Snack on nuts and seeds

Any time you think of a snack, the first things that come to mind are chips, cookies, and other such tasty treats, even though we all know that they are not good for us. The problem is that they are always so readily available, they fill a gap, and they taste great.

However, the fact is that they don't do us any good at all as they are loaded with sugar, and contain barely any nutrients.

There are loads of foods that are good for you, and taste nice as well, that can act as highly nutritious snacks, and none more so than nuts and seeds.

On my website I am currently developing an extensive menu showing not only how many calories are in nuts and seeds, but also their nutritional values. This is because I feel that it makes sense to highlight exactly how good a food is for you, so that people don't just make a decision on whether to eat something based on the calories that it contains.

Let's look at a couple of examples.

Calories in almonds, and their nutritional benefits

You may look at almonds and think that they are relatively high in calories, this is because in just 1 oz of them there is 164 calories. However, look at the nutritional values that this serving contains:

Vitamin E - 7.3 milligrams, 37% of the total you need in a day.
Protein - 5.9 g, 12% of the total needed in a day.
Fiber - 3.4 g, 14% of your RDA.
Vitamin B2 - 0.3 mg, 17% if all you need in a day.
Magnesium - 75 mg, 19% of all your body needs in one day.
Phosphorus - 136 milligrams, 14% of all you require in a day.
Copper - 0.3 mg, 14% of your RDA.
Manganese - 0.6 mg, 32% of your RDA.

There are some serious nutritional benefits to take note of here, and they are surely enough to positively outweigh the almond calories that you may have initially been concerned about.

Even with there being 13.8 g of fat in this quantity, it is vital to recognise that just 1 g of this is the saturated fat that you want to avoid.

So that is a great example of how the calories in nuts, should not put you off eating them.

How about seeds?

Seeds aren't just something you feed to birds, there are thousands of people into their health foods that will strongly praise the many benefits that you can obtain from eating seeds such as sunflower and squash seeds.

Just like in 1 oz of almonds, there are 164 calories in the same quantity of sunflower seeds. There is also a total of 14.4 g of fat, but again a very small amount of this is saturated fat, 1.2 g to be precise.

But just look at the nutritional benefits of sunflower seeds, before you discount them.

Protein - 5.8 g, 12% of your RDA.
Fiber - 2.4 g, 10% of all you need in a single day.
Vitamin E - 9.3 milligrams, 47% of the total you need in a day.
Vitamin B1- 0.4 mg, 28% of your total daily requirement.
Vitamin B3 - 2.3 mg, this is 12% of your RDA.
Vitamin B6 - 0.4 mg, 19% of your RDA.
Folate / Vitamin B9 - 63.6 micrograms, which works out as 16% of the total you need in a day.
Magnesium - 91 mg, 23 % of your RDA.
Phosphorus - 185 mg, 18% of your daily intake.
Copper - 0.5 mg, this is 25% of the total needed in a day.
Manganese - 0.5 mg, which comes to 27% of your total daily requirement.
Selenium - 14.8 micrograms, 21% of your RDA.

Again there are some massive nutritional benefits to take note of here, and there is no way that any kind of 'conventional' snack would put these kinds of numbers up.

It would be a very wise idea to use nuts and seeds as a snack, and not just on the odd occasion. They are highly nutritious, and there is such variety in them. Why not take a small quantity of them in to work or college with you, and pick on them if you are feeling hungry between meal times.

Additionally, if you keep these stocked in your house instead of sweet snack foods, then they are there when hunger strikes.

To check out our ever growing calories in nuts and seeds menu, please click on the link below.

http://www.calories-in-foods.com/calories-in-nuts-seeds.php