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Going Nuts with Paleo

Hi again,

Hope you all are enjoy­ing this beau­ti­ful sunny day. It’s amaz­ing what a lit­tle vit­a­min D can do for the soul!

Con­tin­u­ing with our dis­cus­sion about paleo eat­ing, I wanted to talk a bit about the role of nuts on this diet. I’ve always thought of nuts as a healthy, albeit calor­i­cally dense food group. We all know that nuts are not only absolutely deli­cious (I’d take them any day over choco­late), but also rich in both mono and polyun­sat­u­rates, com­prised of both omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. As you know, our bod­ies do not pro­duce either essen­tial fat and so we must look to a vari­ety of food sources to ensure our bod­ies are get­ting a bal­anced amount of both. The prob­lem arises when we get too much of one essen­tial fat, that being omega 6, which is found in every veg­etable oil and just about every pack­aged good out there. Most nuts unfor­tu­nately, also con­tain high lev­els of omega 6, which when eaten in large amounts, can cre­ate inflam­ma­tion in the body, some­thing we try very hard to avoid. Almonds for exam­ple, are quite high in omega 6, although they are also a good source of vit­a­min E. That being said, I have decided to switch over to macadamia nuts instead, because they are low in omega 6 as well as phytic acid which acts as an anti-​nutrient in the body (blocks our body’s abil­ity to absorb nutri­ents from the nut).

I actu­ally just made up some macadamia but­ter in my food proces­sor this morn­ing and I must tell you, it is so yummy! One word of warn­ing though; these nuts are crazy expen­sive! I fig­ure that’s a good enough rea­son to stop after one tablespoon!

I bought these small pack­ets at my local health food store. They’re per­fect sam­ple sizes and are avail­able in just about every nut but­ter vari­ety known to man!

One last thought.…Please don’t think you now need to throw out your almonds/​almond but­ter because that’s not what I’m sug­gest­ing you do. Instead, I sug­gest to you to try to be mind­ful as to the amount of nuts you’re con­sum­ing on a daily basis. They should really only be eaten in small amounts, as a snack, or as a crunchy gar­nish to your salad, yogurt or cot­tage cheese. (if you’re still eat­ing dairy, but that’s another story!)

Good luck! Happy weekend!!

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    Hi, I’m Beth; thanks for stop­ping by and vis­it­ing. I hope you’ll find a touch of inspi­ra­tion, loads of infor­ma­tion and a vari­ety of deli­cious, easy and healthy food ideas for you and your fam­ily to enjoy. Fit­ness and food are my two great pas­sions in life, notwith­stand­ing my love for my…

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