kresser, who is a licensed acupuncturist and practitioner of integrative medicine. He warns of the phytic acid associated with eating too many nuts.

“Phytic acid,” Kresser writes, “interferes with enzymes we need to digest our food, including pepsin, which is needed for the breakdown of proteins in the stomach, and amylase, which is required for the breakdown of starch. Phytic acid also inhibits the enzyme trypsin, which is needed for protein digestion in the small intestine.

“As most people following a Paleo diet will probably have heard by now, diets high in phytate cause mineral deficiencies. For example, rickets and osteoporosis are common in societies where cereal grains are a staple part of the diet.”

Yikes, autoimmune disease, right? Not necessarily. Let’s look at what Dr. Andrew Weil has to say. A medical doctor who is an author, restauranteur and a big advocate of alternative and holistic medicine, Dr. Weil has a tremendous following on the Internet and is a fairly big advocate for consuming nuts.

Wrote Dr. Weil in a column several years ago: “In case you had any doubts about the benefits of eating nuts, three new studies indicate that including them as part of your diet can lead to lower weight as well as better health. The investigations all focused on the consumption of tree nuts, which include almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts. One of the studies, which included more than 14,000 participants, found that those who ate more than ¼ ounce of tree nuts daily weighed less, had lower systolic blood pressure (the top number), higher HDL (“good”) cholesterol and had lower intakes of sugar, saturated fats and sodium than those who didn’t eat nuts.

“A second study, from Canada, found that when individuals with type 2 diabetes replaced a portion of the carbohydrates in their diets with two ounces of tree nuts daily, their total cholesterol, LDL (bad) cholesterol, blood pressure and 10-year risk of coronary heart disease all declined.

“The third study, from Loma Linda University in California, found that eating one ounce of tree nuts per week was associated with a lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome, a combination of risks factors that can lead to diabetes and heart disease. All three studies were presented in April 2012 at the Experimental Biology Meeting in Boston.

“My take?,” Dr. Weil continues,  “I enjoy nuts, eat them frequently and also use them in cooking. I buy mostly raw, unsalted varieties and store them in the refrigerator until I need them. You can toast nuts yourself by stirring them about in a dry skillet over medium-high heat, tossing them occasionally until they are done to your liking, or by spreading them on a baking sheet placed in an oven at 350 degrees. Use them up quickly. Unsaturated nut oils oxidize quickly on exposure to heat, light and air, creating rancidity that makes them smell and taste bad (like oil paint). Bear in mind that despite their health benefits, nuts are relatively high in calories, so enjoy them in moderation. I usually eat a handful per day – my favorites are cashews, almonds and walnuts.” How to find out which Forex broker is reliable and convenient for succesful trading? How to test your binary options skills? Can this test be done without risk? In this case, no deposit Forex bonuses will help you not to risk your money. What are the best no deposit Forex bonuses from this site , how to get them without verification, how to use this free money to trade forex? Free no deposit bonuses are offered to their clients by Forex brokers. Such bonuses can be received after registering real account on the website of the forex broker. Trading profits, and sometimes the bonus amount, can be cashed.

And so, in most things in life, moderation is key. Look to the good, but be aware of the bad. When in doubt about which nut to crack, come visit us at GreenAcres. Our market team members will give you a tour of the bulk and trail mix aisles and impart what knowledge they have about these tasty, crunchy confections that can drive us all a little nutty!

At right, Dr. Weil is ready to eat his Paleo salad, packed with veggies, and–you guessed it–nuts. In this case, Marcona Almonds.