When thinking about healthy eating, don’t forget about two very important types of food: nuts and seeds.
They contain a long list of essential vitamins and minerals and are quite enjoyable for your taste buds, too. Here are our favorite nuts and seeds and how to incorporate them into recipes.
Seeds:
Chia Seeds
These small seeds pack a big punch! They are loaded with omega-3s, fiber, calcium and potassium. There are many ways to add them to your diet. You can bake them in bread and muffins, put them in your water, top your yogurt or make them into a tapioca pudding. Chia seeds are definitely worth a try when watching your calories because they are known to curb your appetite.
Flaxseeds
Flaxseeds are super seeds. Like chia seeds, they have omega-3’s and fiber. They also have significantly more lignans—chemical compounds that act like antioxidants—than other plants. They make food taste yummy as well. Blue corn tortilla chips with flaxseeds is a great replacement for regular chips and are delicious with salsa or hummus. You can also mix them in smoothies or oatmeal.
Sesame Seeds
These have disease fighting power and can lower bad cholesterol. They are packed with minerals that we need and increase levels of Vitamin E. Health.com even says, “It can help testosterone and sperm production in men.” How can they be used? We love sushi rolls and chicken teriyaki with sesame seeds sprinkled on top. Or put them on a salad or mix them with your favorite granola.
Pumpkin Seeds
With heart healthy, anti-inflammatory powers that fight diabetes, pumpkins clearly offer more than a tasty, spiced latte. They can be eaten by themselves, much like a nut. You can even roast them yourself. They are delicious in a sweet potato soup, any salad or baked into bread or a brittle.
Sunflower Seeds
Vitamin E for glowing skin, magnesium to keep you calm and a defense against bad cholesterol is enough to keep us eating sunflower seeds. Grab a bag of David Sunflower Seeds and prepare to get hooked. There’s a lot of clean up since you don’t eat the shell but it’s worth it!
Nuts:
Almonds
The list of health benefits for almonds is extremely long. They are great for your skin, heart and brain. They improve digestive health, strengthen your immune system and provide an energy boost. Snack on raw almonds in between meals to prevent your tummy from grumbling or bake them into a tasty desert. You can also reap the benefits of almonds by replacing regular milk with almond milk. It has more calcium than regular milk.
Cashews
Cashews are a delicious snack and have many superpowers. They prevent gallstones, contain calcium and magnesium for healthy bones and the good fat helps weight loss. Cashews are great by themselves as a snack or in a salad. You can even crush them up and coat chicken with them.
Pistachios
They’re yummy, green and filled with omega-3s, protein and fiber. Snacking on these can get quite addicting so plan on buying a lot of these. BuzzFeed put together a list of 24 delicious recipes that we cannot wait to try including cupcakes, banana sushi and cake. Pistachio ice cream is also a must-have!
Hazelnuts
Besides their amazing smell, hazelnuts have many other great traits. They are rich in B vitamins like B6 that is good for the nervous system, they contain Vitamin E and are high in fiber. You can roast and skin them, bake them into cakes and pies or cook them with vegetables like green beans to give them a little character.
Feature Photo via We Heart It