I’ve mainly been talking about goals and weight (a common January theme) for the past month. And I also threw in a few of my favorite Superbowl Sunday appetizers a few days back. Among the chips, dips and spread of food this Sunday, there will be a common snack food: nuts. People seem to fall into one of two camps when it comes to nuts. They either eat them or avoid them because they are high in fat and calories (yet snack on nutritionally-empty chips instead).
However, nuts are a fantastic snack (skip the honey roasted, sugar-coated ones though). You only need a shot glass full (or think of a golf ball size quantity) and they all have a variety of different vitamins and minerals + healthy fats. My personal favorites are peanuts, pistachios and walnuts. And here’s another interesting tidbit about nuts – a recent study showed that people who ate in the shell nuts (pistachios for instance) ate significantly fewer calories than those who just ate the unshelled nuts. Why? For one thing, it takes some time to crack open a nut and that little bit of effort slows you down. And, the shells themselves provide a visual reminder of how much you have eaten.
So take a look this Sunday at the spread. If it comes down to chips, nuts and a bunch of fried appetizers or baked goods, opt for the nuts. A little goes a long way.