Nuts !

[Edward Friedman]

Discuss.

[Mike ODonnell]

Is this just for guys?

[Scott Kustes]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nut_(fruit)

[Greg Battaglia]

Nuts and seeds can be a part of a healthy Paleo diet and are recommended. They should, however, be consumed in supplemental/moderate amounts for several reasons:

1. Unless you soak your nuts you are going to be ingesting a similar level of anti-nutrients as found in grains. Although cooking reduces anti-nutrient content somewhat, eating roasted nuts and seeds is not much of an improvement. The oils used to roast nuts are typically non-paleo anyway, and therefore unbalanced in n-6/n-3 ratio, weighted heavily toward the n-6 side.

2. Even if you do soak your nuts and remove most of the anti-nutrients your still stuck with a less-than-ideal n-6/n-3 ratio. Most nuts are rather high in n-6 and low in n-3. To top this off, plant-based n-3's are inefficiently converted from ALA to DHA, so you're not getting much of the desired DHA (the beneficial component) from the n-3's in nuts anyway. Walnuts, macadamias, and pecans have the lowest n-6/n-3 ratio, and are therefore preferable over other varieties.

3. Nuts are expensive. Paleo dieters on a budget would benefit from limiting nut consumption and replacing them with other healthy fats like Olive oil, avocados, and eggs (organic of course, their still pretty cheap).

4. When consumed in larger quantities they tend to cause moderate to severe digestive disturbances. This probably goes back to the anti-nutrient issue, but I have found that even after soaking nuts they still cause digestive distress in higher amounts.

Take-home message: Eat nuts moderately regardless of whether you soak them or not. Treat them as a supplemental aspect of the diet to help with variety and flavor. A good rule of thumb is 1 handful/day. My method is to make meat, clean fats, and non-starchy vegetables the base and incorporate nuts and fruit in supplemental quantities.

[Edward Friedman]

Thanks Greg. The info you gave is what I had in mind. ( I tend to eat way too many. Hard to limit myself to a handful.)

Originally Posted by Greg Battaglia

Nuts and seeds can be a part of a healthy Paleo diet and are recommended. They should, however, be consumed in supplemental/moderate amounts for several reasons:

1. Unless you soak your nuts you are going to be ingesting a similar level of anti-nutrients as found in grains. Although cooking reduces anti-nutrient content somewhat, eating roasted nuts and seeds is not much of an improvement. The oils used to roast nuts are typically non-paleo anyway, and therefore unbalanced in n-6/n-3 ratio, weighted heavily toward the n-6 side.

2. Even if you do soak your nuts and remove most of the anti-nutrients your still stuck with a less-than-ideal n-6/n-3 ratio. Most nuts are rather high in n-6 and low in n-3. To top this off, plant-based n-3's are inefficiently converted from ALA to DHA, so you're not getting much of the desired DHA (the beneficial component) from the n-3's in nuts anyway. Walnuts, macadamias, and pecans have the lowest n-6/n-3 ratio, and are therefore preferable over other varieties.

3. Nuts are expensive. Paleo dieters on a budget would benefit from limiting nut consumption and replacing them with other healthy fats like Olive oil, avocados, and eggs (organic of course, their still pretty cheap).

4. When consumed in larger quantities they tend to cause moderate to severe digestive disturbances. This probably goes back to the anti-nutrient issue, but I have found that even after soaking nuts they still cause digestive distress in higher amounts.

Take-home message: Eat nuts moderately regardless of whether you soak them or not. Treat them as a supplemental aspect of the diet to help with variety and flavor. A good rule of thumb is 1 handful/day. My method is to make meat, clean fats, and non-starchy vegetables the base and incorporate nuts and fruit in supplemental quantities.

[Mike ODonnell]

Nuts = High in PUFAs...which are highly unstable...which can lead to excessive oxidative damage to cells and poor cell membrane structure (soft).

Like Greg said...moderation with PUFAs, as most of your dietary fats should be healthy sat and MUFAs...with some added fish oil of course.

[Garrett Smith]

The longer I've been on Paleo, the less nuts I eat.

I think shelling your own nuts would be super-Paleo-style, burning calories to get calories.

If people are strict Paleo and still aren't feeling like they are digesting well, I have them reduce the amount of nuts in their diet. Some people get into absolutely obscene quantities of nuts on a Paleo plan! Nuts are made not to digest well.

[Greg Battaglia]

I agree. I've noticed that Paleo diet beginners also tend to over do the fruit as well. Many times their diets are almost exclusively fruit and nuts, with a little meat and hardly any vegetables. They go for the most calorie dense, aggressive tasting foods allowed. It's probably good at first; displacing processed junk with fruit and nuts is definitely a nice step in the right direction, but eventually there needs to be a shift toward more vegetables and meat and relying on fruit and nuts in only supplemental quantities.

[Patrick Donnelly]

Wouldn't reducing nut intake for the sake of olive oil, avocados, and organic eggs be reducing the overall variety of the diet? What else it there? We don't really have access to edible animal brains and bone marrow like Paleolithic humans did...

[Jordan Glasser]

Originally Posted by Garrett Smith

The longer I've been on Paleo, the less nuts I eat.

I stopped eating nuts. Way better digestion without them. But it definitely took some time on strict paleo eating to get rid of them as a staple.

Originally Posted by Patrick Donnelly

Wouldn't reducing nut intake for the sake of olive oil, avocados, and organic eggs be reducing the overall variety of the diet? What else it there? We don't really have access to edible animal brains and bone marrow like Paleolithic humans did...

I tend to agree with the concept you are getting at patrick. Although you mention variety, it's micronutrients that are impacted. Case in point for me has been adding hemp protein and shelled hemp seeds to my diet. They replaced the drinking of olive oils, coconut and palm oils (not completely, just in amounts). I've had significant improvements in BF%, body mass, and performance. Which I believe is due to the added vitamins and minerals.

I've been all over the hemp products as of late. With the amount of Zinc and magnesium in them, I swear it's natures' version of ZMA. Short deep sleeps, waking up alert, great recovery, and let's not forget the dreams......