while every trying to upp my calories I’ve started eating nuts as snacks and what not. Now looking at the back of the labels as I am fond of doing these days I notice that a lot (actually Icouldn’t find any cept for peanuts that were only the nut as the ingredient) of em are cooked (am I right in this assumption?) with trans fatty acids. But then I thought! why not just go to the vegetable/fruit section and scoop up nuts thataway question is does anyone know whether those are more natural? does the amount of trans fatty acids a cause of concern for someone trying to avoid em due to their health risks?
The typical salted, deep fat fried tins or little bags of “party nuts” are not real nuts per say, but junk food just like chips. To get all the nutrition of nuts, without all the added bad transfats, etc, stick to raw nuts that haven’t been deep fat fried and all greasy. The bags of nuts in the baking section of the store as used for baking ingrediants are raw and nutritious. Or most stores and health food stores have a bulk section where you can buy raw nuts in bulk out of the bin. I prefer walnuts and almonds, due to their higher omega-3 content. Once opened, store raw nuts in fridge or freezer to keep from turning rancid.
This may affect the omega 3 content , (maybe heb could help on this one)but toasting the nuts in the oven will give them a better flavor. just put them on a sheet pan and throw them in a 300 degree oven. You’ll be able to smell them when they are done. you could also toss them in olive oil, and then dust them with a spice blend (like cajun spice), and then roast them. Either way , make sure you keep an eye on them as nuts burn very easily. Little more work, but no bad trans fats.
I have not looked into this yet, but do you know if the omega-3’s get oxidized by roasting the nuts. I eat pistachios and walnuts raw, so no problems there. I cannot stand raw almonds, but love them if they are dry roasted. Any thoughts on this?
I don’t anything that comes ready to eat in a package, i don’t trust the food industries are minimaly concerned with our health when they chose cooking methods.
Like Heb said, i just buy the raw bulk nuts and eat them like that, i think they taste great the way nature made them.
I don’t have specific information on the extent of damage to omega-3 fats in nuts when roasted but do know some degree of oxidation/damage does occur dependent on the temperature and length of roasting. The monounsaturated fat content of nuts, which is really the higher content, is pretty durable to roasting but the omega-3 fats are the least temperature stable of all the fats and oxidize easily. Walnuts have the highest omega-3 content of all nuts from my research, and I want to say off the top of my head, that walnuts are something like 23% omega-3. If wanting to roast, I would recommend to keep temperature low (maybe 150-200?) and roast minimum amount of time. Be sure not to over roast or burn the nuts - might need to stir them a few times to keep them from burning where in contact with baking sheet.(Or might want to use one of those corrigated/insulated pizzia pans - not that I eat pizzia anymore). Ko’s idea of adding some olive oil first would be a good idea because olive oil is mostly monounsaturated and as such, would be much more resistant to oxidation and may help in providing a “barrier” or coating on the outside of the nut to keep air/oxygen away from the surface of the nut and prevent or minimize some of the damage to the omega-3’s. It definately though, would be much better to slow roast them yourself than buy those deep-fat fried party nuts everybody eats that are loaded with added transfats and added soy oils, etc. Personally though, I’ve really come to enjoy raw nuts and eat raw walnuts and almonds every day and consider them a real treat.
Just a thought, the bigger the nuts, the less chance of oxygen reaching the center of it, thereby, limmiting the damage. Sound good ?