Health Benefits Of Almonds
The health benefits of almonds aren't that well-known to those outside this field of study. Almonds reduce the surges of blood sugar after you eat meals, and this helps to protect your body against cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Researchers believe almonds do this by lessening the after-eating increase in free radicals, which normally accompany blood sugar elevations. This is just one of the reasons that a low-glycemic diet results in a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes.
Almonds go even a step further, by providing antioxidants that get rid of the lower amount of free radicals you will still have in your body.
A high antioxidant content is just one of the many health benefits of almonds. Your risk of death from coronary and cardiovascular heart diseases is consistently reduced by nut consumption. You can eat a handful of nuts four times a week or more, for heart health.
If you eat the whole almond, rather than nuts without the skins, this is healthier for you. The flavonoids you find in almond skins work together with the nut's vitamin E to more than double the antioxidants your body gets.
A recent study published in a nutrition journal found that another of the health benefits of almonds was its ability to reduce the levels of bad cholesterol even as much as the original cholesterol-lowering drugs did.
Almonds are among the most nutritious of all the members of the nut family. They provide a large amount of vitamin E for your diet. A handful of almonds also contains phosphorus, vitamin B2, copper, magnesium, and manganese.
Almonds contain fats, but they are healthy fats, that can actually help you lose weight. Studies have proven that almonds help overweight people shed excess weight more efficiently than those whose diet does not includes nuts.
To include almonds in your diet, dietitians suggest including nut butter with your morning bagel or toast. Organic peanut butter is one substitute for almond nut butter, if you don't like the taste of nut butter. As a healthy snack, you can use nut butter spread in a celery stick, and you can add a handful of nuts to your vegetable dishes, or your lunchtime salad. Or, the traditional handful of nuts can be used as a healthy snack.
People are often reluctant to add almonds to their diet, because they are high in calories. But the health benefits of almonds outweigh the calories, experts say. Eating nuts instead of other high-calorie foods can reduce the amount of trans fats in your diet. Almonds help increase your energy levels too, by disarming the free radicals that can lower energy level. Eat a handful of almonds at least four times a week, and reap the benefits!