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Brazil nuts

Boo1979

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,849
Type of diabetes
Other
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
It seems not all nuts are created equal!
I have always eaten a fair few almonds and nuts are a major protein source in my way of eating. Recently I have been eating more brazil nuts, which I also really like.
I’ve always known that Brazil nuts are a good source of selenium which has a number of positive health features.
What I didnt know is that when it comes to selenium you can have too much of a good thing, potentially leading to health problems - more than around 4 brazil nuts a day appears to be a bad idea - see toward the end of this briefing https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Selenium-HealthProfessional/
My plan to make some brazil nut butter is sadly now on hold
https://draxe.com/brazil-nuts/
 
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Boo1979 said:
It seems not all nuts are created equal!
Click to expand...
I have noticed that brasil nuts have a fair bit of carbs in them as well, they are nearly up there with macadamias.

Brasil Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 100 g

per serve
Kilojoules 2745 kj
Calories 656 kcal
Protein 14.32 g
Carbohydrate 12.27 g
Sugar 2.33 g
Fat 66.43 g
Saturated Fat 15.137 g
Monounsaturated Fat 24.548 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 20.577 g
Cholesterol 0 mg
Fibre 7.5 g
Sodium 3 mg
Potassium 659 mg

https://www.fatsecret.co.uk/calories-nutrition/generic/brazil-nuts

Macadamia Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 100 g

per serve
Kilojoules 3004 kj
Calories 718 kcal
Protein 7.91 g
Carbohydrate 13.82 g
Sugar 4.57 g
Fat 75.77 g
Saturated Fat 12.061 g
Monounsaturated Fat 58.877 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.502 g
Cholesterol 0 mg
Fibre 8.6 g
Sodium 5 mg
Potassium 368 mg

https://www.fatsecret.co.uk/calories-nutrition/generic/macadamia-nuts
 
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Here’s Diet Dr’s count for nuts:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/nuts
Thank you for posting this @Boo1979 , I was just planning to swap my snack choice of almonds to Brazil’s for the lower carb count. I shall be wary of how many I eat now.
 
The other things about nuts in general is to look at their ratio of omega 6 to 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids.
According to the people keen on paleo diets a ratio of 1:1 to 4:1 is ideal. For shelled brazil nuts the ratio is 1000:1, for dried roasted almonds 1987:1 dried sesame seeds 57:1, walnuts (shelled) 4.2:1 (sources: paleopla.com Are brazil nuts paleo? and Wikipedia - Ratio of fatty acids in foods).
 
Thanks for that - interesting info thas led me to do some more reading this morning in regards to omega 3:6 balance
I think reducing omega 6 and increasing omega 3 in the diet makes good sense, but the problem I have is that the more I read stuff from “experts” the more it apears that they cant agree among themselves about how much it matters at all, how much the source of the oils matters etc. A quick Google found many posts, particularly from within the paleo community, holding diametrically opposed positions re omega 3:6 in general and nuts in particular
https://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-the-omega-3omega-6-ratio-may-not-matter-after-all/
I take the line that the overall balance of omega 3:6 matters and taking account of that balance within what I choose to eat matters, but the balance within an individuall food is largely irrelevant unless it forms a major part of my food intake
 
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Those numbers for macadamias look very wrong to me.
If I go to the McCance and Widdowson tables (which are the ones used by UK supermarkets and the government) then they come up with macadamias as


Thats per 100g interesting..

I think that fatsecret have taken a US page for data so the carb info includes the fibre but then haven't subtracted it from the carb total as a UK site would have. That would explain the difference.
 
Drat. I'm attempting to get into low carbing, and I love brazils. Walnuts it is then!
 
As Jason Fung says in The Diabetes Code more than once - “the dose makes the poison.” The message being that everything that is good for us is also bad for us in excess. Water and oxygen can be poisonous in extremes. There doesn’t appear to be anything that escapes this theory.

More on topic, I tend to shy away from nuts these days actually, as they can be very moreish, which promotes snacking, which in turn doesn’t fit into my dietary strategy. Besides which my favourite nuts were cashews, and they’re quite high in carbohydrate
 
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